The New York herald., 1868-03-15

history. For the most part they have been
intensely interesting in their details and tragic
In their results. In the days Of Greece and
Rome there were State trials of some
note. Aristides, the most honest man in
Athens, was condemned to Punishment by
the vote Of hot-headed jury composed of the
Athenian people, who had no more faith in
public integrity than the New York Common
Council; but he was found guilty of too much
honesty by the exercise of an oyster-shell
franchise-the curious fashion of those days,
but just about as sensible as the system now
in vogue in the South. Rome had its State
trials in the cases of Verres and of Cataline,
when the first forensic talent of the forum
was employed.
In later days we have had State trials,
invested with all the tragic incidents that one
would suppose should belong to causes of this
kind, where death is sure to follow conviction
For example, there is the trial of Mary Stuart
at the instance of Queen Elizabeth; and upon
what indictment? That she possessed beauty
and charms which Heaven had denied to the
daughter. Of Henry the Eighth, and that she
had prospective title to the throne of Eng
land. Mary was condemned upon no evidence
which would hold her to bail before Judge
Connolly or Judge Bowling but she was
executed nevertheless, and the last scenes of
this cause celsbre were closed in tragedy
that many deprecate to this day and few are
found to justify. Another prominent State
trial followed many years after, the
criminal in this case being the grand
| son Of the unfortunate Queen of Scots,
Charles the First. This trial also had tragic
ending on the scaffold at Whitehall. Still
later, in 1889, when the storm of revolution
swept over France, there were some memoir
able State trials, and the crowned heads of the
kingdom, (weak Louis Capet and the beau
tiful Austrian Marie Antoinette) were brought
to the gnillotine-a tragedy that changed in q
measure the future destinies of France and
Of Europe.
But we are going to put all these State trials
into the shade. Thad Stevens and Bingham
and Logan and Ben Butler are going to
do it. Aristides in his exile; Verres in his
discontinue; Catalne in his agony, writhing
poor Mary Stuart in her weary imprisonment and
miserable death; Charles the Martyr confront
ing his judges in Westminster Hall; Louis the
Sixteenth and Marie Antoinette surrendering the
luxuries OF Versailles to meet the vengeance
ofRobespierre, Marat and Danton-all these are
as nothing to what we are now presenting to the
world in the shape of our grand cause c6labre.
1t is true that our State trial is not clothed
in the robes of tragedy, but how beautiful it
appears in its true character as a broad farce
as piece Of folly and exquisite ridicule
There is really nothing like it in history.
We have, in fact, two State trials on hand.
Andrew Johnson, President of the United States,
is on trial now in Washington; jefferson Davis,
late President of the Confederate States, Is to
be put on trial on the 14th of April in Rich
mond, and no doubt Senior Sans Culotte, the
manager Of the radical organ in this city, and a
goodly host Of rabid radicals will back him
up in his travail, just as they bailed him
out when the doors Of Fortress Monroe
were opened to him. Andrew Johnson, the
President of the United States, is to be tried
for changing q member Of his Cabinet, or in
reality for the crime Of holding different
opinions from the party that elected him and
not furthering their plans Of corruption and
plunder, and also for signing certain docu-
ments called vetoes. If we cannot reach the
acme of high tragedy in our State trials, like
those which we have cited in other countries,
ii is evident that we can touch the skirts Of the
broadest farce and find it enacted to perfection
in Washington and Richmond. But this whole
business only shows to what height of folly
the government has come. Here Is the ex-
President Of the confederacy, who left his seat
in the United States Senate to inaugurate q
bloody war in which half o million of lives
were sacrificed, bailed out by such leading
radicals as Horace Greeley and Gerrit Smith,
and now about to stand mock trial-if, indeed,
even the mockery is gone through with-while,
on the other hand, Andrew Johnson, who
fought from first to last in behalf of the re-
public and "loyalty," stands charged with the
most outrageous crimes lin radical point of
view known to human nature. Davis is
charged with SHINING against the country, but
the President of the United States is charged
with SHINING against the party; and this in the
eyes of the radicals, is the worse crime.
Our people are fond of fun as a general
thing in the pursuit of amusement. They
delight in burlesques and pantomimes, and
fairly gloat over circus performances, the jokes
Of the clowns and negro minstrel conundrums
and jolly farces. All these tastes are amply
provided for by the two great State trials now
on the tapis, the richest farces Of the day. Here
is the programme-The trial of President
Johnson at Washington, and the trial Of ex-
President Davis at Richmond. These enter
tainments are surely cheap at any price.
| PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN REooNsTRUCTIoN.-