The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-10 00:00:00

Negro Suffrage.

The New York Herald believes that the passage
of the resolution permitting negro suffrage in the
District of Columbia is the first evidence of a dis-
position on the part of the Lower House of Con-
gress to allow the Executive of the nation any voice
in the schemes of that branch of the Government.
From the very commencement of the session the
ruling spirits in Congress have been constantly in-
triguing against and assailing the President's policy,
and yet announcing to the country that they are
acting in harmony with his Administration.
Unwilling to give the President an opportunity to
officially expose their hypocrisy, they have to a cer-
tain extent succeeded in convincing those who had
no means of judging correctly of the truth of their
assertions. Under this cloak they have organised
their cabals and matured their schemes for political
and party operations in the future. They have
found among the official advisers of the President a
member of the Cabinet, who, posessing the oppor-
tunity to understand all the movements and objects
of the President, is ready and willing to direct and
suggest measures to frustrate the Executive. Start-
ing out at the commencement of the session with a
joint Committee on Reconstruction—in reality a
Committee of Public Safety—they have gone on,
step by step, gradually encroaching on the preroga-
tives of the President. Fe thus find the historical
events of the great struggles in European Powers
repeating themselves in America, with Stanton as
the Danton of the present day. With the War
Minister watching events at the Executive mansion,
and Stevens drilling his forces in Congress, they
are directing all their efforts to place Mr. Johnson
in a position where he will be powerless. They
realise - that he is pushing forward his work of
restoration, and placing the late rebellious States
under the control of civil governments, leaving to
Congress only the simple duty of admitting the
Southern representatives to make the work of re-
adjustment complete. This duty they not only
refuse to perform, but will not take the responsi-
bility of passing a law overturning the labour of the
President in reconstructing the State Governments.
They denounce and assail it, but are unwilling to
send to the Executive either a resolution or a law
enforcing their theory for him to sign or veto,
knowing that if they do they place in his
hands the material for him to make an
issue with them before the people. The issue,
when made, they desire to bring about in
their own way and on their own conditions.
The Herald adds that the vote on the negro suf-
frage bill in the house reveals the fact that the ex-
treme faction, under the lead of Stevens, composes
only about one-third of that body. One-half of
the Republican party are opposed to the revolu-
tionary schemes of Stevens and Stanton. All that
is now necessary is prompt action upon the part of
the Executive to secure a final separation of those two
elements. The vote referred to furnishes conclu-
sive evidence that the Radicals could soon be forced
either to the abandonment of their schemes or the
alternative of becoming a weak minority in the na-
tional Legislature. A little courage and skill upon
the part of the Conservative Republicans would have
secured the endorsement of restricted instead of
universal negro suffrage for the district of Columbia.
It is this courage which the President has the
power to infuse in Congress by the immediate over-
hauling of his Cabinet.

The Catholic World says that nowhere has the
Catholic Church increased so prosperously within
the last fifty years as in the United States of
America.

General Clay in Russia.
-0--
The Times comments at length on the recent
enthusiastic reception of General Cassius M. Clay
at Moscow, and thinks the old saying that " extremes
meet " must appear as applicable to politics as to
all other matters when we see Americans and
Russians professing the most cordial and instinc-
tive sympathies with each other. Nor is the phe-
nomenon at all delusive or unsubstantial. It is
perfectly certain that the most despotic Govern-
ment of Europe and the most Democratic Govern-
ment in the world are uniformly on the best Of
terms, and that the people in both countries
sincerely participate in that remarkable accord.
But according to the oracle of the Times the truth
lies a little below the surface in this case, and has
in reality nothing of paradox about it. The Ame-
ricans do not, in fact, admire the institutions of
Russia, nor the Russians those of the United
States, but each nation in its own way entertains
certain aspirations so like those of the other that
they are content to sink all minor differences ill
the identity of an overruling view. The late Czar
remarked that America and Russia were the only
two States with a "future" before them—the only
two which were still young, still growing, and still
expansive in the midst of the old countries of the
world. Other States had fought their fights, re-
ceived their developments, and attained the ends of
their careers ; only for the Great Empire and for
the Great Republic were any " destinies " still in
reserve. So, as destiny and aggrandisement involve
a good many contingencies, our contemporary
thinks it is as well that the only two nations still on
this track should be good friends and allies. Russia
is 'a great Empire, and America is a great Empire.
Each country has a boundless territory, an inex-
haustible store of raw materials, and unlimited
room for population. Both Russians and Ameri-
cans expect and intend to be something more than
they are, and are reasonably disposed to make com-
mon cause in a speculative way against other
States which have no such prospects, and at whose
expense, perhaps, some of these magnificent desti-
nies may be ultimately accomplished.

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