The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-27 00:00:00

AMERICA.

(From the Correspondent of the Times.)
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 13.

On October 10 the first fall elections were held
in the Northern States, but their results, so varied
in different localities, cannot be considered as
settling anything with regard to the future policy of
the Government. As a general thing very light
votes were polled, showing that the people did not
take much interest in the result. In Pennsylvania
the Republicans carried the State by about 1,000
majority—very nearly the same as last year. Both
parties having endorsed the President's policy, this
result can only be considered a Democratic defeat,
net a rebuke to the Government. In Ohio the Re-
publicans carried the election by 25,000 majority.
Last year they had 59,000, so that the Democrats
have gained largely. The Democrats endorsed the
President's policy ; the Republicans said nothing
on the subject, but their candidate for Governor,
throwing off all party shackles, came out boldly,
and not only endorsed the President's policy, but
denounced negro suffrage and equality to an un-
limited extent. The result in Ohio is an emphatic
endorsement of the President's policy, and must be
gratifying to the Democrats, as it shows the strong
drift of the people in their favour. The third ticket,
headed by Alexander Long, and supported by the
peace wing of the Democracy, received so few votes
that it has scarcely been reported. In Indiana no
Democratic ticket was nominated, but the Republi-
cans, though at first disposed towards Radicalism,
during the campaign underwent a great change of
feeling. They not only cordially endorsed the Pre-
sident's policy, but in every possible way opposed
negro suffrage. Although in Indiana not more than
one fourth of the people voted, the endorsement of the
President's policy was unanimous. In lowa every-
thing was different. The issue was the President's
policy and negro suffrage. The vote was light, and
the Radicals gained the election by 20.000 majority,
and lowa is the first Northern State that has de-
clared in favour of negro suffrage and against the
President. The result in the other States, however,
is most favourable to the President, and has
strengthened him greatly in his determination to
continue the conciliatory course he has pursued
towards the Southern States. He has taken them
under his protection, is reconstructing them in a
way that meets the approval of all their people, and
in spite of the efforts of his Radical enemies in the
North will continue the good work.
President Johnson daily gives evidence that he in-
tends to reorganise the South as the people of the
South wish. Yesterday he answered their universal
prayer, and released many of the Southern leaders
who have so long been confined in the Federal forts.
Alexander H. Stephens, Judge Campbell, of
Alabama ; Postmaster-General Regan, Secretary
Trenholm, and Governor Clark, of Mississippi, have
all been released, simply giving their parole of
honour not to go beyond the limits of their respec-
tive States. The President, in his order of release,
says he does this because " the authority of the
Federal Government is sufficiently restored in the
aforesaid States to admit of the enlargement of these
persons from close custody. Jefferson Davis and
Clement C. Clay are now the only political pri-
soners of note, and there is no longer a doubt
of their lenient treatment and ultimate release.
Such generosity of course meets the approval
of the entire South, and from all parts we hear
praises of the wise policy that has caused so much
gratification. The President this week informed a
Southern gentleman that but one thing was neces-
sary to the complete restoration of any Southern
State—that slavery should be abolished and the
freedmen protected. If this were done the State
could do as she pleased with regard to everything
else. Her people could decide as they chose about
negro suffrage, the right of negroes to sit on juries,
&c., and their decision should be the law ; and the
President would protect them in it with all the
power of the Government. There is no doubt that
the President regards the Freedman's Bureau, as at
present constituted, as an expensive despotism,
which must soon be abandoned. He wishes the
negroes in the South to be under the control of their
State Governments, just as the white men are.
Although the Bureau was established by Congress
no appropriations for its support were made, and it
must collapse for want of funds. No one will be
sorry when it is broken up, for it is not only the
cause of all the trouble between the Southern plan-
ters and negroes, but it is responsible for the harsh
enforcement of the confiscation laws in many parts
of the South. On the subject of confiscation the
President is diametrically opposed to it. He follows
it closely, and releases whatever its officers seize.
lie strikes off the shackles before they are fastened,
and by his generous conduct, perhaps in violation of
the letter of the law, gains high praise.
To a regiment of negro troops which had returned
Washington for disbandment, the President on
the 10th of October, took occasion to address a
short speech. It is the first time the President and
the negroes have been brought face to face, and as
the meeting had been arranged to entrap him into
something that might be tortured into an endorse-
ment of Radical views on negro equality, and great in-
terest was felt in the result. Yet the President
said that nothing that could lead the negroes to
think he favoured their equality or suffrage. His
address was an exhortation to them to labour, and
not live in idleness. They had become citizens,
and must behave themselves as such. They were
no longer a dependent class, whose wants would
be provided for, and whose very footsteps would
be guarded to keep them from injury, but they had
become free men, and as such must support them-
selves ; if they did not they would starve. The
President's speech was a kind but firm enforcement
of these ideas. People who listened to him in ex-
pectation of hearing some word of comfort with
regard to suffrage or equality were sadly disap-
pointed. The President was silent, and his silence
is an additional proof of his determination to make
this a " white man's Government."

The pardon of General Humphreys, of Mississippi,
-was considered a strong evidence of the regard of
the President for the wishes of the people of that
State. They indicated Humphreys as their choice
for Governor, and at once all disqualification was
removed. Tile President has since given much
stronger evidence of his wish to gratify the South.
The South Carolina Reconstruction Convention, it
will be remembered, contained many members who,
being unpardoned, were disqualified from acting in
'the Convention. The President has pardoned
them all. He has sent every member the precious
document that restores him to the rights of citizen-
ship. If he will do this for South Carolina, the
most rabid of the Secession States, what will he not
do for her sisters? In Richmond he has not only
released the Commercial Bulletin newspaper, which
was seized by the military, but he has permitted
Pollard to resume the publication of the Rich-
luond Examiner, which has always been under
a ban. Ile has cut the Gordian knot that
caused so much trouble in Kentucky, and
on October 10 issued an order commanding the
-withdrawal of the negro troops from the State, re-
scinding martial law, and restoring the civil autho-
rities to full power. The negroes, excepting some
3,000 necessary to garrison the seaboard forts, are
to be disbanded in all parts of the South. The en-
tire 23d Army Corps, containing 20,000 blacks, and
now guarding the Rio Grande, is to be brought
home and mustered out, thus convincing the people,
not only that the blacks are no longer to compose
the largest part of the Federal armies, but that the
G overnment has no thought of fighting a Mexican
war. In Missouri the troops, both white and black,
have been withdrawn from two-thirds of the State,
and south of the Missouri River the civil govern-
ment is in full operation. In the city of Washing-
ton the President has given an additional evidence
that he wishes to restore the supremacy of the civil
authority. Ever since the assassination of President
Lincoln guards have been stationed at the White
House and the residences of the Cabinet Ministers.
The President has dispensed with his guard, and all
the Cabinet officers have followed his example, ex-
cepting Seward and Stanton. They are still afraid
to trust themselves in direct contact with the people.
The removal of these guards, the withdrawal of
troops from the South, the universal, though gra-
dual, restoration of civil authority, the closing of