The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-05-13
THE IMPEACHMENT TEAL.

not taken yesterday. The illness of Senator
Howard is stated TO be the reason for this
postponement. If the impeachers had felt
secure Of carrying their point without Mr..
Howard, and if there were no other reason
for delay, they would certainly have pressed
the matter to vote at once. The adjourn
ment of the decision is, therefore. an admis-
sion Of weakness, which, If not equivalent to
surrender, is, at least retreat from the
threatening and arrogant position which the
impeaching party has, hitherto, occupied 1t
is supposed in some quarters that this pre-
text for delay was gladly welcomed by the
radicals in order that a solution of the COLA
teral problems involved in the impeachment
question, as to its connection with party
movements, may be reached in advance of
the final verdict. The struggle at Chicago
will be waged for the vice presidency. Al
most all Of the ambitious aspirants among
second office, since the first has
been SO deeply mortgaged to Grant
that it is no longer in the market.
Fenton, Curtin, Colfax, Buckingham and
Bullock are all candidates fer the vice presi-
dency; ali of them have friends and partisans,
and all of them fear that the elevation of
Wade to the presidential chair would enable
that gentleman to control the convention in
his own interest 1t is suspected that rival
ries and apprehensions of this kind have
marked influence on the conduct of the
Senate If the settlement of the impeach-
ment controversy be delayed until after the
Chicago Convention, this element Of discord
and of weakness will be removed; and if
Wade be then defeated for the nomination he
may safely be trusted with the patronage Of
the executive department This is the argu-
ment used by those persons who suppose that
the impeachers have decided to adjourn the
verdict until after the Republican nomina-
tons are made. But this view of the case
does not by any means imply the success of
the impeachment project. On the contrary,
it ignores, or at least consigns to
a secondary place, the element of
party necessity which alone made the
impeachment enterprise formidable. If
it is more necessary to settle the question of
the vice presidential nomination than to get
rid of johnson, conviction is not so much of
a necessity as it has been represented to be.
If it is more important to beat Wade for the
vice presidency, than to remove johnson
from the presidency, the signifcancy of the
project has been vastly over-estimated. At
the present moment, indeed, it seems as if
the whole scheme were on the point OF
failure.
Advices from Washington declare that the
friends of the President are confident OF &C
quittal, and that the impeachers are by no
means sanguine of success. If the senators
who it is supposed will vote against convic-
as those to which we have referred, they
might be reclaimed after general settlement
of party affairs at Chicago. But the recusant
senators are not those on whom the aspira-
tons of Wade or his rivals are apt to have
any effect. Some of them may be con-
trolled by one motive, some by another.
but none by any interest in the con-
test for the vice presidency at Chicago.
Hence, there is no reason to suppose that
postponement of the verdict will strengthen
the impeachers. If they cannot succeed now
they will not be able to succeed then.
Thus far, five of the so-called doubtful
senators have spoken, if we may credit the
telegraphic reports. OF these, one only, Mr..
Sherman, will vote for conviction at all, and
his vote on that side will be given only on the
second article. Messrs. Fessenden, Trum-
bull, Henderson and Grimes have all declared
for acquittal. These, therefore, are certain.
Mr.. Norton, Mr.. Fowler and Mr. Van Wsnkle
may also be regarded as sure to vote against
conviction, leaving deficit of only one vote
to defeat the impeachment project. 1t is pre-
sumed this vote will be found among four
named senators-Messrs. Sprague, Anthony,
Wiley and Ross. This estimate is based
on the supposition that Mr. Wade
is present and votes for conviction. If he
should absent himself there will be only fifty
three votes, and eighteen will suffice for ac-
quittsl-that is to say seven Republicans in
addition to the eleven Democrats.