telescope, has been unable to discover nebulae,
or asteroid, or comet, or plant, or star or sun. In that dreary,
cold, dark region of space, which is only known to be less than
infinite by the evidences of creation elsewhere, the great Author
of celestial 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 two races of men into that vast region, there
forever to exist, in a solitude as eternal as life, or as the
absence 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 themselves, of their race, and of their God."

This fearful discharge of rhetorical fireworks at the President
fitly voiced the general sentiment of the Republicans. Party
madness was in the air, and quite naturally gave birth to the "hole
in the sky" in the agony of its effort to find expression. No
extravagance of speech or explosion of wrath was deemed out of
order during this strange dispensation in our politics.

The trial proceeded with unabated interest, and on the afternoon
of the eleventh of May the excitement reached its highest point.
Reports came from the Senate, then in secret session, that Grimes,
Fessenden and Henderson were certainly for acquittal, and that
other senators were to follow them. An indescribable gloom now
prevailed among the friends of impeachment, which increased during
the afternoon, and at night when the Senate was again in session.
At the adjournment there was some hope of conviction, but it was
generally considered very doubtful. On meeting my old anti-slavery
friend, Dr. Brisbane, he told me he felt as if he were sitting up
with a sick friend who was expected to die. His face was the
picture of despair. To such men it seemed that all the trials of
the war were merged in this grand issue, and that it involved the
existence of Free Government on this continent. The final vote
was postponed till the sixteenth, owing to Senator Howard's illness,
and on the morning of that day the friends of impeachment felt more
confident. The vote was first taken on the eleventh article. The
galleries were packed, and an indescribable anxiety was writte