The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1868-05-15
OeST situation.


The following article, which we copy from
the Montreal (Canada) Gazette, of the ninth
of May, shows in what light the doings at
Washington are viewed by persons whose
situation enables them to look upon the late
proceedings of Congress and the impeachment
trial with degree of calmness, which, Just
now does not belong to us. THE Gazette says:
We wonder if there exists man who has
read faithfully all the speeches which have
been delivered in the Impeachment case
which is still going on in Washington. Day
after day the leading American journals have
been laying before their readers endless col
umns of closely printed nonpareil until it
seems as if the supply would never stop
After all, however, when we consider the ca
pacity which many human beings have for
expansion, and take into account that there
are half-a-dozen managers, as they are called,
of the prosecution, acting on behalf of the
House of Representatives, and that the Pres.
ident has retained about the same number of
legal gentlemen for his defence, and that all
these have to speak and reply, and respond,
and rejoin, or whatever may be the proper
legal terms for speeches at various removes
from the first statement of the case, we may
cease to wonder that the reporters and print
ers have had such hard time of 1t since the
trial began. The more the case is studied,
the more clearly does it appear that it is a po-
litical and not legal struggle that is going
on For what does Congress profess 70 be
Jealous? For the Constitution, from which
1t derives its powers. But who was it that
avowed that the policy Of his party was alto
gether outside the Constitution, and that
there was no use in trying TO bring the two
into harmony, and that stigmatized as hypo-
critics of the most contemplate kind those
Radicals who tried to make it appear that
they were acting under the Constitution p
Why it was the very man who virtually con-
trolls Congress and who sways the Radicals
at his will, Thaddeus Stevens 1t comes to
this, therefore, that the Constitution may be
violated, but only by Radicals and for Radi-
cal party ends, Let a Democrat violate it, or
any one who does not believe in universal
negro suffrage, and the heaviest penalties of
the law are invoked against him at once
There never was more transparent farce
than this whole business of impeachment.
The men who are conducting it know that it
is not the integrity of the Constitution nor
the majesty of the law that they are uphold
ing, but q mere party battle of their own
that they are fighting; and, if the condem-
nation of the President will be a victory, then
there is every change that they viii come off
victorious. Every one seems to look forward
to the deposition of the President, his friends
as well as his enemies. The radicals are domi-
nant in Congress Mr. johnson, as President,
is an obstruction to them; therefore he must
be got rid of and woe to the man, as Thad,
Stevens said in his place in the House of Rep
resentatives, who, when the question of gull
ty or not guilty has to be decided-woe to
the man who dares to vote against his party
The present position of American politics
is an interesting and very critical one. The
institutions of the country for some years
past have been on their trial, and IL would be
impossible for any one to say they have not
been found wanting That Congress should
f. undertake the remodelling of the Constitu-
ton is what we once could object to but
then there is proper way of doing that as
we'll as every thing else. Congress, however
has been too impatient for the accomplish.
ment of its purposes to proceed in the man.
ner pointed out by the Constitution itself
and submits its proposals for the ratification
of the several States. What Congress wants
is power, immediate power, and in grasping
at that it sets all considerations of legality al
nought The American people will wake uI
/. one of these mornings and find their Consti
tuition as dead and as obsolete as that which
Lycurgus prescribed for the Spartans. Ben
1 Wade, perhaps will be at the head of affairs
or some Radical President, but the whole
|. power of the nation, without let or hindranct
of any kind, will be welded by a section o.
the representative body.
Well, some one will say In England tho
House of Commons is supreme, absolutely
supreme. The sovereign in these days nevel
thinks of opposing the will of the nation, no
would the House of Lords even venture to d.
SO. This is all very true, and if the Ameri
can people seeing the weakness inherent II
their present Constitution, seeing the door
leaves open to unseemly and dangerous con
|. fiicts between the legislative and executive
branches of the government, and seeing how
the efficiency of the public is impaired by tn
frequent opposition Of the executive to tn
laws it is compelled to administer-if, we say
the American people, seeing these things
deliberately chose to amend their Constitu
ton with view to doing away with thes
defects, then there would by very little caus
for apprehension, whatever powers the rep
resentative body might WELD. The continu
ity of the political life of the nation woul'
not be broken the House of Representative
would feel that its powers though suprem
were still constitutional" and It would i
all probability exercise the powers thus delhi
erately and solemnly conferred upon 1t, In
very fair degree, for the good ofthe entir
people. But let the change be accomplishe
in different manner let Congress OVERSIZE
the bounds of its authority and violentl
Il