Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-01-31


So rapid and startling have been the
various revolutionary and usnrping
measures Of the Congressional Radicals
within the past few weeks, that one inn
portant feature of the general scheme has
been overlooked. We refer to the bill Of
Mr.. Edmunds, Senator Of New Hamp-
shire, introduced simultaneously with the
amended reconstruction bill, providing
for the suspension from Office Of any Of
fetal against whom articles Of impeach-
ment may be preferred The Washington
correspondent of the Cincinnati ERqai>
rer of the 18th, has The following in re-
gard to it: $50
Most important Of the new provisions in
Mr. Edmundg bill regulating the pros
cedure in impeachment, are those relating
to the suspension from Office of persons on
trial. This may be done by vote of two
thirds of the Senators present, on applica-
ton of the House, and may be enforced by
any officer of the civil, naval or military
service with a force at his disposal. Off
GERS disregarding such order of the Senate
shall be considered guilty Of contempt, and
shall be suspended during the progress Of
proceedings against them. The punish
ment therefor is fixed at fine not exceed
ing $4,000, or imprisonment from one TO
twenty years, or both, at the discretion Of
the Senate.
The resolution passed By the House Of
Representatives yesterday, authorizing the
Reconstruction Committee to ascertain
whether aay person has attempted to OBJ
struci the reconstruction laws, will furnish
the pretext which is TO involve the Presi-
dent in the meshes of this act, passed to-
day.
The design was further developed In
Senator Ednlunds' bill to regulate pro-
eedure in cases of impeachment, all of
which is to suspend the President pending
such trial, and make Wade President;
then the governmental machine will be
worked entirely in the interest of Radical
lam. ~
Their latest abominaiion is a bill intro
duced in the House yesterday and passed.
1t provides that in case Senator of the
United States becomes President, by reason
Of having been President pro tenn. of the
Senate, and his term of Office as such
Senator shall expire before the next Presi.
Dental election, as provided by law, such
Senator shall, notwithstanding the expira-
ton of his term az Senator, continue TO
hold the Office of President until his sue
cessor is elected and qualified, at the time
regularly prescribed by law, and the Office
of such Senator shall be vacated from and
after the time he shall become President as
aforesaid.
All of this, of course, is 10 provide for
Ben Wade, who has just been repudiated
by his own State. 1t is only part of the
plan which is evidently intended to strike
at the President.
Commenting on this movement the
New York Herald of Tuesday says:
The Radical faction, in this new recon-
struction scheme, and in their several bills
for the regulation of the Supreme Court,
and in their reinstatement of Stanton in
the War Office, are evidently aiming also
at the impeachment and removal of Presi-
dent Johnon.
They expect, for example, this new re-
construction bill TO be passed over the Ex-
ecutive veto; that then under this law Mr..
johnson will not consent TO be oversha-
dowed in the South by the provisional die
tatorship invested in General Grant, but
that the President, as constitutional Com
mander~in-Chie of the army, will manifest
his contempt for this law by ordering Gen.
Grant to some other service, and by taking
into his own hands this reconstruction bu-
siness. This, or some equivalent proceed
ing in opposition to this bill, it lie believed,
will furnish a case upon which Andrew
johnson can and will be indicted by the
House as guilty Of "high crime and miss
demeanor,D calling for his removal, and
upon which the Senate will, in short order,
(having short case,) convict and remove
him, and thus put the most radical of the
Radicals, President Wade, Of the Senate,
in the White House, TO work out the rems
nant of Johnson's term of Office. That
done, the whole Radical programme of re-
construction, in all its parts, would be
speedily contaminated, including such
reconstrlction of the Supreme Court az
would make il as radical as the Com mit1
tee of Reconstruction itself.