Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-05-01
ann ANA YELA nusINEss.

There ls plIe OF pigeon OFaure away
out in the ocean, that is playing an i'm
portant part in the drama ofimpeaehment.
1t is called Alta Yela. A suspicion that
this swindle had added a new enormity
to the revolving chapter of events now
Transporting at Washington, was caused
By the strange and sudden withdrawal
of Judge Black from the defense Of the
President; and an incautiOus allusion to
it in Manager Boutwelrs speech, brought
from the bluff Mr. Nelson, of this State,
blow exposing the foul affair, and
spreading a panic among the guilty set
whose hands were reeking with its filth.
It gave rise to the tart passage the other
day, between MIR. Nelson and Butler in
which the latter thought to buster out of
it, but was detected and denounced A
brief history of itruns in this wise
Judge Black and one Shafer with sew
eral others, chiefly impeaching members
Of Congress Of the straitest sect, are at
torneys for claimants to the right to take
guano on Alta Vela island. 1t is a rich
thing in prospective for lawyers, as well
as the interested tumble-bugs They had
succeeded in lobbying through Congress
and the courts, paper assertion of their
right, and demanded that the President
should approve it, and enforce it by
dispatching an armed vessel-a step of
doubtful propriety at any time, and one
which might have provoked war with San
Domingo, but which the President
positively refused to take while he was
on trial for infraction Of the laws of Con.
gress Il is now proved that after the i'm
parchment had been ordered, four of the
managers-Butler, Stevens, Logan and
Bingham-addressed letter 10 Mr.. John
son urging him to that course, and that
Judge Black of his counsel, in person
besought him to issue the order to the
Navy Department Upon his refusal,
Judge Black declined his defense, and
the baffied managers betook themselves
to TIE work Of detrRction before the
Senate, with increased vindictiVeness and
rancor, The spectacle presented is sim
ply this: a member of his counsel, and
number of his official prosecutors pend
ing his trial for usurping the powers of
Congress, endeavoring to induce the
President to commit casuS belh-tan-
tamount to declaration of war--a func-
ton entrusted solely to Congress, in their
own interest and that of crew Of
greedy cormorants whose rights are
so doubtful as to need sharp'witted
lawyers to discover them and the
President sternly refusing to yield to their
importunate clamor 1t has features,
some Of which will produce modification
at the course Of the eminent lawyer who
deserted the-President in his hour of trial
for a reason so mercenary; some which
will enhance the disgust felt for the
sordid and corrupt managers who sought
to coerce the victim. in their grasp to
cater to private schemes; and some which
will command the admiration of upright
men the world over, for the Cato like in
tegrity Of the President, who amid the
falling away of friends, the threateniRgs
Of enemies and the caiolery of selfish
schemers, dared to do his duty. Impeach-
ment may do its work, but just public
opinion will never believe that the man
who at such crisis in his fortunes, firmly
resisted these overtures from those who
could mitigate the storm of wrath with
which he was pelted, and preferred to
lose the staff on which he chiefly leaned,
has been guilty of high crimes and mis-
demeanors. For the men implicated in
this business, it viii be better for their
characters if they had been buried be-
meath the obscure island of guano they
sovet