New-York tribune., 1868-03-23
THE Trial or THE PRESIDENT

Senate, organized as Coull Vi impc'C"0
ment. is announced TO take place to-day
There will of course be demand for
delay-a demand to which we trust the
Senate will not listen. The country demands
that this trial be ended one way or the
other-for, until it is at an end, the Presi-
dent may at any time throw the country into
anarchy Gen. Thomas ho still keeps as his
Secretary of War" Mere questions OF criminal
intent however important in the decision OF
the case. are secondary to high considerations
of national welfare.
The object of impeachment is not so much
the punishment of an individual as the welfare
of the country. It is impossible that any
officer can prove himself dangerous to the
country so long as he obeys the laws. 1t Is
for this reason that the particular TACT on
which an officer becomes lmpeacliaDle Is tno
commission of n crime or misdemeanor; pu' IL
does not follow that the object of lmpeach-
ment is merely or mainly to punish the
offense. Its object is to protect the puDhc
welfare against the danger OF keeping IN once
a wilful violatOr of the law. The oilense Is
merely the fact which convicts an officer OF
being unfit for his place. impeachment by
the House and conviction before the Senate
leaves the offender still to be indicted, tired
convicted and punished by the courts. lhat
is an affair of an individual. Impeachment
is too high and sovereign proceeding
TO invoke for facts which Affect only
an individual 1t aims to guard the
security of the State. The same reasons which
make it necessary that the Executive should
have the power TO remove officers who refuse
to cooperate with him in executing the laws,
render it equally imperative that the legiSla-
ture should have the power to remove the
Executive himself if he refuses to cooperate
with the legislature in executing the laws they
pass. Are harmony and accord any more
necessary between the President and his CAP
met than they are between Congress and the
President? OF what avail is it that the Presi-
dent should issue orders unless his subordl-
mates obey them, or that Congress should pass
laws unless the President executes themf Con-
ceding for the argument, that the President
were right as an individual in all his Judg-
mcnts as to the propricty OF certain laws, ana
that Congress were wrong, still the Constitution
vests in Congress the power OF deciding
what shall be the law, and it is the constitu-
tional duty of the President, though he be
right, to obey the law, though it be wrong
Obedience by the President to Congress is as
clearly due as obedience 10y any inferior officer
to the President. During three years the eresi-
dent has set all these principles at defiance
His chief am and what hc calls his "policy,"
has been to secure a certain result IN the re-
construction of the Southern States, either
through the legislation of Congress or in spite
of IT, Congress has ovcrrued this policy 10y
Il IL.
nounced as unconstitutional, stimulated the
Southern people to resist when passed, and
aimed by his appointments to office OF persons
opposed to them, and by every other means III
his power, to thwart and nuliy. In most IN
stances he has tried stealthily TO evade, rather
than openly to violate law, but in hundreds OF
instances, as in the appointment OF Rebels
TO Office he has not hesltated To Vlo-
late whatever laws came in conflict with
his "nolicy." The issue between the
President and Congress on every other
point, including his disobedience OF the
| Tenure of Office act, grows out OF the conflict
between his views and theirs upon the ques-
ton of Reconstruction, and his determination
that, whether he can secure for his views the
form of law or not, they shall prevail ana
those of Congress, whether embodied into law
or not, shall not prevail
He Is determined that the Southern States
shall return into the Union with governments
created by and recognizing the white vote
only, while Congress, after trying ms plan,
and finding that it resulted III the supremacy
of the same Southern leaders who led those
States into the Rebellion, and believing that
their return to power over half the Union
would be almost as disastrous as dissolution
of the Union itself, have resolved to confer
the suffrage on both the black and white races,
and to readmit the States only on the basis OF
Impartial Suffrage and loyal supremacy. This
antagonism, in the fundamental prob
lem of Reconstruction, is the fountain
and source of the whole difficulty
between the President and Congress. To carry
out his view he neglected to call Congress to-
gether at the outset, and usurpcd the leglsa-
tive functions of that body by issuing proca-
nations defining who should vote. To that
end he endeavored 10 cOcrce Congress into
admitting those States under the governments
he had formed, and spoke OF Congress with
contempt for refusing to do so. To that end
he cndeavored to abolish the Freedmen's
Bureau, and made the whole Rebel elc-
ment of the South his party, selecting
his real advisers from known Secession
lists, and denouncing eminent fcllow-ctizens
as traitors deserving to be hung. To that end
he has removed from Office all over the conn
try, men who, however capable and honest
believed that the Southern States ought to be
reconstructed on the basis of impartial suffrage,
and has appointed in their stead men who,
however incompetent and worthless, believed
in coniining all rights and powers under the
Government of the United States to white men.
For that reason hc has been sustained in his