The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1868-07-10

duced by disappointment and anger at the
Presidents policy and conduct the belief
that he was on trial for all his acts of omis-
sion and commission, and the fixed opinion
that he had wilfully violated an act of Con-
gress, it is not strange that the great ma
eyority of those who elected Mr.. johnson
could see no reason why he should not be
at once removed from office nor any good
excuse for hesitation to pronounce his SEN
| tence.
Nor was this all. AS the trial proceeded
and it became doubtful whether the result
80 much desired would be accomplished,
the public feeling, already excited, was
artfully and industriously aggravated
through the press by appeals to party in
terests and party prejudice. It was assu-
med that the trial could have but one hon
est termination; that the case was too clear
for argument; that the existence of the re-
publican party was staked upon the issue ;
and that, consequently, every Senator be-
longing to. that party who should hesitate
to convict must necessarily be false to his
principles, controlled by base if not crimi-
nal influences, and deserter of his flag
Recourse was accordingly had to the most
powerful enginery of party. The air was
filled with lying rumors, which found their
way to the public ear through the appro-
pirate channels. Denunciation, vitupera-
ton, calumny, threats of personal violence
and of lifelong infamy were profusely
hurled at all who might dare to disobey the
public sentiment The most direful conse-
quences were predicted in case impeach-
ment should fail. Union men, white and
colored, were to be murdered or driven
| from their homes, and all the horrors of
another revolution, bloodier than the first,
were to be let loose upon our devoted
land.
1t is not to be wondered at that appli-
ances like these should have excited the
public mind almost to frenzy. The men
who resorted to them were accustomed to
the use of such weapons, and knew well
how to WELD them. Unscrupulous famil-
lar with detraction, believers neither in
public nor private virtue or if believers
considering both as out of place in politics,
they could not resist such an opportunity
or fail to improve the occasion.
The excitement elsewhere, however was
trifing when compared with that which
prevailed at the capital. Here a change of
administration had long been contemplated
and was now counted on as certainty
That looked-for change had its usual at
PENDANTS, The coming in of new Presi-
dent could hardly have warmed into life
more numerous brood of expectants, or
stimulated more extensive hopes of honors
and profits. The city was filed, with men
ready to jump into places to be made va
cant, as they hoped and believed, for their
benefit. Gamblers thronged the saloons,
stalking more. than they were able to pay
upon conviction or acquittal. AS these
hopes rose or fell with the rumors
of the hour, as impeachment stock
went up or down upon the political ex-
change among the crowd of hungry expect
ants, so for the time rose and fell the char
acter and reputation of those Senators upon
whose votes the result was supposed to de-
pend while the telegraph was at hand to
carry over its wires to the homes and friends
of those Senators every calumny which dis
appointed ambition could imagine or Gu
pidity and malignity could invent, and
while a portion. of the press claiming for,
itself character for decency, and even for
Christian virtue, stood ready to endorse and
circulate the lie.
What effect such condition of things
might have had upon the conclusions of
Senators it is not easy to determine. The
|
that portion of the public which l have at
tempted to delineate it was of little conse-
quenee what the opinion of Senators might
be upon particular questions so that con-
viction and removal were secured. The
immediate cause of Impeachment and the
main article upon which it was founded
| was the removal of the Secretary of War.
Two honorable and learned Senators, not
included in "the seven," announced their
opinions that the President was not guilty
upon this article, and it was not con. idered
in them an error of judgment, much less q
betrayal of party, so long as they were able
to vote for conviction upon the eleventh.
Other Senators in their opinions declared
themselves unable to sustain the Fourth,
fifth, sixth, seventh, ninth and tenth, No
articles could be found which would Sc
cure the vote of thirty-fve senators, ex-
cept the second, third and eleventh. And
yet the political orthodoxy of Senators was
saved by a vote Tor conviction upon some
thing, To all such the full right of indie
pendent judgment was fully conceded,
while such as claimed and exercised the
same right upon all the articles were UNI
sparingly denounced as traitors and pro-
claimed infamous in advance by q Manager
who had substantially declared in the House
| that without the eleventh article the whole
were good for nothing. g4sE
You will readily perceive, gentlemen,
that q state of opinion and feeling through
out the country such as have described
was not favorable to q calm and impartial
| judgment. Senators could not but see and
| feel that any vote other than for conviction
would expose them to storm of popular
indignation, which, however unjust, is hard
to be borne and slow to be appeased. New
ertheless, experience has shown that there
are occasions in the life of most public men
when to breast such storm becomes a sim
pie act of duty. There may be cases in
which party loses its claim upon the
representative; when party objects and
party advantage, must be subordinated to
high considerations of the public good in
which every individual must judge for him
self and cannot regulate either his opinions
or his actions by the wishes of those who
elected him to Office, being responsible, of
course, to that popular Judgment which
will scan his motives and eventually decide
whether he has acted as becomes an hon
est and upright servant of the people.
1t seemed to me that this trial of the
President was, from its very nature, emil
nently one of those occasions. The officer
impeached was the electel Chief Magistrate
of the nation. He was arraigned upon
specific charges. Although the offences