Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-11-17

he had remarked that he bad tried 70 over
whelm the South with pardons and Kind
ness; but that from recent events he began
to think them Incapable OF approaching
magnanimity.
Whether the President said any such
thing is question that belongs exclusively
to conjecture. 1t may, however, find sup
port in the statement Of the Cincinnati
Commercials Washington correspondent
MACK" made under date the 10Th inst.
that IF all that Is said concerning" the
trial of JEFF. DAVIS "and other matters be
true, it is certain that he president JOHN
SOM has wonderful way Of adapting his
opinions and determinations to suit the
views of the party to whom he Is giving
audience and that he had not "met DEM
ocrat I'M Washington who has had confer
ence with the President who is not entirely
/ satisfied as to his conservatism; not Re-
publican, who, after an interview, was not
thoroughly convinced of his radicalism."
We should like to know what the "re-
cent eventsr are that have transpired In
the South to shake the Presidents conf
dence in the Southern people, and to cause
to spring up in his mind the opinion that
lithey are "incapable of appreciating mag
nanimity." No sooner did 1t become man
ifest to the Southern people that their eff
forts to withdraw from the Union were
fruitless, than all throughout the entire
co,,th thn;. militia ~, orooniza ationa ainost
instantly disbanded, and where but few
days before fierce war ragged comparative
peace reigned. The insurgents threw
themselves upon the mercy of the Federal
/ Government, and they accepted the terms
prescribed by President JOHNSON with such
alacrity that those who were inimical to
their recognition as being in the Union for
political purposes, protested they were
p prompted thereto by insincerity and du-
plicity, and that hence they must be sub
jected to a political quarantine. At the
suggestion of President JOHNSON most all
the Southern States have through consti-
tutiona conventions prohibited slavery in
their States and repudiated the Rebel War
debt, and those that have not yet donethese
things are in a fair way to do them. The
President has made it an additional condi-
ton, before they shall be recognized as
States coequal with those that did not un-
dertake to withdraw from the Union, that,
by Legislative action, they must ratify the
Congressional amendment prohibiting sla-
very. He seems to entertain the appre-
hension that if this amendment were not
thus ratified, the people might after awhile
reamend their Constitutions so as to again
establish slavery, and that If it were again
established in this manner, Congress would
stand powerless to touch 1t. '', =.
1t may be objected that under the Consti-
tuition, and in the face of his allegation that
the Southern States have never been out of
the Union at any time during the Rebel
lion, the President cannot prescribe any
such terms or make any such demand
Viewed in the light of peace this objection
is well taken. 1t must, however, be taken
into consideration that we have no official
declaration that peace does exist. We
know that it exists absolutely; but in the
absence of an official declaration to that Ell
feet we have no official peace, and the pro-
mitigation of such official declaration must
necessarily BIZ withheld for the purpose Of
compelling the Southern people to do that,
under the authority of an assumed War
power, which they cannot be compelled to do
when peace shall be recognized to exist by
official proclamation. 1t is only under this
view that the apparent inconsistency Of
President JoHNsoN's action with his dec
laration that the South is not now, and new
er was, out of the Union, can by any posi-
bility be harmonized. tir, e,l y f,
Even the Presidents demand that the
Legislatures Of the late. insurgent States
shall ratify the Congressional slavery abol7
ishlng amendment before their Represent
atives can be guaranteed admission into
Congress, does not cause them to retch--
South Carolina, the pioneer in Secession,
andthe most determined to 60 out Of the
Union-the State in which Rebellion was
given bloody form and organization-lhlaas la
promptly, and with the emphasis Of large
majority, ratified this constitutional amend
| ment. This is arecent event. Other in
| surgent States will not hesitate to follow
the example thus set them. The Southern
people, then, have done, and are doing, all
that was exacted Of them. If men are. to
betrusted at all, they have done 1t in good
faith, too! His confidence has not been
misplaced, and while their action has more
than met the expectations Of the mass o.
the people In the adhering States, thas not
| been fully satisfactory to the radical poll
ticians in the Republican ranks. They yhact
been disappointed. They expected that the
Southern people would refuse to comply
with these demands, aud they desired that
they should do SO, to the end that they
could urge the non-reception of their Rep
resentatives by Congress-. They do not
want the Southern people to have
a voice in the legislation ofaq-Cen-
oress. Their negro-suffrage clamoI
contemplated this, and finding thai
the majority of the people in the adherinl
States will not second such measure, they
are fretting the patience of the public with
assertions that theilegislation Of the Legis
latures of the South, looking to the enforce
ment of habits of industry, honesty ant
morality among the emancipated slaves, II
| nothing more than the rcinauguration Q
| the old slave system under another name