The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-20 00:00:00

THE POLITICAL FUTURE.

The nature of the arrangement which Congress
has made as to its adjournment renders it certain
that, barring some gross act of folly on the part of
Mr. Johnson or of the Southern leaders, there will
be no session until December. As well as anybody
can judge from his present attitude and language
he is not likely to do anything to impede the free
working of the Reconstruction Bill. The Generals
in command of the military districts are men in
whom the country has every confidence, and what
they have done so far, warrants the conclusion that
they will do hereafter all that the occasion calls for
or the people expect, without either let or hindrance
from the White House. There could, in fact, hardly
bo, a better augury as to the future, than the steps
General Sheridan has just taken at New Orleans.
We may therefore fairly anticipate that the con-
stitutional conventions •in the various States will
be duly held, and that not only the Unionists, pro-
perly so called, but everybody not formally disfran-
chised by the act, will take part in the election of
the delegates. It is impossible to read the speeches
of the leading Southern men and the articles in the
recent Southern papers without feeling satisfied
that active submission has at last been determined
on, that the South is going to reorganise under the
act, and that the plan of flattering and managing
the negroes has been fixed on as the best and only
mode of taking out of the new law whatever sting or
danger there may be in it. We shall probably see
during the coming summer most of the leading
Southern politicians, and a large number also of in-
fluential men who have never taken much part in
politics, carrying on a brisk canvass amongst the
freedmen, and competing, and we believe not unsuc-
cessfully, with the Southern Radicals, properly so
called, for the negro vote. That the conventions will
comply with the requisitions of Congress we have
no sort of doubt. It would, of course, be a great
mockery, as everybody at the South now knows, to
hold them for any other purpose than compliance.
That the establishment of free schools is not amongst
those requisitions, as proposed the other day by Mr.
Sumner, we consider a great misfortune ; and we
cannot help thinking that the whole North will see
it in the same light before many years. Of what
the Southern planters can do in the political ma-
nagement of ignorant voters we know something
already, but we greatly fear we have something still
to learn. If, therefore, Mr. Johnson confines himself
durinffthe summer to the routine duties of his office,
and indulges in no worse outbursts of feeling than
" conversations," there will be nothing for Con.
gross to do until the regular time of meet-
ing. The game of removals from office which
the President played last summer, is, of course,
barred by the Tenure of Office Bill, and our
Foreign Ministers may hereafter meet the gaze
of the McCrackens without wincing. Thus Mr.
Johnson is really exposed to hardly any temp-
tation. What, under these circumstances, is
likely to become of the impeachment ? In the
first place, it is quite evident that its great
advocates have now very little influence in the
House. General Butler went to Congress charged
with the special duty of carrying it through, and
may be said to have mad! absolutely no impression
on anybody, ar.d has been condemned to the some-
what inglorious role of sticking pins into his
personal enemies for the amusement of his fellow-
members. Mr. Stevens, too, has evidently lost his
power, or else the House has grown thieked skinned
for his lash, though ever so mercilessly applied, does
not produce the slightest movement. What is more
significant than all, is, that the Judiciary Committee
make no secret of the fact that it is proceeding in
strict accordance with legal forms, taking evidence
only under legal rules, and is admitting rebutting
testimony at every step. We have all along main-
tained that if this were done the impeachment had
little chance. The only mode of impeachment which
promised success was something in the nature of a
bill of pains and penalties, or what might be called
" impeachment by acclamation." We are still of
opinion that no evidence has been brought before
the committee which would bear examination in a
court of law, because it could only reach the com-
mittee through the promoters of the movement,
and thus far these gentlemen have not tantalized
the public by their secrecy. They have been, of
course, very anxious to secure support from the
people, and consequently are not likely to have kept
back anything of importance which came to their
knowledge, and yet they have told us absolutely
nothing that we have not all known for the last
year, unless it be Mr. Boutwell's charge about the
pardon of the West Virginia deserters. We have
at the same time the assurance of the committee
that they will prosecute their inquiry diligently
during the summer, and if they find any high
crime or misdemeanour will do their duty about it
fearlessly. In any case, however, the probability
is that we shall not get their report till December.
In calculating the effect of it, even if unfavourable
to the President, it is desirable to remember that
the convention for the nomination of the next
President will be held in the summer of 1868, and
that during the previous half-year the attention of
the political world will be entirely absorbed in the
manufacture of candidates, possible and impossible,
likely and unlikely, and will continue to be so till
the nomination is 'Lade. After the nomination of
course comes the compaign, and we doubt if a more
exciting one has ever occurred. It is safe, there-
fore, to predict, that Mr. Johnson, insignificant
already, will, after the Ist of January next, becomes
more and more so, and will cease to be spoken of at
all al the winter wears on, and that some of those
who are now most eager to try him will then be
least disposed to trouble themselves about him.
Moreover, suppose an impeachment process were
commenced iu December, if conducted with legal
form, as it ought to be and certainly would be, it
would last till the following summer at least, and.
conviction might possibly be secured about the time
of the . next election ; but we doubt if either the
cause of the country or the interests of virtue
would be served by ft.-7 he Nation.

REPRESENTATION OF MINORITIES.—HARE'S SYSTEM.
A majority may be too strong for its own (rood
and that of the state. It would be easy to 'find
illustrations of this in recent legislation. Some inea-
snrw of the late Congress would have been much
more carefully and justly constructed if the domi-
nant party had not felt its power to pasi them over
Presidential vetoes and to silence opposition by
sheer force. In this consciousness of irresistible
power, the majority too often attempted to rob the
minority of the poor privilege of discussion and re-
monstrance, or when they permitted it, it was
granted as a favour, not allowed as a right, and
the most frequent reply to an argument in opposi-
tion to any measure was in substance :—" kN'ho
cares ? We can vote you down." Indeed it seems
to be one of the natural tendencies of representa-
tive government to cultivate a contempt for mino-
rities and their rights. And this is all the more
provoking and dangerous when the aggregate
majority of the party in power is but a small frac-
tion of the whole vote, and liable to be trans-
ferred at any election to the other side by some
revulsion of popular feeling, or an extraordinary
expenditure of money in the purchase of votes.
Aside from party considerations altogether, and on
Public and general grounds, the rights of minorities
are entitled to respi.ct in a free government. How
to secure to minorities a share of representation and
power is one of the problems over which the thinkers
in politics are now much exercised. The plan of
Mr. Hare, endorsed by John Stuart Mill, is the most
practical and direct yet suggested. It is called
the cumulative vote. Mr. Hare would make the
representative districts larger, and then divide the
representatives in each between the different parties
as nearly iu proportion to numbers as possible.
For instance, Massachusetts would elect her ten
representatives to Congress on a general ticket, and
the Democrats would be entitled to two or three of
them, according to their proportion of the whole
vote. This would be secured by a law that no voter
should vote for more than seven or eigkt representa-
tives, as the case might be, so that all the names ou

the Republican ticket would be elected and the two or
three on the Democratic ticket receiving the largest
number of votes. The plan would have the further
advantage of allowing the selection of candidates
from the whole State, and so increasing the chances
that the best men would be sent to Congress. The
same system might be applied to elections for the
State Legislature, by increasing the size of the re-
presentative and senatorial districts. It would be
easy to find objections to Mr. Hare's plan, and it
is not likely to be favoured by any party that is
strongly in the majority, and yet the idea that
minorities have rights, and should be heard and
represented in the Government, is one that will force
itself more and more upon attention as a desir-
able check to the despotism of the num,Tical ma-
jority, which may sometimes become as intolerable
as that of the mailed hand of a single tryant.
While all afloat as to first principles on many great
political questions, and seeking for solid footing
somewhere, the suggestions of these great English
thinkqs in politics deserve at least respectful atten-
tion. They may give us essential help.--Spring-
field Weekly Republican.