The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-17 00:00:00

RECONCILIATION.

The action and re-action of the Northern and
Southern States on each other, is perhaps more fully
seen from Europe, than in America. A violent and
unscrupulous opposition begets a violent and un-
scrupulous determination ; strong and unconstitu-
tional measures of suppression, give rise to an illegal
and irritated resistance. In the North, the Legis-
lature has been supported and urged to acts that
would better become a despotism, than a Constitu-
tional Republic,while these acts have been grounded
on, and justified, by the attitude assumed in the
South. In the South, these acts have been de-
nounced as unconstitutional—the proceedings of a
Rump Parliament--not only unjustified by law, but
so opposed to the written constitution of the coun-
try, that the duty of all good eitizens is, to resist.
Thus the war which had ceased on the battle-field
was transferred to the platform and tribune, to
keep alive the most bitter feelings, and to rend the
country almost as effectually in peace, as during the
conflict in arms. So long as the South maintained
its determination, actively to resist the measures of
the North, or, with a still more embarrassing, sullen,
and impassive defiance, there was little hope of any
effectual reconstruction of the Union. The very
attitude of the South gave to its bitterest opponents
their strength and vitality, while these bitter
opponents gave to the South its reason and excuse
for the attitude assumed. Thus the one reacted on
the other; the Southerner of extreme views, playing
into the hands of the ultra-Radical, and the ultra-
Radical playing into the hands of the strong rebel
sympathiser. Thus, too, all advocates of moderate
measures were confounded, and their efforts neu-
tralised. In this game, as usual, the weakest went
to the wall ; and the South have to thank the ill-
advised violence of its extreme partisans, for the
legislative power of the country falling so entirely
into the grasp of its enemies. A marked change
is now taking place in the feeling of the South.
It tried arms, and fought the battle out, to its last
man and musket. When conquered in the field, it
renewed the fight in the Senate and in the Cabinet
—a battle, even more hopeless. The war gave the
ascendancy to the Republicans; the political con-
test which followed, secured that ascendancy. Now
the South is about to change its tactics ; to try the
effect of frankly accepting the conditions of defeat,
and yielding to the terms proposed. This has been
the policy of the most distinguished Southern leaders
from the close of the civil war—those who were the
first, freely to risk life, limb, and property in the
cause, who were the last to surrender, have been
the foremost and the frankest to accept the con-
ditions of defeat. The reputation of General LEE
is almost unequalled. His is a name that can gild
ally page of history, no matter how crushing the
defeat it records. His opinions are well known, and
were openly enunciated, immediately on the close of
the war. Had the South, followed his counsel, as it
followed him in the field, the question of Recon-
struction would, ere this, have been settled. Among
his most distinguished lieutenants was General
LONG STR EET, the successor of a soldier whose memory
is everywhere held in veneration. "We made,"
said the General, " an honest, and 1 hope I may say
a creditable, fight, but we lost. Let us come for-
ward, then, and accept the ends involved in the
struggle. Let us accept the terms, as we are in
duty bound to do, and if there is a lack of good faith,
let it be upon others." This is the counsel given to
the South by the men recognised from DIXIE'S line to
the Gulf States as its true and well-tried cham-
pions. The effect, of the South accepting this ad-
vice, is seen most curiously in the North. A large
section of the Northern people are at once satisfied,
and return immediately to a critical examination of
the measures of which the South complains :
" Two years ago," says the Round Table, "we
should scarcely ourselves have believed that the pre-
sent time would have found us occupying so un-
generous an attitude towards our subjugated
brethren. We would not have believed that, fight-
ing as we avowed for liberty, sacrificing our child-
ren in hecatombs for the sublime cause of human
enfranchisement and equal rights, we should find
ourselves to-day proceeding to rule a gallant and
half-ruined people, by a system, which, if not a posi-
tively unmitigated despotism, requires the acutest
sophistry of its apologists to prove it otherwise."
The Round Table belongs to no party ; and in
speaking out a well-considered view of any subject
it handles, enunciates opinions, which, though they
may be little heard, are very widely felt. So
long as the South, backed by the PRESIDENT
and the Democratic party, presented a for-
midable opposition, the North rallied to the
support of the extreme Republican party. But
when the South shows a disposition to accept
the terms on which the Northern mind is fixed,
the indications of its victory—the props, which
had kept up the Radical ascendancy, are cut away,
and that party will ' soon swing down to its
proper level, which is, and ought to be,
one of a fair balance, in the scale of the nation.
The extreme Republicans will have done good ser-
vice in bringing the South to a just sense of its
position. The Southern oligarchy had been so
accustomed to domineer, that it:could not refrain,
even after a defeat, that would hive crushed to the
earth any other people. It is to be hoped that this
second lesson will prove sufficient ;—that the change
in Northern sentiment will be received as the
evidence of a kindly and brotherly feeling ; —that
the concessions will be accepted as concessions, and
the feeling reciprocated. Then, indeed, the Union
can be reconstructed without the aid of bayonets !
and its greatest danger, which might become chronic
so long as the wouud remained open and unhealed,
will disappear in peace and reconciliation.—Anglo
American Times.

Letters from Italy state that Garibaldi is con-
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