The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-06 00:00:00

formed there are about 600 blacks thus qualified—,
chiefly refreshment stall keepers or petty trades-
people. In Vermont and New Hampshire the negro
is entitled to vote without a property qualification.
In Connecticut, where at present a property quali-
fication is required by all voters, the question will be
put before the convention next month—" Shall the
negro be allowed to vote and be placed on a footing
of equality with the white man?" This will serve
as a fair test of the feeling of New Englanders to-
wards the negro, and, without venturing upon any
prediction as to the result, I may mention as a mat-
ter of fact that I have been told on the authority of
persons who have canvassed the State in favour of
the resolution that there will be a large majority
against it. When the present constitution of New
York was put to the vote in 1846 a clause was pro-
posed conferring upon the negro the right to the
suffrage without property qualification. Another
clause, however, proposing the $250 restriction was
carried by a majority of 50,000.
The feeling of the people, as I said in a previous
letter—and by " the people" I do not mean the in-
habitants of large cities only, but the rural popula-
tion—is unmistakably one of aversion and dislike
towards the negro. Let us now look at the position
of political parties in relation to him. The Demo-
crats, who seem likely to win at the forthcoming
elections, were always for keeping the negro a sub-
ject race, and an abject one too. Hence they were
good friends with the South, and will probably be
better friends than ever in the course of a few
months more. It will fare hardly with the negro if
his emancipators cannot fence him round with safe-
guards now, before the South is back in the Union,
and the Democrats have joined hands with them.
The trial of the negro by the Democratic party would
resemble another well-known cause, in which the
wolf sat in judgment upon the lamb. I was assured
yesterday by one of the most able and influential
leaders of this party—one who is intimately ac-
quainted with its strength and.its weakness, and all
secrets, that " not one Democrat in a thousand, in
any part of the country, would vote for negro suf-
frage." The Republicans are at present equally
opposed to it, but they must see the necessity of
binding their Radical brethren to them more closely
during the coming trials for the party by adopting
their views. . But the President is distinctly against
any course except that of letting each State decide
for itself whether it will have negro suffrage or not,
and as Republicans and Democrats are running a
race to see which can lay secure hold of the President
first, the Radicals are likely to stand alone in de-
manding negro suffrage. The point remaining for
consideration is, how strong will this party be in
Congress? Party politics are a little uncertain every-
where, but here they take such sudden and unlooked-
for revolutions that it would be nonsense to pretend
to foretell what will occur from day to day. It is
safe, however, to affirm that present appearances
are against the success of the negro suffrage party,
and that if they win it will be to the astonish-
ment of Democrats and Conservative Republicans
alike. It all depends on the disposition of the rural
classes. I see that at Minnesota the Union Conven-
tion has passed a resolution affirming that " the
measure of a man's political rights shall be neither
his religion, his birth-place, his race, his colour,
nor any merely physical characteristic ; and that it
would be subversive of both the form and spirit of
our institutions to permit any portion of our popu-
lation to remain a degraded and subject caste, taxed
to support and compelled to obey a Government in
which they have no voice, and whose whole ma-
chinery may be directed to their destruction." Yet,
notwithstanding these fine words, the settlers in
Minnesota would be very angry if any one proposed
to permit their Indian neighbours to vote with them
at the booths. If it be lawful for the negro to vote,
why not for the " poor Indian ?"--and both, per-
haps, are as worthy in the main of taking a share in
their own government as the ignorant Irishman,
whose confused ideas wander vaguely round a two-
penny conspiracy to abolish the Queen and all her
Ministers.

Mr. Johnson's resolution to let the decision rest
with the States would be a very serious matter if it
did not rest with the Congress to decide whether or
not the Southern States shall be admitted back with-
out giving the negro political rights. In answer to
the argument that each State ;13,S the right to settle
the terms of the franchise for itself, the negro-
suffrage advocates say, "No ; for Mr. Johnson is
deciding every day who shall and who shall not
vote, and he has as much right to say that negroes
shall vote as that rebel whites shall." They contend
also that unless the negro is admitted to this privi-
lege all the evils peculiar to slavery may be repro-
duced under another name. A sentence or two
from the ablest organ of this party will further make
clear their views :

"We are but witnessing to-day, in the impression pro-
duced on Northern opinion by Southern professions, a
fresh display of that consummate political ability which,
for half a century, laid a large, acute, intelligent, and in-
dustrious community prostrate at the feet of a. fe w thousand
slave-owners, the product of a society on which civilisa-
tion had only left the faintest traces. And we run great
risk at this moment of being dragged into compromises,
the consequences of which our children will rue, as we
have rued those of our fathers."

In some parts of the South the freedmen are now
getting on moderately well. At a recent sale by
auction in Georgia more than two-thirds of the per-
sons present were negroes ; not an unusual propor-
tion, perhaps, but this time the negroes came as
buyers. Some of them were attacked by the whites,
but no riot took place. In Florida the number of
freedmen who apply for food and relief at the Go-
vernment Bureau is only half what it was a month
ago. There have been many scenes of violence
lately in Georgia and South Carolina ; in the former
State an officer of the Bureau, Captain Healy, was
shot, and his body afterwards cut about and muti-
lated with knives. In North Carolina and Virginia
the officers of the bureau report no unfavourablein-
cidents. In Tennessee a school for the freedmen was
burnt down recently, and the teacher hunted for his
life. In Mississippi Commissioner Thomas states that
more whites are drawing rations than blacks. The
same is the case in Alabama. In Missouri, Arkansas,
and Louisiana occasional conflicts take place, but
they are not more numerous than the street fights
on a Saturday night in London, and not half so
numerous as the murders and assaults committed
any night in the streets of this proud and " glori-
ous" city.

I have left myself little space to speak of the re-
cent conventions of the Republicans and Democrats
for this State, but theproceedings may be sufficiently
described in a few words. Both parties have nomi-
nated military men for chief positions in the State,
and each has tried to out-shout the other in profes-
sions of overwhelming attachment to President
Johnson and unlimited approval of his policy. This
affection of the Democrats is a flower of very sudden
growth ; only the other day they were threatening
to impeach him for "murdering" Mrs. Surratt (one
of the conspirators in the assassination plot), and
vowing vengeance against him for not ordering out
Mr. Stanton for instant execution. As I have said,
the rapid bounds and gyrations of political parties
in this country are not the least astonishing of
American inventions. Less than three months ago
the President was held up to public view as the
modern Dionysius. The " Copperheads" and the
rest of them did not know then how much they
loved him. Both parties now join in singing his
praises with the unanimity of the fair friends of
Captain Macheath, and probably with equal since-
rity. The notable circumstance for English readers
is that military men are being nominated to every
office—a course which may possibly produce results
hereafter not altogether foreseen.
The Wirtz trial continues. Some of the papers
express the opinion that the prisoner will not live
to see its close.
Bishop Meade, of Virginia, in his address to the
Episcopal Convention of the State now in session
at Richmond, has Strongly
appointed to considerofg the
Churchthe
Northern Win urged reunion with the
portion Tofhethccomadindirtetesse
referring to this matter presented a report, which
a
was almost unanimously adopted by the Conven-
tion, commending the conciliatory and fraternal
course proposed, and referring the subject to the
next General Council.

A despatch from Montgomery, Alabama, states
that the convention had passed an ordinadee rati-