Year: 1868

The Experiment and the Result

 Notwithstanding all the fuss the Radicals of Congress have made and are still making about Impeachment, we very much doubt whether sentence will be pronounced against Andrew Johnson by the Senate. This doubt has it's origin not in any favorable es- timation in which we hold the integri- ty and rectitude of the Senate, but in other causes, to which we shall pres entity make reference.

 The impeachment project, as we have more than once intimated to the read CTS of the Courier, is an experiment which the Radical leaders have insti- tuted to test the temper of the Ameri- can people. That experiment has not resulted as they wished. Whatever may be the issue as to the displacement of President Johnson, it is still indubi- table that they are disappointed, and that as consequence, their plans have received serious check.

 The Congressional Jacobins argued. and their reasoning was not illogical, that the people put up with Johnson's removal because of his opposition to du ttHtt Noui PiiS Nh- actment of Congress, they would sub nit to any other legislation, however unconstitutiona and revolutionary With this sort of reasoning the inn peachment test was instituted. The displacement of the President was re- ally to them but secondary consider atien. How little cause they have to be satisfied with the result of their ex- pertinent our readers can judge.

 The conservative people of the Unit ed States, God knows, have no desire for the inauguration of hostilities but still it is sufficiently evident that, even if the Senate should proceed to the in- famous outrage of deciding against the President, it would be his own fault should he actually be deposed from of fec. There are many thousands of Democrats in the land who do not ap- prove all that Andrew Johnson has done, but on this question all the friends of the old Constitution and the old Union are a unit in his behalf. In cspousing his cause against Congress they would but be taking the part of liberty and constitutional government against standardization and usurpation.

 Some of the Radical journals assert on what they pretend is good authori- tv. that Johnson has ceased to be deti- ant. and that he will quietly acquiesce in whatever the Senate shall do. Well, we know not how that is, but be it as it may, the President will not, we re- peat, be deposed in any event, unless he chooses that affairs shall take that course. There are millions of strong arms and stout hearts to sustain him if he decides to make the issue with Con- gress in so just cause. We do not think he will have occasion to make any such draft upon the patriotism of the people, but if it should turn ont that we are mistaken, and if he calls for support upon those who love the old Government, and abhor the intamy of Radicalism, he will assuredly re- ceive it. a,.f

 We can we'll imagine the chagrin of the Radical leaders at the result of their impeachment experiment. As, one after another, the dispatches sent to the President from all parts of the country giving him the promise of men and money in his expected strug- gle with Congress for the integrity of the Constitution came to hand, how the traitorous hearts of such men as Stevens and Boutwell, and Ashley must have sunk within them. Ever since the hour when impeachment and des- potism seemed determined upon, the telegraph and the mails have been eofi- stantly burdened with encouraging words from the people to the President. They have gone up to him from the Androscoggin to the Wyoming, from the Merrimac to the Kentucky. From no quarter of the land-we refer more particularly to the North-have the people failed to send to the President messages of encouragement.

 This was far otherwise than the Jacobins hoped and expected. They doubtless imagined that the people would tamely acquiesce in whatever they did.

 True, Congress has also had its assur- ances of being sustained. But whence came these assurances, and in what shape did they come? Except for the frothy dispatches of two drunken Gov ernors, the reassurances to Congress were from s'thc Grand Army of the Republic"--a secret Radical military society of limited organization and numbers. In the event of conflict, Congress, we know, would expect to have the assistance of Grant and all that portion of the army that he could command, but even supposing that he could take the whole army with him, which is exceedingly improbable, what resistance could it make against the great masses of determined freemen These are considerations that can not iail to have occurred to the Radical demagognes, and while they fill their hearts with despair, will go far toward securing peacefully the preservation of the liberties of the people.

 The Jacobius of Congress have at times seemed in an insane haste to ae- ccomplish their mad projects, but there has ever been method in their mad ness. They take good care to feel the popular pulse as they go, and to gov ern themselves accordingly. What has occurred, and is occurring, at lhe North by no means tends to reassure them.- Louisville Courier