The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-25 00:00:00

the danger was trivial compared to what it Is to-day. When
Pope was driven back to Washington the danger was
nothing to what it is to-day. We are to-day in the mael-
' strom of politics. The difficulty is in mustering up public
opinion strong enough to overawe the Pilesident."
The compromise suggested by certain leaders is
; thus put, " universal suffrage and universal am-
nesty ;" to admit every negro to the suffrage, and
pardon the South en masse. But would the Southern
party be weakened by negro suffrage ? It is very
questionable. In the first place, it is believed by
many that the negro would vote the way his master
wished him ; in the next, the addition of so many
thousands to the suffrage would, of course, give tke
South additional members ; representation here, as
I need not remind the English reader, being based
upon population. Then, again, if the negroes are
allowed to have votes, what is to prevent them
sending a negro to Congress as their represen-
tative ? Even ardent Abolitionists are not pre-
pared to go this length in the emancipation
of the race. But, whatever may happen, say others,
" now that the black is a free man you have no
right to exclude him from the suffrage. You
might as well exclude Irish or Germans." Every
citizen has a right to vote, and the loyal black is
as good a citizen as any other. In answer to
all this the President and the Republican party
fall back upon this standpoint—let each State
do as it pleases. If the Abolitionists are so anxious
to have the negro a voter, why do not they admit
im to the suffrage in the State of New York first ?
Thus Mr. Johnson refuses to see in the question of
negro suffrage any cause of embarrassment. He
declines to make it a question for the Administration
to deal with. Hence the cry against him by the
Phillips-Sumner party. With regard to the State
rights, all are granted except the principle of State
sovereignty. A State may manage its affairs as it
deems right, only it must not go out of the Union.
Whatever may be said about the Constitution, the
sword has decided this matter, and is is too late to
argue about it.
Such, then, is the position of affairs at this moment.
It is a tangle, but the clue to it is the determination
of the mass of the people, and their ability to carry
out that determination, to have every difficulty
settled peaceably and fairly. Thoughtful Americans
who stand outside the noisy arena of politics care
very little for the clamour which goes on among the
combatants. In effect they say, " the people fought
the war, not the politicians. We shall settle our
difficulties one by one. There is no hurry about it.
Water finds its level, and so will all the complica-
tions which now look so threatening." This looks a
very superficial and facile way of dealing with a
serious political crisis, but it is at least as hopeful
as some of the remedies recommended by the Demo-
crats, who boast that they will again shortly gain the
ascendancy, and by the Radicals, who would impeach
the President rather than that the negro should not
be invested with the right to vote. -
Perhaps as moderate a view as could be obtained
of the attitude of different parties here, and more
especially of the opinions of the loyal classes, is to
be found in an address issued by a meeting at
Faneuil-hall, Boston. This paper has been received
with very great favour, so far as I am able to judge,
by impartial men. It charges the South with having
aspired to become the dominant class, and to have
sought to carry out their designs by "the dogma of
State supremacy." When the North refused to
accept their principles they rebelled, and now they
yield, not from motives of loyalty, but because they
are thoroughly overpowered. The Government is
justified in holding their part of the country in
military occupation, " and the nation is asserting a
right, before it yields that occupation, to see the
public safety secured and the public faith pre-
served." The only thing to be feared, continues
the address, is that the work of reconstruction will
proceed too fast, and that States will be restored
before their good faith on the question of slavery is
quite insured. When a State is once restored the
Administration can no longer order its affairs. The
following passage contains the pith of the whole
matter, and I believe that it fairly summarises the
general opinion of the Northern people :
" We declare it to be our belief that if the nation admits
a rebel State to its full functions with a Constitution which
does not secure to the freed men the right of suffrage in
such manner as to be impartial, and not based in principle
upon colour, and as to be reasonably attainable by intelli-
gence and character, and which does not place in their
hands a substantial power to defend their rights as citizens
at the ballot-box, with the right to be educated, to acquire
homesteads, and to testify in courts, the nation will bo re-
creant to its duty, to itself, and to them, and will incur,
and deserve to incur, danger and reproach proportioned to
tho magnitude of its responsibility."

The danger of reconstructing too rapidly is as clear
as noon-day. • One of the very first subjects which
must come before Congress will be the settlement of

the national debt. Will the South be willing to
bear its share of taxes for the liquidation of the
Northern debt? Will it make ready sacrifices in order
to pay for the rod which scourged it? Its own debt,
when Lee surgndered, was over ppopopo.
It must bear this loss, and pay its share of the
Northern debt besides. The inhabitants of the States
must pay in proportion to the property they have.
It is impossible that this question can be adjusted
without immense difficulty, and without the growth
of much new bitterness and ill feeling.
As to the state of public opinion in the South, it
is precisely that which might be looked for among
people so circumstanced. The first thing they have
to do is to submit ; the next to resist. The submis-
sion is suspiciously eager. Some here contend that
the South is sincere in its desire to return to the
Union, but, in the face of what has taken place
during the last four years, such a supposition must
necessarily be delusive. General Jeff Thompson, in
a farewell speech to his soldiers at Jacksonport, re-
flected Southern feeling in a rough kind of manner.
"Avoid political discussions," he told them. "If
any man says ' nigger' to you, swear that you never
knew nor saw ose in your life. We have talked
about the niggers for 40 years, and have been out-
talked ; we have fought four years for the niggers,
and have been d- badly whipped, and now it is
not your put.' " He continued
The Yankees have won the nigger, and will do what
they please with him, and you have no say in the matter ;
if they want him they will take him, and if they say that
you must keep him you have to do it and no mistake. I tell
you that you have no say in the matter, and you oughtn't
to have any. Go home and stay there ; don't go anywhere
but to mill ; don't go to church, for the ministers will put
knots and mischief in your heads and get you into trouble.
Be good citizens, and then those of you who have been
good, honest, and brave soldiers, have nothing to fear; but
I warn those of you who have been nothing but sneaking,
cowardly jay-hawkers, cut-throats, and thieves, that a just
retribution awaits you, and I hope to God that the Federal
authorities will hang you wherever and whenever they
find you, and they will do it sure. We are conquered, sub-
jugated; we have no right; but must accept such privi-
leges and favours as the Government may see proper to
bestow upon us."

Every Southern man feels that the day is lost,
but the majority still hope that in Congress they
may have another chance. Mr. Johnson knows this,
and for the present at least will not admit the largest
slaveholders to the benefit of an unconditional am-
nesty. They must ask pardon individually, and it
can either be refused or denied them at the option
of the Government. The North would not tolerate
the removal of this restriction until public affairs are
in a more settled state. In the meanwhile, Northern
capital will very shortly flow into the South.
It is now rumoured that Mr. Davis will be tried
before a military Commission. Should this prove
true, there will be great dissatisfaction caused. Even
the warmest friends of the administration feel that
the time has come when military tribunals should be
discontinued, and civil courts everywhere restored.
There are very few now who cry out for the execu-
tion of Mr. Davis, and even those few would rather
see him condemned by a civil than a military Court,
if he is to be condemned at all. The suspension by
the President of habeas corpus in the case of Mrs.
Surratt is loudly complained of by the Democratic
party, and it would be considered a still more un-
pardonable infringement of the Constitution to keep
up military Courts so long after the termination of
the war.

EX-PRESIDENT DAVIS.—A Washington despatch
of the 11th July states that a gentleman from
Fortress Monroe reports the health of Jefferson Davis
much better than it has been at any time during his in-
carceration. Ms meals aro sent direct from the table of
Dr. Craven, his attendant physician, by his daughter, and
by her delivered to the officer having immediate charge
over him.