Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-06-19
From the London Times, May 81.
THE PRESIDENTS ACQUITTAL,
R ecetpt of the News i'm England-Com
ment of the British Press upon the Trial
and its rssue-The Action OF the Chicago
Convention

| 1t cannot but be matter of intense graft
Gcation to every we'll -wisher of the Ameri-
can Republic that the impeachment has
failed. The citizens of the United States
above all, the citizens of the Northern
States-have prided themselves upon being
law-abiding, and despite occasional ex-
cesses, such as stain the history of all ma
tive-born Americans have been justified in
their pride. The condemnation of Mr..
johnson would, however, have disposed
forever this boast. It is bad enough that
so large majority should have been found
willing to convict the President upon the
evidence brought before them, but there
have been found few Republican Sena-
tors sufficiently independent of the tyranny
Of party to resist the pressure which would
have compelled them to violate all consid
erations of law and justice. The names of
those who voted are not given in the tele-
graphic dispatches, but it was known that
Mr.. Fessenden, of Maine, the Senator Sc
lected by Mr. Lincoln as Secretary for the
| Treasury when Mr.. Chase resigned that
post, would be one of those who refuse to
convict the President. Mr.. Henderson, of
Missouri, was another thus distinguished,
and his resolution has apparently remained
firm, although the full power of the Legis-
lature of Missouri, to whose suffrage he
owes his present position, has been brought
to bear upon him. Those who know how
easily men among ourselves are turned
aside from their spontaneous resolution by
action of some, it may be only knot, of
| their constituents, can understand the
strength of purpose those Republican
Senators must havo possessed who have
adhered to the conclusions of their own
! Judgment in a land where politics isa profes
sion, where departure from exact conformity
with party discipline lncurs sentence
of exclusion from political life, and where
the machinery or party organization and
the pressure Of party opinion are the most
CALLING and oppressive to be found any
where in the world. So deeply do the pub
lie men of America feel the necessity of
acting in unison with a vast number of
others to accomplish any joint object, that
it is rare to find original and independent
counsel among them, and the conscientious
self-reliance of those who quilted their
party to vote with the minority against the
impeachment deserves the greater honor.
Nothing else, we venture to say, was pos
sible, if the law of the case was to be re-
garded. Nothing else was possible, if the
reputation of the Senate was to be main
tanned unsullied The Constitution of the
Union, the articles of impeachment, the
evidence and the arguments are all before
US, and there is no reason why an opinion
may not be pronounced upon them. It
may be said that the promoters of the i'm
peachment were unlucky in the managers
who represented them at the bar of the
Senate, and there can be no doubt that the
contrast between General Butler and Mr..
Stevens, on the one side, and Mr.. Stan
berry, Judge Curtis and Mr.. Evarts on the
other has had its effect, but it must be
observed that the points at issue were so
narrow that they can be i,:dged apart
IL - &1@ ,cO1 Il ~
betrays complete misapprehension of the
situation to suggest that General Butler
and Mr.. Stevens were unlnckily chosen
These two managers we're the authors of i'm
parchment. Gen. Butler was elected to
the House Of Representatives expressly to
promote it. and it was owing to him and to
Mr. Stevens that Mr. Johnson was i'm
peached at the bar of the Senate. When
the House of Representatives determined
upon presenting the impeachment they ac-
: cepted the leadership of those who became
} its managers. The contempt for law, the
readiness to do violence to the COnstltu-
tion, the disposition to use without limit
any power they might possess, those quail
ties which are best expressed by the word
J Jacobinism, which have been the special
: demerits of the political career of both
Gen. Butler and Mr.. Stevens, were willing
ly adopted by the House of Representa-
) tives when they consented to their leader
ship, and it is idle to talk of the managers,
who were in fact the trusted counselors
J and representatives of the House, as un-
luckily chosen.
From the London Herald, May 27.
It has been said in America that the
failure of this process of impeachment
would be the ruin of the Republican party,
which has been supreme in the state since
the election of Mr.. Lincoln as President
It has certainly made an end Of the hopes
of Mr.. Wade, one OF the most violent and
unscrupulous of the Republican Senators,
who would have succeeded to the Presi-
dency if Mr.. Johnson had been deposed.-
It will be a crushing blow to the Radical
policy of Thaddeus Stevens, who based all
his hopes upon the removal from Office of
the man who stood between the Southern
people and his set purpose of subjecting
them and grinding them under the foot OF
the North by the aid of the negro. There
is an end of Wade, an end of Stevens for
the present-we trust forever. The great
Republican Convention at Chicago has
done wisely, we think, in nominating Gen.
Grant as its candidate for the Presidency.
He is a gentleman, man Of education,
, and moderate politician. His achieve
, ments as O soldier have earned the graft
tude of his countrymen, and seem to give
+ him a right to their sutfrages. He has
been so accustomed to command, SO much
in the habit Of enforcing discipline and
!, subordlnation, that he is not likely tamely
to submit to that injury to the Constitution
which is threatened by. extreme men of
the party, when they talk of reducing the
, Office of the President to nulity, limiting
his power of veto and initiative, and deny
+ ing his free agency in affairs of executive
:. government. What interests US most is,
that we have every reason to believe that
I Mr. Grant as President would approach
the question of the South in spirit OF con-
= ciliation rather than of vindictiveness. For
= the very reason that he and his army were
the means which proved effectual in finally
subduing it, and scattering the remnant OF
its ornaments, Gen. Grant, who has had
actual experience in the campaign before
, Richmond of the noble and soldierly quail
!, ties, the power of passive endurance and
heroic perseverance, possessed by the race
, which now lies at the foot of the conqueror,