Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-03-18

WAsHrNeroN, March 3, 1876.
RABcoCK-GRANT


WASHINGTON, March 3, 1876.
BABcoCK-GRANT.
The announcement Of the verdict in
General Babcock's case has produced
a profound sensation in the capital
where he is so widely known, and
where his relations to the President
have enabled him to WELD such ex-
tended social and political influence.
Ali the dependents of the administra-
ton, and the political nondescripts
who form the larger part Of this popu-
lstion-men who always swim with
the current, whichever way it may
run. in order that they may bask in
the smiles of power-took their cue
from the expressed convictions and
desires of the President, whose smile
or frown can make or blast the career
ofevery aspirant for official preferment.
Grant wanted Babcock acquitted, and
his satisfaction at the verdict is re-
tected in the community. The CRATE
ful news was patiently waited for at
the telegraph Office, and triumphantly
conveyed to the White House, by
their mutual friend, Boss Shepherd,
who owes Babcock a good deal for
elastic measurements of street con-
tracts during the twelve-month in
which he rose from an insOlvent prac-
teal plumber to a millionaire autocrat.
Ii is less wonderful that the author of
the "Sylph" dispatches should have
been acquitted than that there should
have been so much real anxiety about
his fate. When it is remembered
that the officer who selected the Jury.
as we'll as the prosecuting attorney,
owes his position to the President, and
that there has been no doubt as to the
Presidents wishes in the matter from
the beginning, a conviction would
have been The thing to wonder at.
The prosecution terminated abruptly,
relying wholly upon dispatches which,
however morally convincing, were but
incomplete chains of evidence that
needed connection to give them legal
force. Whether il could have been
made complete, or not, the prosecutor
alone knows ; and the jury were right
in giving the prisoner the benefit of
all doubts. At any rate, "Sylph" has
learned lesson, and that is that no
man is too high in this country to be
beyond the reach of the law. And
this lesson was very necessary to 9TH
ers here, where the 'insolence of
Office" has been largely and alarmingly
on the increase during the last past
ten or more years, and sadly needs
curbing.
A distinguished jurist once said that
all the vast machinery of the Govern
ment Of Great Britain was organized
and kept in motion to get twelve hon.
est men in q box and as our Govern
ment resembles that of Great Britain
in that respect, the time may yet come
when twelve honest men in box will
hold the destiny of the republic in
their hands. One of these days
President will be indicted for his
crimes aud misdemeanors, and the iu-
dicial system will have to test its |
strength against the absorbing power
Of the Executive, which has grown
into despotism greater than that of /
Napoleon as First Consul, and may
yet equal that which he exercised as
Emperor. We have literally nothing
hut public opinion to restrain the
President in the exercise of unconsti-
tutional and arbitrary power. In
parchment is practically no remedy /
at all. As joint possessors of the ap-
pointing and confirming power, with
patronage distributed between them.
the President and Senate are sort of
official man and wife, and it is not
likely so strong an opposition can ever
again be secured in the Senate as there
was during Andrew Johnson's admin
lstration. The jury trial of presi-
dent may therefore be looked forward
TO as one of the probabilities of the
future, and it will be fearful strain
upon our institutions.
BRISToW.
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