The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-08 00:00:00

In the perplexed and uncertain state into which
public affairs have fallen, it is impossible for me to
send you any information more important or
valuable than the particulars of an interview which
I had with President Johnson at the White House
on Thursday last. The Ps esident's opinions, espe-
cially with reference to the Freedmen, have been
so wilfully misrepresented in the Radical press of
this country, and his general policy towards the
Southern States has been exposed to so much un-
justifiable perversion, that Mr. Johnson's own ex-
planations on both these subjects may have some
weight even with those who are most embittered
against him.
The President first adverted to the condition in
which he found the country on his accession to
office, and pointed out that ever since that time the
Radical party, which now has the control over
Congress, has been preparing for the issue forced
upon him. Their object was manifest, and it was
one which, from their point of view, they could
scarcely be blamed for pursuing so eagerly. They
knew perfectly well that when the South came back
into Congress their day of power would be over—
the Southern representatives would stand as a unit ;
they would probably fall into alliance again with
the Democratic party, the old issues of slavery and
State sovereignty would be dead and buried, and
the party which now ruled would be stripped of its
power. Their talk about philanthropy and bene-
voleuce to the negro meant nothing snore than a
desire to work upon the feelings of the North, so
that they might be enabled to carry everything
their own way. It was a renewal of an old conflict.
The two sections of the country were ready to go
to war before the rebellion broke out —the one to
preserve slavery, the other to destroy it. Each side
was willing to sacrifice the Government in order to
gain its object. The South struck first ; the rebel-
lion was subdued at the Southern end of the line,
and now it is swinging round to the other end.
" These men," continued the President,—and he
always used these words to denote the Radical
party,—" are almost ready to go into rebellion
again rather than have their supremacy destroyed
by the re-introduction of the South. They know
nothing practically of the real state of the South.
The very man who had drawn up the Civil Rights
Bill, what are his means of judging ? I left him in
the Senate during the war, and went out to Tennes-
see and saw it all, and bore my share of the
troubles. He stopped at home, and now endea-
vours to make his theories square into the events of
the war, and legislate on ideas which he had never
put to the test."

The President then went on to speak of slavery
and the negro. He had been brought up, he said,
under the very shadow of the institution of slavery.
He had bought and owned slaves, but still he had
always been for abolishing slavery upon any basis
which could be adopted with safety to the country.
When it came to the question whether slavery
should be abolished or the Government broken up,
he never had a doubt as to the course which he
ought to pursue ; he decided to give up slavery,
and he abided by that decision. But the South
now would treat the negro with greater kindness
than the North if it were let alone and not exas-
perated. " They talk of justice to the negro," con-
tinued the President. " God knows my heart yearns
towards him when I think of the end which these
men are preparing for him. I see that end clearly
enough—they are going the way for a conflict of
races. When that occurs we all know how it will
fare with the negro. How has such a contest
always ended? When the time comes there will
be no struggle. The result will be decided with-
out that. Now, then, what do we find ? The very
thing which we said these Southern States could
never do, which we fought these four years to pre-
vent them doing, these men affirm that they have
actually done—namely, been out of the Union.
The Southern States are ready to come back upon
our terms, take loyal oaths, and acknowledge their
allegiance, but these men say they shall not. Why,
if they had offered to come back, or any of them,
during the rebellion, should we have turned them
away on the ground that they had placed them-
selves out of the Union ? Mr. Lincoln offered to
receive the whole Legislature of Richmond—a rebel
Legislature, and would have welcomed them with
open arms. Would he have refused to receive
these States now that they have fully submitted ! "

The President next referred to the misrepresen-
tations of his policy which have been so industriously
spread abroad. " These men" had for months past
had the public mind open to them, and had poured
into it whatever they pleased. Now it had become
incrustated, as it were ; but once let that incrustation
be broken through, and the truth would begin to
find its way. "I am not discouraged," added the
President ; " either these States must be brought
back, or they must be kept out. It .is like doing a
sum in addition—some sums want figuring up more
than others before you can get the answer, but I
believe it will come all right in the end."
Mr. Johnson then enlarged with considerable
detail upon the operations of the Freedmen's Bureau,
and said that its machinery was now being used to
get negroes conveyed from the North back to the
South by the very men who were asserting that the
lives of the freedmen' were not safe in the South.
They had hired or bought land, they wanted labour,
and they got their negroes transported at the ex-
pense of the Government. The Freedmen's Bureau
compelled the negroes to go, or they stopped their
subsistence allowance. It was little better than
another form of slavery, only that it was solely
conducted by Abolitionists ; for the Freedmen's
Bureau would not assist a Southern man in getting
negroes from the North, where many thousands of
them have taken refuge during the war. A gentle-
man from Falkland county, Virginia, had been to
him, the President said, only a few days ago, saying
that he had sent 300 negroes to the district (of
Columbia) for security during the war. He now
wished to hire them, but the Freedmen's Bureau
interposed obstacles, and would give him no help
in transporting them ; whereas the Government
[railroads were placed at the service of other specu-