The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-04-01

Impeacl,,nsyt-A Court or n Caucus-La'
+, or Prejudice.
The hero of Big Bethel held forth befor
tho Senate on Monday for four hcWrs, render
ing rigmarole' of his opinions. His opinion
on this occasion were about on a par with hi
justly celebrated opinion that Fort Fisher coul
not be taksn-an opinion which, it VIII b
remembered, he was engaged In elaborated
laying down before committee at Washing
ton when he was interrupted IN his speaking b,
the sound Of the cannon firing salutes to cele
brate the capture of that fort Nearly one
quarter of this rigmarole is taken up with
the working out Of Buffers great idea thai
the Court of Impeachment is not court
that It is q commission or an inquest, or a
caucus, or some other underlined sort Of assem-
blage-anything or everything that anybody
may choose, but not court. And what is
the reason of all this special pleading on this
head? 1t is that the radicals do not want to
try their case in accordance with the estat>-
lished rules of law. If the body trying i'm
parchment is court its process must be what
Blackstone says impeachment is-"a prosecu-
ton of the already known and established
law" 1t must proceed according to law, and,
more than al, must accept the law from
the presiding Judge. Hence all Buffers chop
logic to prove that the court is not a court.
He and his party fear to try their case under
the law, and have no other hope but in passion
and prejudice.
Let the people keep always in view the great
fact that there is no safety save in the law. If
man is not willing to be governed by the law
it is because he is not willing to be governed
at all; it is because, not perceiving the imme-
date protection that the law would guarantee
for his own rights, he wishes to throw down
the barrier it sets up to guard the rights of
others from his assault. Our personal liberties
have not limits set in theory, but we find in
practice that they stop where the rights of
others begin, and it is the province of the law
to define the line. The law is the rule of action
which leaves the greatest freedom to each that
is consistent with the safety of all and when
men wish deliberately to act by some other
rule, it is that their devotion to some idea or
the interests of some person or class incapaci-
tates them from surveying calmly the relations
of that class to the whole. So it has been with
fanatics always. So it is with the lunatic who
finds himself 80 at variance with the thoughts
of those around him that he cannot govern his
conduct by their standards, but holds the law to-
be ridiculous and nonsensical. Men always pre-
tend to be governed by motives higher than
the view of the law, and it is the root of all
evil to society that it sometimes listens to this
dangerous heresy. Fanatics have gone so far
in their objections to the law that they have
regarded it as the essence of all injustice and
its protection of property as theft-the thief
who keeps himself being the only honest man.
Butler and his fellow zealots have similar
idea Of law, and spurn 1t as a rule on which to,
carry forward their case. They would substi-
tute their opinions in its place. Hence their
definition of impeachment is, read fully, some
what different from what Butler read il to the
Senate. 1t should read thus 1--WE define an
Improbable high crime or misdemeanor to be
one in its nature or consequences subversive of
pOHC pIAuCipic VI SONSTAucut Iudt VIC DcucVo
in-like niger suffage-or highly prejudical
to the public interest, as we understand it,; and
this may consist of violation of the constitu-.
ton or law, or what we consider such, by an,
act committed or omitted, or Without violating
positire laso by the abuse of discretionary
powers, or what we, in the free exercise of
our opinions, regard as such an abuse" This
definition gives the sentiment Of the prosecu-
ton more clearly than Butler did, and shows
also how well the wise men who made the con-
stitution understood what impeachment might
finally come to. Mr.. Gouverneur Morris said
in the convention: much has been said Of
the intrigues that will be practised by the
Executive to get into Office. Nothing has been
said on the other side Of the intrigues to get
him out of office" Charles Cotesworth Pinck-
ney said eff he opposes favorite law the
two houses will combine against him, and under
the influence of heat and faction throw him out
of office"