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Show lilts' '' : fll ' Hole In Sky Saved Johnson . George Boutwell's Unhappy Metaphor Turned the Tide In the Senate and Prevented the Impeachment Impeach-ment of the President. In the late winter of 1877 I met General Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts, Massa-chusetts, at the rooms he retained permanently, per-manently, year in and year out, at the old Fifth Avenue hotel, in New York City. He was on his way to Washington to take his seat as a member of congress. He was going as an Independent. lie was in a communicative mood' that afternoon, and I made bold to bring up several famous incidents in his career. At last we came to the part he played in the impeachment proceedings brought against President Johnson. The general's face took on a wry look. "I am as certain as that I am sitting here that it was the hole in the sky which saved President Johnson from being ousted from office," he said. "A what?" I exclaimed. "The hole in the sky," the general reaffirmed, solemnly "the hole of George S. Boutwell's own making the same Boutwell who was secretary of the treasury under Grant, then senator sena-tor from my own state, and now is engaged en-gaged In preparing a codification of the statutes-at-large. "Boutwell, John A. Bingham, a very polished orator, and myself, with four others, were named by the house of representatives as its managers of the impeachment of President Johnson. I believe that all of us felt that the proceedings pro-ceedings would take rank in historic interest with the trial of Warren Hastings at least Boutwell. Bingham and I felt that way about it; and Boutwell was so firmly convinced that this would be the case that he deliberately de-liberately set out to make an argument argu-ment which would be compared with the speeches of Fox, Burke. Sheridan, and others who supported the charges against Hastings. "Well, the time came for George Boutwell to deliver his effort, over which he had labored so assiduously, before the senate, sitting as judges, with the chief justice of the United States Supreme court, Salmon P. Chase, in the chair. The issue then was in doubt. We house managers knew that a majority of the senate would vote to sustain our charges, but we could not confidently count on a two-thirds vote in our favor. That was necessary if the charges were to be sustained and President Johnson thereby sent from his high office in disgrace. It was with this doubt clearly before him that Boutwell rose to make his speech, and it was with the hope that what he had to say would clear away this doubt that we saw him gain permission to address the judges. "It was an ambitious effort a great effort in the main no doubt of that. But just when I was beginning to feel that the tide was turning our way, under un-der the influence of Boutwell's logic and oratory, I was suddenly startled to hear him declare that it is given to some men to look' through a hole in the sky, like astronomers, as it were, and thus obtain a view of the great beyond. By this metaphor he meant to suggest that the house of representatives, represen-tatives, in bringing about the impeachment im-peachment of the president, was looking look-ing through the narrow vista of the present into the future of the United States, whose welfare was consequent upon the disciplining of the president, charged with violating his oath of office. of-fice. "Instantly, I realized the unhappl-ness unhappl-ness of the metaphor and the advantage advan-tage that might be taken of it by the opposition, and instinctively, almost, I glanced quickly at William M. Evarts, Johnson's leading counsel. That was enough. I perceived that he bad ta ken quick heed of the unfortunate and peculiar metaphor and would undoubtedly undoubt-edly deal with it in his speech. "He did, all right. With the most solemn of faces and funereal of voices he poked all manner of fun at that hole in the sky; I doubt if I ever heard more wonderfully keen satire. "Poor Boutwell! I felt sorry for him. He had made a very able speech, but there was that 'hole' in it and somehow, some-how, during the rest of the proceedings, proceed-ings, I could not help feeling that that 'hole' would lose us our case. When the vote was taken, we did lose by just one vote, as you know and I have always felt convinced that one Republican senator whom we had classed as doubtful, but who voted not to sustain our charges, was persuaded per-suaded to vote as he did by the brilliancy bril-liancy of the satire that Evarts brought to bear upon Boutwell's 'hole in the sky.' " General Butler refrafned from naming nam-ing the senator he had in mind. But later on, in the course of his conversation. conver-sation. I was led to gather the impression impres-sion that he had in mind James W. Grimes, who became the Whig governor gover-nor of Iowa in 1854. and from 1858 until 1869, when he suffered a stroke of paralysis and resigned, served in the United States senate. (Copyright. 1910. by E. J. Edwards. All Rights Reserved.) |