The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1868-06-25
Why Did Impeachment Fail?
Mr.. Mcclure thus writes to the Fran

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act of the imposing dramma has been per
formed and the verdict of the Senate
clothes the President with unbridled pow
er to accept or nullify the laws at his
pleasure. That the verdict was honestly
obtained [ do not believe, but however
attained, it had all the sanction and cere.
mony of law, and had to be obeyed
Seven Senators must answer to the ma
ton and to posterity for the unexpected
failure of impeachment. The Twelve
Democratic Senators were expected to
sustain the President in all things; but
the forty-two Republican Senator's had
convulscd the country for three years by
struggle against what they, with one
accord, pronounced the fragrant usurpa-
tions of the President; and only when
the laws they had enacted had been open
ly defed, in the face of their repeated
and most solemn records, did the House
resort to impeachment as the last hope
of government and law. Had Messrs.
Fessenden, Trumbull, Grimes, Hender-
son, Fowler, Ross and Van Winkle then
said, or even intimated, that the case
against the President did not warrant his
expulsion from Office, the nation would
have been saved a formal approval of
the lawlessness of Andrew johnson.
But two of the recreant Republican
Senator'S escaped the imputation of We
nality. L have not heard any one init
mate that Senators Fessendcn and Grimes
were debauched by money. Grimes is
rich and honest; but fretful, morose, and
disappointed to despair. He clouded his
public career by an insane effort to de-
feat the re. election of his colleague, Mr..
Harlan, and failed. In that failure he
was not merely defeated = he was. over
thrown and became an easy prey to frac-
ton. Bowed by physical infrmities and
stung to madness by disappointments, he
was open in his declarations from the be-
ginning that Mr.. Wade should not attain
the Presidency. He had no love for
johnson, "D-n Johnson" said he to
the writer hereof, when the trial was
about to close. 81 have not spoken to
him for two years, and never will He
deserves every punishment the people
can infiict upon him, bnt impeachment is
a folly aud a farce"
VIM. Pitt Fessenden is the ablest of
the Republican Senators, and | believe
the oldest in service in the body. lie is
esteemed a pure aud most sensitive gen
tleman = sensitive to a degree approach
ing a disease With this element of his
his birth has too much to
do. He is the natural son Of his father,
who is still prominent citizen of Maine.
His mother was an accomplished member
of the Greene family of New Hampshire,
- sister of the able editor of the Boston
Post. Both Of his parents subsequently
married different parties, and the father
and raised the son with a
family of ten children, all Of whom have
attained high measure Of usefulness,
and gained respect in their different
spheres. Since the organization of the
Republican party, Mr.. Fessenden has
hoped to become President. He was re-
coSnized as the Republican leader in the
Senate, as its ablcst and most honored
champion, and why should he not be
President? 1t is the old story. Like
thousands of others, he tried to master
fate, and he fell as had all such before
him. Where Lucifcr had failed, VIM
Pitt Fessenden hoped to triumph, and he
is "one more unfortunate to mark the
desolation of ambitions tread. Trum-
bull is a compound of cupidity and ambi-
tion = an able disputant, a subtle lawyer
an unscrupulous politician, and the vic
tim of inordinate selfshness and greed
Why he fell amidst the plaudits of the
whisky ring, with his ever burning words
against Johnson's usurpations still ring
ing in the public ear, the public can
judge.
OF Henderson, Ross, Fowler, and Van
Winkle, one brief story tells all. They
were all corrupted = some by contracts
In the Indian department - more by mo-
ney. They had their price aud were
paid it. Henderson was one of the most
earnest in resisting the cncroachments of
the President, the most bitter accuser he
had before the people. Fowler declared
but few months ago, that &C if we refuse
to dcpose Andrew johnson, the blood of
the loyal men in the South, will rest
upon our souls" Van Wrinkle wrote an
opinion in favor of conviction to be filed
in the case after the testimony had been
and Ross voluntarily assured
tho Governor of his State, who had given
him his place in the Senate, on Friday
before the first vote was had, that he
would vote to convict. There can be
but one explanation of such changes, and
the public will adjudge, and history will
record, that they initiated Judas in all
but the single virtue that mado him hang
himself. SIS
Economical White House-P Painting.