The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-28 00:00:00

'HE PUBLIC JOURNALS

TIMES.—The present Session of the American
Congress will undoubtedly furnish a most important
chapter in the history of the Great Republic. It
was, perhaps, almost easier to finish the Civil War
itself than to determine its results. Until the South

is actually received again into the Union, the object
of the war, which was the reconstruction of the
Union, will not have been attained ; and yet it is
obvious that the terms of readmission will suggest
much debate, and provoke probably many violent

conflicts of opinion. Already two parties are de-
clared in Congress, and already the dispute is hot
between them. President Johnson has recognised

the reconstruction of the Union as his first and most

important duty, and the conditions of reconciliation
which he, acting for himself, imposed ou the States
lately in rebellion were certainly neither hard nor
unreasonable. He demanded that every State be-
fore readmission to its political rights should pass
and adopt three solemn acts—one repealing the Act
of Secession, a second accepting the abolition of
slavery, and a third repudiating the Confederate
debt. To the second of these conditions there were
attached also certain supplementary requisitions in
favour of the enfranchised negro, designed to secure
the reality of his freedom, and to guarantee him
against a revival of bondage under any disguise.
It would certainly seem difficult to object to these
terms. Of the first demand there can be no need

to speak; the second represented the great fruit
of the whole war, nor did the third express any
unreasonable imposition. Yet these terms, at the
meeting of Congress, had not been satisfactorily
accepted, and now, if the majority in Congress can
have its way, they will be seriously enhanced. The
Republicans require that the Southern States shall
provide not only for the liberty, but for the poli-
tical equality of the blacks • they are supposed to
desire the punishment of the rebellious States by
confiscation and outlawry, and they have actually
proposed to exclude the Southern members from
Congress for some time to come. At these proceed-
ings we are not surprised. The policy of the Presi-
dent might not unnaturally have been regarded in
the North as based rather upon the expediency of
conciliation than the dictates of justice, and as in-
trusting too much to exasperated if not implacable
adversaries. Allowing for the exigencies of an epi-
gram, we may accept as a description of the case a
saying of one of the leading Radicals, that the Pre-
sident was making himself three-quarters rebel in
order to make the South one-quarter Union. He

was going more than half-way-to meet conquered
enemies. The South, according to his policy, was
to pay nothing in [purse, nothing in political privi-
lege for its insurrection against the State, and was
to be reinducted into the possession not only of its
old rights, but of its old prerogatives besides. Once
admitted to Congress and combined with its ancient
allies, the Democrats, it might possibly put the Re-
publicans in a minority, so that the party which
had been foremost in the prosecution of the war
would find itself discomfited by its own victory.
We may presume that this domestic view of the
question has been influential in producing the effects
now witnessed, but principles of a broader character
were also involved. The negro is at the bottom of
the difficulty still. The Radicals, or extreme sec-
tion of the Republican party, represent the old
Abolitionists of New England who for many years
past have consistently advocated the emancipation
of the blacks. They now wish to see the complete
and final triumph of their principles. They have
probably some sincere misgivings about the future
lot of the negro if abandoned without protection to
the legislation of his former masters ; but they also
consider that their work would be imperfect if the
. .

blacks were not raised at this crisis of their desti-

nies to an absolute equality with the whites. Negro
suffrage is therefore their cry. The suffrage will
carry with it all other political rights, and with these
rights in possession the emancipated slaves may defy
any attacks upon their liberties. These speculations
have perhaps the chief place in the views of the Ra-
dicals, though it is obvious to surmise that other
considerations may have entered into their policy.
The establishment of negro suffrage would, in all
probability, reverse the traditional votes of the
Southern States. The blacks might be expected to
vote with their patrons, the Republicans, and thus
strengthen that party in a section of the Union
where Democratic principles had formerly prepon-
derated. Nor was this all, for the very sight of this
spectacle and the sensation of this defeat would be
at once the best and bitterest punishment of the
South for its long rebellion. To those accustomed
to watch the course of political warfare these consi-
derations will explain, if not justify, the present
rigour of the Republicans in Congress, and yet it
will be probably concluded in this country that Pre-
sident Johnson was right and that the Radicals are
wrong. Their complaint of the favour apparently
shown to the South is less reasonable than it seems.
Such indulgence must always be practised if hostile
parties are to be united and the wounds of war are
to be healed. At the Restoration of the Stuarts one
of our own cavaliers made a remark exactly analo-
gous to that of Mr. Wendell Phillips. He said that
the Act of Oblivion and Amnesty meant amnesty
to the King's enemies and oblivion to his friends.
Throughout England it was observed with great
bitterness that the Royalists seemed to be worse off
than the Republicans, nor was it easy for the party
at length triumphant to remember that tris..nphs
must cease altogether if peace is to be substantially
restored. Perhaps the chief justification of the
American Radicals is to be found in the fact that the
Southern States had not frankly accepted even the
easy terms offered them by the President, and
there is something in the argument that after the
recent experience of what these States could do
it would be inexcusable to leave them with the
power of repeating their conduct. But to this the
President and his supporters out of doors could
give a decisive answer. If the Union is not to be
restored, the great object of the war has been lost ;
if it is to be restored, it must be by conciliation and
compromise. The Radicals are willing to close with
the former alternative, and leave the Union for the
present without reconstruction. They are satisfied,
as we see, with a Congress representing only a por-
tion of the United States. They are content to know
that there is no hostile Confederacy, without requir-
ing the restoration of the Union. They would, in-
deed, prefer to see the States recently in rebellion
degraded from their rank and reduced to the posi-
tion of territories till such time as their political re-
generation may be considered complete. But these
views, as we are assured and can readily believe,
are not the views of the American people. The
people as a body do not share these opinions of the
Republicans in any respect.. They have no vindic-
tive feeling towards the South ; they have no active
sympathy with the negro ; and they are so naturally
impatient for the restoration of the Union that they
will tolerate no obstacles in the way. Such is the
present position of American politics. In this coun-
try we can only trust that a difficulty which, after
all, represents no very formidable sequel of four
years' civil war may ultimately disappear before the
prudence and moderation of the contending parties.
POST.—The International Conference, which is to
deliver us from plague and pestilence in future,
whenever at least it arises in the east of Europe, is,
it appears, about to assemble at Constantinople.
Now that the cholera is over we are all anxious to
provide against its recurrence. Never, perhaps, was
any epidemic so clearly traced before to the mari-
time cities of the Levant. It spread_ westward from
Alexandria, Beyrout, Smyrna, Constantinople, and
other ports along the angle of the Levant, until it
had at length extended along the whole basin of the
Mediterranean, attacking Toulon, Marseiles, Va-
lencia, Barcelona, Gibraltar, and the African ports
en the southern shore of that sea. From thence it
spread to Madrid and Paris ; but not until ample
time had elapsed to carry it thither respectively
from Barbadoes and Marseilles. Its appearance
in this country, slight as it happily was, was almost
confined to Southampton, which happens to be the
port in chief communication•with the cities of the
Levant. The epidemic, therefore, may be said to
have had its origin, in a manner remarkably clear,
in Turkish and Syrian ports ; and indeed Constan-
tinople was for a considerable period the focus of it,
as well as one of the principal ports that transmitted
the infection westwards. Whatever may be the
value of medical theories as to the occasional spon-
taneity of the disease, there can be no doubt of its
having been, in the present instance, a direct Tur-
kish importation ; and it behoves us accordingly, if
possible, to crush the evil at its source. In order
to do this it has been found necessary to enter on a
minute investigation of the causes of the outbreak
of cholera in the Turkish seaports. An Interna-
tional Conference is probably the most desirable
organ of arriving at the truth. Being composed of
the representatives of the principal Powers concerned
in the trade of the Levant, there will be no over-
ruling self-interest evinced on the part of an single
State ; and those who have to investigate the ques-
tion will all be the representatives of countries which
have a direct and legitimate concern in suppressing
i
the evil. The Turkish inhabitants n the seaports
are, however, after all, the worst sufferers ; and it
is only fair that they, and the Sublime Porte itself,
should have the benefit of Western knowledge and
Western assistance. It was very much in this spirit
that the proposal of an International Conference
emanated in the first instance from the French
Government ; and it is only fair to acknowledge
the ready acceptance which this proposal met
with at the hands of the Sultan, whose Govern-
ment has professed itself ready to enter on the
discussion, together with France and the other mari-
time Powers, and to give effect as far as possible
to the opinions at which the conference may arrive.
The probability is that two principal causes of
these epidemics will be found to exist. The one,