e Government during the last eighteen months of
Mr. Johnson's administration. In that period the total receipts from
the duties on spirits amounted to $41,678,684.34. During the first
eighteen months of General Grant's administration, when the rates of
duties and taxation remained the same, the total receipts of revenue
from spirits amounted to $82,417,419.85, showing a difference of
$40,738,735.51. It is not easy to explain in full this money loss in
one branch of the public service. Something may be attributed to the
fact that persons obtained nominations for office by representations to
the President that they were his friends and supporters, and would
continue to be so, under all circumstances. When their nominations
came to the Senate, they made representations of an opposite character.
When they had received their appointments, they very naturally allied
themselves with the President's policy, inasmuch as they could not be
easily removed except upon an initiative taken by him. This deficiency
occurred in the states and districts in which the money should have
been collected and through the agents employed there. It other words,
no part of the deficiency ever passed into the Treasury of the United
States.

It is not improbable that a majority of the people now entertain the
opinion that the action of the House of Representatives in the attempt
that was made to impeach President Johnson was an error.

It is not for me to engage in a discussion on that point. I end by
the expression of the opinion that the vote of the House and the vote
of the Senate, by which the doctrine was established that a civil
officer is liable to impeachment for misdemeanor in office, is a gain
to the public that is full compensation for the undertaking, and that
these proceedings against Mr. Johnson were free from any element or
quality of injustice.

Johnson's case ought to be borne in mind in all agitation for a longer
Presidential term. Whenever the country is engaged in a Presidential
contest there are complains by business men accompanied by a demand for
an extension of the term of office to six or in some instances to ten
years. The disturbance of business is due to the importance of the
election, and the importance of an election is due to the amount of
power that is to be secured by the successful party. An extension of
the term would add to the importance of the election, and a term of
six or ten years would intensify