The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-06-04
TIE 1rpEAcHmEKr IN YELLOW COVER

The Petersons, of Philadelphia, have hur-
ried out, with admirable enterprise, cheap
edition, in yellow paper cover, of "The Great
Impeachment and Trial of Andrew johnson,
President of the United States, Illustrated
with portraits of the principal personages. "
This publication comprises all public matter
| appertaining TO the case, from the preliminary
| proceedings in the House down to the vote of
acquittal by the Senate, and the whole makes
an octave volume Of nearly three hundred
pages, which is about the average size of the
cheap and trashy sensational novels of the
day. 1t is no doubt proper and useful that
the contents of the volume should have been
first collected and published in this crude
form, before passing under the sitting and
abridging hand of the historian And it would
be well for the fame of those who caused to
accumulate this mass of statement, evidence
argument and defamation, accusatory and
| defensive, if all record of the event should
perish and be forgotten among the rub
| bish of yellow-covered literature. But no
such good fortune awaits them. The wretch
who is born to be hanged will never be
drowned For like reason the authors of
| impeachment may crave in vain from the fu-
ture the poor boon of oblivion. Nothing can
save them from the the crucifxion of history.
The iTepressible contempt and loathing of
all enlightened and honorable contemporaries
are but faint foreshadowing of that climax
of scorn and infamy on which their names
are to be finally gibbeted
Now that this prosecution has fallen to the
ground, having failed of conviction by lack
of one vote in the Senate, although almost
unanimously sustained in both Houses by the
answering adherents of the party in whose
behalf twas instituted, the whole thing looks
like some delirious dream crammed with
monstrous shapes and impossible absurdities
From beginning to end, when viewed with
reference TO the Constitution which the i'm
peachers pretended to invoke, and with refer
ence to the proprieties and decencies of gov
eminent which they impudently professed to
uphold, the articles of impeachment are the
most unmitigated conglomeration of trash
and bosh which was ever paraded in similar
proceeding The greatest difficulty expe-
rienced by the able lawyers defending the
President was in having no legal difficulties
to encounter. They were at the disadvantage
of being called to meet, in a lawyer-like man
ner, and ON high grounds of constitutionality,
of reputable precedent, of common sense and
reason which are the true measure of law,
charges palpably outside of the sanctions and
prohibitions of reason and common
sense, of precedent and the Constitu-
ton. Their labor was all the harder
in consequence. This is obvious from
the tenor of their speeches They needed
a case against their client strong enough to
offer some hold to the iron grasp of the legal
logician. The impeachers gave them case
of pure cant and fustian. An accusation
which is at once superlatively malicious and
absurd is best answered, ordinarily, with con-
temptuous silence or unqualified derision.
But it devolyed upon the counsel of the
President to reply categorically and seriously
to the malice and absurdity of the impeach-
ers. They discharged the task faithfully and
ably; but their speeches attest the ludicrous
sort of embarrassment under which they Ia
bored in disputing, to borrow ametaphor from
some Of the peculiarities of the prosecution,
that there was no visual or moral obliquitv
about Butler, and that the guano of the Alta
Vela was perfume equal to any that ever
freigbted airs from ''Araby the blest Hence
there is touch of grotesque humor in the
publication, in the style of yellow-covered
literature, of their elaborate forensic efforts in
response to the clotted mass of trash and bosh
contained in the articles and speeches of the
impeachers.
But there is grave and sinister side to the
matter still. Ridiculous as were the pretexts
for impeachment, it was designed as the
crowning expedient of the faction which de-
vised it. Nor were the aims of this faction
limited to the legitimate party gains incident
to the replacement of an unfriendly presi-
dent with friendly one 1t is even ques-
tionable whether the official patronage of
Wade, as ad interim President, would not
have made more new enemies than new
friends for the radical presidential ticket.
The leading impeachers knew wen that John
son deposed would be a more formidable DO
litical enemy than Johnson in the presidency,
eAN eheNe HoNO AcSAeA4udtc pOWtT 70 serve
them would by no means compensate for
the odium of impeachment and removal.
There remains, then, but one explanation of
the matter. The impeachers did not ex-
pect to gain political strength by the pro-
ceeding; on the contrary, they expected to
lose in that respect on its account Their OBJ |
jeet was to get possession of the whole ma
chinery of government, in order that they
might forestall or nullify an apprehended po-
htical defeat by some sort OF coup detat |
Impeachment, though judicially failure, is
still in the heart and intent of the men who |
conspired to urge it, as witness the Chicago
resolution, declaring the President guilty by |
the vote of the thirty-fve condemning sena-
tors. This declaration is Endorsed, as a
matter of course, by Grant, who was nomi- |
mated because of his aid to the impeachment
plot Therefore, Grant and impeachment
are correlative and reciprocating elements in |
the sfrnOOle for the rracidancv IT, .+~..s..A Il