Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-04-20
A Washington Letter from Halstead,
Editor of the Commercial.
Thinks johnson has a Chance
Of Acquittal. r
Don't Think Chase will be EN-.
lhusfastic over the Chicago
oal NOminees.
DOUBTFUL ABOUT HIS VOTING!
lCorresponndence Cincinnati Commercisl.l

Correspondence Cincinnati Commercial.l -
WASHINGTON, April Is, 1868.
After talking with a considerable
number of persons, well informed from
the highest sources of intelligence, and
looking upon one days proceedings of
the court of impeachment, I am not quite
sure that the President aoiU be conuscted.
Most persons say he will unquestionably
be convicted. All violent partisans as
sert it without qualification. The Cop
perheads desire that we should under
stand that the Republicans will commit
any outrage. and that all Republicans
are Radicals. The Radicals themselves
assume that the Presidents guilt has
been proven absolutely, and that the
Senate would be stultifed if it did not
convict him, remove him from office and
disqualify him from holding Office.
There are moderate men, however,
who do not hold that the conviction of
the President is demanded by an impe-
rious public necessity, or that his con-
viction would be an objectionable, pub
lie outrage, and who do not think that
his conviction is predetermined fact.
Not more than one third of the Sena.
tors are through thick and thin Radicals.
A larger number than l had supposed of
the Republicans have declined to class
themselves by all their votes as impla-
cable impeachers. And / believe the
President would be acquitted if it were
not for the fear that if turned loose he
would be guilty of some dangerous freak.
He is supposed to be capable of any
thing but an act of timely discretion, and
if he is turned out of office he will owe
it to his reputation as an uncertain guam
tity and quarrelsome person. If it
were believed that the President would
quit his foolery with Lorenzo Thomas
and withdraw the appointment of
Thomas Ewing, senior, as Secretary of
War, and appoint General Banks or
Governor Cox, or some other competent
and reliable man to that position, I am
as sure as one can be without the proof
that he would be acquitted. As the
case stands he has a chance of acguittaL.
That the impeachment business has been
overdone here is. the opinion of the ju-
dicious. That the eoidemce presented by
the managers aoas the reUerse of strong
and conclusive, all beside the ampeach-
ers themselves admit. That the country
is not enamored of the impeachment
business, and not excited about it, is not
only known here but felt. That the i'm
peachment of johnson will prove a win
ming card for the Republicans in the ap-
preaching Presidential campaign, is not
believed by those best able to calculate
the influences and the chances.
Mr.. Stanton is still fortified in the War
Department. He has all the provisions
and necessaries there of continued ex-
istence. There are strong guards about
the building, and only one door is kept
open, and that is strongly guarded by
soldiers. Everybody says this IS a most
internal farce-that there is no sense in
it at ali. 1t is very Stantonian, how
ever. It is a continued assertion of his
Importance. The assumption that he is
in peril, and must be on guard night and
day, gratifes his vanity. A letter ap-
pears to-day, in which he expresses a
longing to retire to private life. This is
his old way of calling the attention of
the country to the actual (as he sees it)
impossibilsty of getting along without
him. He pretended to want to resign
over three years ago, and Mr.. Lincoln
prevailed on him to stay awhile. He
will leave the War Department, he says,
as soon as his successor is nominated and
confirmed. There is no doubt of that.
But no nomination johnson is likely to
make can, be confirmed; and there is no
likelihood that Wade will nominate any