The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNAL S.

THE MESSAGE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON.

To the Times the American nation is at this moment a
conspicuous example of a communitywiser than its rulers. I
Ever since the termination of the civil war the good sense
of the people has been called into action to restrain the
excesses of one or other branch of their double Govern-
ment. Lzat year the President made his notorious expe-
dition through New York into Illinois, and his extravagant
utterances drove voters who had been disposed to ac-
quiese in his policy in such numbers into the oppo-
site ranks that he was left powerless at the feet of
the new Congress. The Republican leaders have since
turned their victory to such extreme uses that the elec-
tions of the recent autumn have shewn them to be dis-
credited and deserted by the popular sentiment. It was
inip6ssible to mistake the extent or the reason of the reac-
tion. The people had not been converted to a belief in
the wisdom of the President, nor had they suddenly
entered the Democratic ranks. They simply recoiled
from the proposals which had found favour with the
majority of Congress. They expressed as plainly as they
could through electoral results their dissatisfaction with
both President and Congress, and manifested their deter-
mination that, whether better guides arose or not, the
destinies of the Republic should not in the meantime
be made the sport of rival fanatics. Under such circum-
stances the President has sent his third Message to Con-
gress. Mr. Johnson had a great opportunity. He has
been judiciously silent for some months, and meeting the
Legislature after the signal defeat of the extreme Repub-
licans, he might have shewn that he had profited by his
own experience and had learnt the wisdom of moderate
counsels. The abstract of the Message sent by telegraph
forbids our contemporary entertaining the hope that Mr.
Johnson has in any degree improved his position.
He appears as distant and as tenacious of his
preconceived opinions as ever. No representa-
tive of a long line of European kings educated
amid all the traditions of servility could shew less
aptitude for learning. The Message, whether touching
on home or foreign affairs, makes us turn for hope from
the rulers of the American people to the people them-
selves. The circumstances of the Union since the close
of the war have undoubtedly been of extreme difficulty,
and may be held to excuse the failure of rival politicians
to discover the solution of the embarrassment which
threatens to become chronic. But the American nation
rre themselves profoundly dissatisfied with the conduct
of both President and Congress, and in this dis-
satisfaction lies the certainty that an escape from
the existing perplexity will be forthcoming. If it
is to be found neither by the help of Mr. Johnson
nor of Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, the Federation is not yet
exhausted, and the practical ability and political aptitude
which distinguish every American citizen assure us that
assistance will in due time be forthcoming. Meanwhile,
it may be judicially taken as a subject of inquiry by the
mass of the people why the men who hold the foremost
position in politics fail to exhibit the real power of the
nation. How is it that the perfectly free representative
machinery of the Union does not bring to the surface the
best men of the Republic, and that the Congress is almost
as little a mirror of the country as the Common Council
of New York is a representation of the wealth, the intel-
ligence, and the public spirit of that city ?

The Post expresses its astonishment at the tone in which
Mr. Johnson has met Congress. At the same time, the
meagre summary which has been transmitted by Atlantic
Telegraph must be accepted with great reserve as indi.
eating the future policy of the President, and it therefcre
reserves its judgment on many important points until the
tcixt of the eocument is received. It is said that he pro-
posed to Congress to declare that the naturalisation of a
foreigner as a citizen of the United States absolves the
recipient from allegiance to the sovereign of his native
country. This is evidently intended to meet the case of
American Irish who may be charged in Great Britain with
sedition against the sovereign. Mr. Johnson and his
advisers must, however, know very well that the Ame-
rican Congress cannot affect to legislate for any county
but its own. The allegiance which a natural-born British
subject owes to the British Crown cannot be absolved by
any other Legislature than that of Great Britain.
The telegraphic summary of President Johnson's Mes-
sage exhibits him to the Daily News in the old antagonistic
attitude and querulous temper with which the public is so
familiar. The President has never recovered from the
delusion which—very much through the fault of Congress
—took firm possession of his mind in the first year of his
office, that he is the Legislature of the United States.
Accordingly, he speaks in this Message of " Congressional
legislation " as if it were a rival and irregular power.
Mr. Johnson's opinions on the best method of recon-
structing the Union have been urged upon Congress in
every form, and with advantages which do not now
attend their expression ; he nevertheless repeats them as
vehemently as ever, and persistently misrepresents his
opponents. Perhaps this is as much his misfortune as
his fault. The reconstructive policy of Congress contem-
plates the establishment neither of supremacy nor of mili-
tary rule. The expectation of an " easy restoration of the
Union," of which Mr. Johnson speaks, is an afterthought.
No ope in his senses ever imagined that the reconstruction
of the great fabric which was so terribly shaken by four
years of war would be easily accomplished ; but the delay
and partial failure of tli,e efforts made in that direction are
chiefly due to the mischievous and unauthorised inter-
meddling of Mr. Johnson, who has grievously misled the
Southern States, and induced them to enter upon a course
which has hitherto prevented the retail of peace and
prosperity.

The Herald characterises as extraordinary Mr. John-
son's advice to Congress to declare that a naturalised
foreigner is absolved from all allegiance to the Government
of his own country. At present every native European
in America is bound by an enduring obligation to the
country of his birth, and a well-known maxim of our
own common law declares that such allegiance cannot be
renounced or shaken off at the mere will of the sub-
ject. But if the Congress should act on the Presi-
dent's recommendation they will in effect be attempting
to alter the laws, not of their own, but of other countries ;
as good an expedient for bringing about a series of
embroilments as anybody can well imagine. For the sake
of the Republic itself, therefore, it trusts that no attempt
of the kind will be made, that all unreasonable conditions
as to the arbitrament of the Alabama claims will be aban-
doned, and especially that the President may so far
succeed in increasing the number of his supporters as to
ensure a speedy triumph for that policy of conciliation
which he has so perseveringly, but hitherto so unsuccess-
fully, advocated.
The Telegraph regards the prospect to relieve the Ame-
rican naturalised citizen from his allegiance to his own
sovereign as obviously an additional screw to squeeze the
Alabama damages out of England, and another bid for
popularity among the foreign voters ; but even Secretary
Seward will find it rather difficult to drag this subject
into the discussion which has engrossed so much of the
attention of Lord Stanley. What effect it may have in
the American political market is doubtful; but certainly
every intelligent American ought to see that, i
Mr. Seward were really anxious to arrange the
Alabama claims, he could at once accept the fair and
liberal offer of our Foreign Secretary to refer the subject
to arbitration. Mr. Seward is an old and wily politician
and it seems perfectly clear that he wishes to keep the
question between the two Governments open, as a fort of
political oil-well, from which any amount of capital may
be pumped up when required ; but whether he is working
this scheme for himself, or to aid the political fortunes of
Mr. Joluison, time and the Presidential Conventions must
reveal. England has throughout the dikussion adopted
an honest, straightforward policy, and we have only t
let the American Government pursue the course it ha
selected, and await the result with firmness and patience
The Standard assumes that the paragraph of the Message
referring to the Alabama claim was penned before Lord
Stanley's despatch of the 16th of November bad bee'
communicated to the President. To speak of Lord Stan.
ley's offer as " accompanied by reservations incompatible
with the rights of the United States" is simply ridiculous.
Lord Stanley offers the American Government far more
than it can fairly claim of England. He proposes to submit
to the decision of an arbitrator the question whether the
English Government, by doing or not doing something
incurred any moral responsibility to make good to American
citizens the losses caused them by the Alabama. He will
not submit to an arbiter a question of which England
must be the sole judge, the policy or justice of the recog
nition of the Confederates as, belligerents. The question
has nothing to do, as Mr. Johnson pretends, with that of
non-intervention. England did not intervene in the
quarrel between the North and South, even with advice.
She expressly refused to associate herself with such an
intervention when proposed by France. If she was remiss
in her duty as a neutral in allowing the Alabama to
escape—a question which she is ready to submit to the
decision of an impartial tribunal-- she is ready to pay for
the damage caused by that remissness. The United States
ought to ask—they will certainly get—nothing more.

The Star sees no reason why Great 111 .11 should not
submit to arbitration the question as to whether we were
right or wrong in recognising the Confederates as belli-
gerents in May 1861. It argues in this wise. To agree
to submit a case is not to allow judgment to go by default.
We can present all the strong reasons which induced the
Cabinet of the day to determine on a recognition of
beliigerency, and fearlessly challenge the award of any
arbiter on the subject. This, which. Mr. Seward
makes so much of, is the weakest point in his
case, and we only wish we had as many and as
powerful arguments to urge in favour of our mode of
dealing with the Alabama, as we have upon the prior
question of belligerency. The real difficulty of Lord
Stanley seems to be that he cannot agree to submit to the
decision "of a foreign Power" any question connected
with an act of policy which is wholly within the com-
petency of each nation to decide for itself, without
being liable to answer for it to friend or foe. Well,
suppose we do not refer it to "a foreign Power," but
to a court of jurists. It is difficult to suggest any
foreign Power which is not mixed up with the
controversy in some shape or another. Certainly all the
European maritime Powers are disqualified on this ground.
Moreover, the nature of the discussion is essentially one
for a court of jurists to determine. Is it to some such
solution that Lord Stanley points when he dwells so much
upon the expression "foreign Power ?" If so, Mr. Seward
in the meantime prefers not to understand his meaning ;
and these menacing claims are to be left, we suppose, to
be dealt with by the new President who will be elected
next year Py„th! y91.9,14...y0t5L