The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-23
DEAD At LAST.

AT high noon yesterday, A. j. departed this
life, in all the odor of bad repute. 1t is true
that he is still compelled to walk the earth,
as certain persons of disrepute were doomed
in the olden time, to wander along the banks
of the Styx, imploring in vain passage over
the river. But he is dead-emphatically un-
auestionably, and irrevocably dead-dead be-
yond all hope of resuscitation.
We confess to entertaining feeling of pro-
found relief at the announcement of his de-
mise Not that we, or the Senate, or the
country, or the world at large, had anything
to fear from A. J. SO long as he remained in
the flesh. He has done as much mischief as
it is usually permitted that one man should
do, but his opportunities for mischief were
numbered on the 4th of March last. He
retired from the high station to which the
blunder of q great political party and
the pistol of an assassin had in conjunction
raised him in about as defunct state as we
now find him. The New York World has
discovered that he was "a man of vivid
ideas, and while laboring under very severe
attack of vividness he chose to regard his
retirement from the Presidency as a virtual
AAANSe
CALLING character. By singular coincidence,
the country felt equally relieved, although
it would not be strictly in accordance with
the truth to say that the country was also
''emancipated" by the termination of A. j. S
| lease of power. He had striven as only a
man endowed with remarkable energy could
strive, to become the virtual master of the
people; and it was solely the fault of the
people, without any admixture of blame
attaching to himself, that he did
not succeed. He was impeached for
| high misdemeanors in Office by
| the House of Representatives, but the Senate
failed to sustain the charges preferred against
him, and in so doing served him an ill turn.
If he had been removed from the Presidency
he would have proved capable of still further
mischief; and as the disposition for mischief
was his ruling passion, strong even in death,
he would have accomplished his purpose in
one way or another. But, happily, the man.
ner in which the impeachment business was
disposed of served to counteract any notice
able manifestation on the part of the people
looking towards his reinstatement.
If he had been convicted and removed
from Office by the Senate, he would have be-
come henceforth a formidable opponent of
the powers that now be, and his election to
the Senate from Tennessee would have fol
lowed, almost as a matter of course; and if he
had entered again upon the Senatorial arena
under such circumstances, he would have
proved something more than nuisance-he
t would have regarded himself as politica
martyr, and there would have been, in th,
Senate and out of it, party of the same wa.
of thinking sufficiently powerful to hav
It elevated him to the dignity of leadership.
j. But, as the matter stood, A. J. would hav
o entered the Senate as mere nuisance, almos
d intolerable, it is true, yet comparativel
/. harmless. He would have proved thor
is in the side of his colleagues, thorn in til
e side of the Executive, thorn in the side O
Is the country. He would have worried an
n tormented, and taunted the majority, th
Is Government and the people, and the vexf
D. ton would have been all the more severe b
Is cause 1t sprung from a source that was cap
a. BILE only OF yexing and incapable of apprec
+, ating rebuke and reproof, and chastisemei
~ suited to its mild deserts. In short.
le would have been a little, insignifcan
IL lop-eared cur, given to snarling and yelpin
e, and an occasional scratching, and not IL
O. formidable bulldog whose bite is more poi
W nant than its bark. And hence our reioicir
IN at his political demise, his final and compile
ey collapse. The country can now afford
-, oII oin noa,,itu bic ,n,o,,..