Year: 1868

and Dangerous Co Let loose.


New York Herald Correspondence. 4th inst.


1t is not surprising that a very strong
feeling has developed itself within the past
few days in favor of canvassing the adj
yantages and disadvantages Of impeach
ment If consummated, IL Is not likely to
operate as a source of annoyance or discom-
fiture 10 the Democrats. As party they
feel no interest in the President. If he is
depOsed they lose very little of the patron
age of the government, because they have
participated in it to q much more limited
extent than is imagined. They have the
sagaeiiy TO see that the possession Of the
government patronage, and the response
bility Of distributing it, will produce dis
satisfaction, jealousy and strife, that will
retard rather than aid the success of the
Republican candidates; and they are fully
persuaded that the conviction Of the Presi-
dent, the facilities it would give him for
participating in the Presidential contest
and exposing snch documentary and other
proofs as he holds in great abundance,
would be an advantage 10 them in the
coming contest.


Among Republicans it is argued that the
anxiety for impeachment is confined to 4
few partisan journals which are operating
in the interests Of expectants Of Official IA
vOrs or government patronage in some
form, while the leading and more inluen-
tial papers are counselling mo 1eration and
advising the Senate that it will be more
hazardous to impeach unjustly than to ac-
quit, that there is no party necessity re-
quiring conviction, and that there is no
of Ia of t,1nraI that
would sanction a verdict of guilty in vio-
lation of the Senatorial obligations. 1t is
foreseen that benefit could accrue by con-
viction 10 but two members Of the Radical
party Ben Wade and L. NJ Stanton and
it is beginning 10 be appreciated that these
two are the most anxious of all concerned
as to the result. They are watchful and
dlstrustiul of Senators, and suffer daily and
nightly the tortures of uncertainty and sus-
pense. There are not in the whole Re
publican party two men whose qualification
would be more dearly purchased by i'm
peachment than Stanton and Wade, and it
is becoming question of fearful moment,
as the time approaches for its solution,
whether partisan Impeachment for the
benefit of these men, or for any partisan
purpose, would not tend to certain disaster.


With the pressure of considerations
which have been briefly noticed, the pre-
valence Of temperate counsels and the un-
answerable arguments of the Presidents
lawyers, it is not singular that to the ma
jority here a conviction seems impossible.
The issue, however, rests with the Senate.
1t is not doubted here by thousands who
have the best means of Judging impartially,
that fully one-third of the Radical MEM
bers are. convinced of the injustice of the
charges, Of the fatal consequences to their
party Of sustaining them by vote, and
that verdict of acquittal would be amply
justified by the popular voice. These men
are now suffering the severest test of their
integrity they have ever experienced.
Whether they will resist opportunities and
bravely vindicate their integrity, is the
great question of moment to them and
the country.