The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1881-07-01
BOUTWELL,S HOLE IN THE
SKY.


A writer IN an Eastern publication, il
giving some "reminiscences Of the i'm
peachment Of President johnson, says
I wish to give one other description
from this famous trial so full Of interest
that relating to Gov. Boutwell's Hole
in the Sky" Having had the good fort
une to be present, I can say, with al
truthfulness, that never have, before
or since, Witnessed o large audience &c
convulsed with laughter as was the
whole Senate and the immense crowd oi
spectators on the occasion of Mr..
Evarts' reply to Gov. Boutwell,, touch.
ing this Astronomical wonder.
In the course of his elaborate and
able argument, Gov. Boutwell, said:
Travellers and astronomers inform
us that in the southern heavens, near
near the Southern Cross, there is vast
space which the upeducated call the hole
in the sky, where the eye of man, with
the aid of the powers Of the telescope,
has been unable to discover nebul@, OF
asteroid, or comet, or planet, star or
sun. In that dreary, cold, dark region
OF space, which is only known to be les
than infinite by the evidences of crea-
ton elsewhere, the Great Author Of ce-
lestial mechanism has left the chaos
which was in the beginning. If this
earth were capable of the sentiments
and emotions of justice and virtue,
which in human mortal beings are the
evidences and the pledge of our divine
origin and immortal destiny, it would
heave and throe, with the energy of the
elemental forces of nature, and project
this enemy of races Of men into that
vast region, there forever to exist in q
solitude as eternal as life, or as the ab-
sence of life, emblematical Of, if not
really, that outer darkness of which
the Savior of man spoke in warning to
those who are the enemies of them
selves, Of their race, and of their God.
But it is yours to relieve, not to punish.
This done and our country is again adj
vanced in the intelligent opinion of
mankind"
Here is what Mr.. Evarts, when he
came to make his argument. said in re-
ply:
81 NAV as conveniently at this point
of the argument as at any other pay
some attention to the astronomical pun
ishment which the learned and honora-
BILE manager, Mr.. Boutwell,, thinks
should be applied to this novel case Of
of the President. Cicero,
think it is, who says that lawyer
should know everything, for, sooner or
later, there is no fact in history, in sci
ence, or of human knowledge that willnot
come intoplay in his argument. Painfully
sensible of my ignorance, being devoted
to profession which sharpens and does
not enlarge the mind, I yet can admire
without envy the superior knowledge
evinced by the honorable manager. In
deed, upon my soul, believe he is
aware of an astronomical fact which
many professors of that science are
wholly ignorant of. But. nevertheless,
while some of his honorable colleagues
were paying attention to an unoccupied
and unappropriated island on the sur
face Of the seas, Mr.. Manager Boutwell,,
more ambitious, had discovered an un-
and unappropriated region iii
the skies, reserved, he would have us
think, in the final councils of the Al
mighty as the place of punishment for
and deposed American Presi-
dents.
cat first I thought that his mind had
become SO Enlarged that it was not
sharp enough to discover the constitu-
ton had limited the punishment, but on
I saw that he was as legal and
logical as he was ambitious and astron-
omical, for the constitution has said RE-
moval from Office, and has put no limit
to the distance Of the removal, 80 that it
may be, without shedding drop OF his
blood, or taking penny Of his property,
or confning his limbs, instant removal
from Office and transportation to the
skies.
'Let il then be provided that, In cass
Of your sentence Of deposition and re-
moval from Office, the honorable and
manager shall take into his
own hands the execution Of the sentence.
With the President made fast 70 his