The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-07 00:00:00

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, Sept. 22.
New England, just at the present moment, is not
a very pleasant place for a Conservative American
of the Middle States to visit. I mean unpleasant
politically, for socially the people are quite as kind
and courteous as can be found in any other section
of America. But the great commercial prosperity of
the New England States, the immense wealth
acquired during the war, the successful conquest of
the South, due mainly to the pertinacity of New
England Radicals, who stuck to the contest un-
flinchingly when New York and Pennsylvania
would have given it up, and the pushing, driving
spirit of all the people, unite just now in making
them as cross grained and untractable a set of poli-
ticians as ever ruled or ruined a country. The
leaders• of this section will have their own way, and
that you may depend is a very hard and unmerciful
way for the South. Among us Americans Boston is
known as the " hub" of the universe," and the say-
ings and doings at the " hub" are the keynotes for
every Radical meeting in the land. It would not
be telling the entire truth to say that Boston is
trying to rule the country just now merely upon
the great political questions involved in the recon-
struction of the South, for although her voice upon
those points is the exponent of New England sen-
timent, yet the more conciliatory feeling of other
parts of the country overrules it, and, in spite of
the thunder hurled at him from the East, Andrew
Johnson is firmly kept to his mild course of recon-
struction by the greater power of the Middle
States. New England's efforts to change the poli-
tical course of the country are far less successful
than her efforts to accomplish other ends. Boston
rules the trade of the country, its finances, its lite-
rature, the education of its people. I say Boston,
for no Yankee ever thinks of any other place when
perfection is mentioned, and the six small, though
powerful, States surrounding her always bow
submissive to the will of Boston. Her
manufacturers keep the high tariff because it gives
them huge profits ; they prevent Congress from
constructing a ship canal between the Mississippi
and the Lakes because grain might go to Europe in
too great quantities through the cheap channels it
would open, and alter that peculiar state of trade
which at present leaves the New England cotton and
woollen mills without competitors; they have broken
the Canadian Reciprocity Treaty because it inter-
fered with their sale of manufactured goods.
Through the Atlantic Monthly Magazine, and the
writings of the professional poets and orators and
story-tellers who congregate in Boston, and from
there send column after column of New England
ideas to every popular journal in America, a Yankee
stamp is impressed upon all our literature; and you
may depend upon it the slant thus given is of that
peculiar kind which inculcates the disfranchisement
of white men in the South and the absolute equality
of the negro. Such sentiments fill our school books,
and are taught universally in the schools throughout
all parts of the United States, for nine-tenths of the
books and teachers come from New England. If in
direct political influence upon the President and his
policy the harsh and unforgiving spirit of Boston
and its neighbourhood are overborne by other sec-
tions of the country, she has her way in everything
else; and if by her skill and economy she brings the
greatest possible prosperity to all her people, she can
well afford to leave mere politics to the President.
Yet she does not leave politics to him, but tries
hard to force him to her way of thinking, and brings
such strong influences to bear that the adoption of
a Radical policy towards the South, and more espe-
cially of the negro suffrage, is not so near an impos-
sibility as many would imagine. The fanatical
ideas of the New England Radicals are all due to a
set of sentimentalists, whose reasoning, whether it
be upon religion or politics or morals, will al-
ways go to extremes. Yet the people, without
thinking for themselves, seize these ideas and
endeavour to carry them out. The great influence of
business and other connexions gives New England
Radicalism a wide spread through the country. Her
manufacturers control every other manufacturer in
America; her newspapers and writings are spread all
over the country ; her capital is invested iu internal
improvements, even in the remotest States ; her
people emigrate everywhere, and all these influences
acting and re-acting are enormous. They have the
greatest effect in Western States, which are so gene-
rally settled by people of New England, and in all
those States we find strong Radical parties. New
England thus controls the majority of both branches
of Congress, and were that body convened to-day
and put to the test negro suffrage would be enacted,
and the President's Southern policy changed to one
far more harsh. Wendell Phillips is, perhaps, the
most extreme man in this section, for he will not
consent to modify any of his views to secure a pre-
sent success or to elect a ticket. He even goes so far
as to advocate the repudiation of the Federal debt.
Though Phillips is, no doubt, the most able man,
Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson, the two Massa-
chusetts senators, are the political leaders of New
England ; both quick, active men, and, though
narrow-minded, extremely popular in all sections
where Radicals hold sway. Both are now demand-
ing of the President a change of his Southern
policy, and threaten him with impeachment if he
is refractory, and their threats are echoed by
all their constituents. Sumner threatens by
speeches made in Boston ; but Wilson goes to the
President's own audience chamber and demands
negro suffrage and the political disfranchisement of
every Southern State. Wilson is willing to have a
general amnesty issued for all the Confederates, if
by that he can purchase the privilege of voting for
negroes. He boldly tells the President that if ho
does not submit, the Radical majority in Congress
will compel him, and not only exactnegro suffrage,
but prevent every member of Congress elected from
the Southern States from taking their seats. Sum-
ner wishes every Southern State remanded for 30
years into the condition of a political province with-
out the right of choosing its own civil officers, and
after that time promises the States admission to the
Union, if they are sufficiently penitent, and will
advocate New England ideas. These views are
received by the people with great applause, and
every indication that they will command a hearty
support. The persistency of the New Englanders
iu worrying and teasing until they get what they
want is well known, and for months past they have
kept a constant stream of fanatical advocates con-
tinually going into the White House and buzzing
in the President's ears. 0
Were President Johnson alone in the Govern-
ment, and had he the supreme power, he would
very quickly order things his own way and send the
Radicals about their business, but he is afraid of
Congress. It can overrule him, and, besides this,
although a majority of the people now support him,
he has no security that the blandishments of the
Radicals will not at some time cause the Conserva-
tive Republicans who acted with them during g the
war to desert him and place him in a minority. It
can plainly be seen that his hands are tied, and
though he is firm in his views on the reconstruction
question,
and in everything he orders at the South
adopts the
Conservative policy, he will do nothing
that may exasperate
the Conservative Republicans.
turn
lie will not hastily
out Radicals who are in his
Cabinet, for Republicans of all classes trusted them
during the war, and,
perhaps, do so still, and might
avenge an injury against them, Ile will not dismiss
Generals who are unemployed, for they are pets in
some quarters, and, of course, have influence. He
carefully refrains from any public expression of
opinion against negro suffrage; and though he will
do nothing in furtherance of Radical views, he does
very little against them. Ile gradually feels his
way, and you may depend upon it will not show his
haul in opposition to the Radical until the South is
strongenough to unite with the Democrats of the
North, and carry hiin through in spite of all oppo-
sition. In this way the New Englanders, although
they do not directly control political affairs, have
enough influence to retard the progress of recon-
struci ion ; and though the restoration of the South
in its ow
, - -11 way and by its own people
must ulti-
mately coma, the efforts of New England will make
it far more remote
than it otherwise would be.
Scarcely any new political developments have
been made during the past week, but the Dew:racy