The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-04-15
CHI A r ES TON.
WEDNESDAY MORNING, APRIL Is, 1868.
GA Time to Laugh"

The impeachment trial, Notwithstanding
all the efforts of the House managers to
make it tragically sensational, is getting
very funny. When the Boston Advertiser
some time ago, described it as the trial Of
the greatest criminal of the age, conducted
by the greatest criminal lawyer of the coun-
try-the country laughed. Mr.. SUMNER as
DEMosrHENEs was bad enough; but Mr..
BUTLER as CICERO is the extravaganza of
burlesque. Foolish, ungrateful people that
we are, we hate to despise this great man,
who volunteers to save US from ruin,-this
immaculate patriot who sheds foods Of ink
and rubs his weary nose against quires of
foolscap, and unbottles perpetual froth, and
CRATES harsh discord, and browbeats, and
bullies-for the welfare Of his native land.
We laugh at this defender Of justice even
as he stands before the high court of i'm
peachment. By an odd association of ideas,
when he looks daggers, we think OF spoons;
and when he thunders, we expect him to
run away. When he sips from the glass,
we inquire what has become of the bottle.
His jewelry suggests, in some strange way,
a pawnbroker's shop and forager's wagon.
Did he ever borrow anything from any
body? We fall into reverie when we look
upon the very high priest in the temple of
national justice, recalling an old story of
man who fel! among thieves, and finding
ourselves wondering whether BUTLER is
that man or the other man.
There mus be glamour shed upon this
trial by some tricksy spirit, for the Senate
itself, at times, loses its gravity. For in
stance, there was daughter" and at times
"great laughter" during the examination
of General THOMAS. That venerable fossil
provoked tie most rollicking merriment.
To inspect the "Army Inspector" seemedto
be capital joke. They made him give an
account of himself, as if man "with the
eyes of all Delaware upon him" could be
unknown. The innocent General told his
tormentors how he had ''organized eighty
thousand colored men," pretty difficult
job one would suppose; and how he had in
spected the national cemeteries; how the
President told him that he would support the
constitution and laws, and made him prom
ise to do the same "a hit which convulsed
the court)-how STANTON, after having had
him arrested, put his arm around od inter
ims neck, ''as he used to do," brushed ad
interim's hair with his fingers, and refreshed
od interims thirsty interior with two drinks
Of borrowed whiskey; (here the Senate
roared), and finally how his threat to kick
out STANTON was merely smiling jocu-
larity.
All this is very funny. We laugh at the
dyspeptic Secretary in his voluntary prison
at the War Office; we laugh at the Presi-
dents high crime and misdemeanor in ask
ing him to go home; we laugh at the simple
hearted old soldier who clinks glasses with
his foe, mildly protesting against being
"arrested again before he gets something
to eat;" we laugh at Buffers Plantagenet
precedents and Ciceronian aspirations.
The Senate laughs. The people laugh.
So we read of jewellers dancing on the
brink of the grave The historic farce is the
prelude to the tragedy. We laugh while
the country is rushing on to ruin. We
laugh while labor is crushed to death with
taxation We laugh while q standing army
of sixty thousand men is eating up our sub
stance. We laugh while, upon this richest
continent, pauperism is extending to hun
dreds of thousands. We laugh while bar
barism triumphs over civilization, while
liberty is trampled under foot, while public
virtue and even public decency are lost.
We laugh at all shames and crimes. We
laugh ssrdonically on this side Of the line;