Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1901-11-27

Butler and tho violent structures oj
Chandler were still ringing in his
ears; as though he unconsciously
felt that every passer-by was repeat.
ing the snesys OF Sumner, the lordly
disdain of Conkling, the taunts Of
Boutwell, and the high scorn of the
ever intense Wilson.
TIME HAS JUSTIFIED HIS COURSE,
Though conscious of the reotitude
of his purpose and that time has
abundantly justified his course, he is
not one of those lofty souls who can
rise above and ignore the treatment
to which he was subjected in the
fierce turbulence of that tempestuoua
era.
When I directed the conversation
to the famous trial his appearance
changed. His body beoame ereot.
His eyes took on again the bright
ness of youth. His cheeks flushed
through the shaggy gray beard. His
memory, formerly hating and un-
certain, worked with the precision of
machinery. His voice lost the hesi-
fancy of age and rang again with the
clearness of his earlier and more
active days. Whatever sub-con-
scious concession his habits of life
may have come to make to the flood
tide of adverse criticism against
which his vote was cast, it is plain
that his mind has undergone no
change upon the merits Of the case.
He feels that it was the most critical
hour in the life Of the republic; that
the maintenance of the balance of
the government between the legisla-
tive, executive and judicial powers
was at stake; that had Mr.. John
son been removed the Presidency
would have become a mere bureau
for carrying out the will of Congress-,
and that the Supreme Court would
have fallen as soon as it suited the
purposes of the majority of Con-
gress.
JUST1FIES HIS COURSE.
Speaking further upon the event
upon which his mind seems ever to
rest, Governor Ross said : "Douglas
said, after the passage of the Kansas
and Nebraska bill, that he could
travel from New York to Chicago by
the light of his burning effigies. If
effigies were honors I was moro dis
tinguished than he. I don't believe
there was even a by.path or coun-
try road in all the North so obscure
but it was lighted by burning effigies
of me. Of course that was not
pleasant. Nor could l enjoy having
many of the men whom I had long
regarded as my party leaders, my
associates in the Senate, refuse me
all recognition. I was made pariah,
political leper, a thing unclean.
But l could not help it. No man
can ever know the struggle that vote
cost me. I went into the trial a very
radical Republican. / was just out
of the army. l had been through
all tho bitterness of the border war;
in Kansas, and fighting against
Price and the Missouri guorrillas,
I was thoroughly imbued with
the strong feeling always en-
gendered by such warfare. My
people were as extreme radi-
Gals as l, and in representing them /
had strenuously opposed the Presi-
dents policy of reconstruction.
When the House of Representatives
brought the impeachment charges,
had no idea but that they were we'll
founded. 1t never occurred to me
that that high remedy would be
resorted to as mere move upon the
political checkerboard. l fully ex-
pected that the charges would be
sustained and that / would vote for
conviction. But when I took the
oath, not as q Senator, but as Judge
and juror, to give Andrew johnson
a fair and impartial trial, that oath
meant to me what it said. l determ-
ined to throw off every prejudice
and prediction possible and observe
that oath. The majority of nv
party in the Senate were, thought,
very arbitrary. They refused to
admit much evidence which thought
should have been heard. The con-
viction was slowly borne in upon mo
during the long trial that there was
too much politics in the prosecution.
AS the end was reached I was forced
to the conclusion that, while Mr..
johnson had been very arbitrary,
utterly tactless, most foolish, sur
passingly unwise and incredibly stub
born and hardheaded, yet he was in