The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1865-11-18

which President johnson replied, Il believe
your promise will be kept in good faith" An
exchange says:
President Johnson's policy of e reconstruction
or rehabilitation in the South. i progressing 80
satisfactorily. and impressing It's Justice and pro-
priety 80 generally upon the country. that even
the radical clamor against it has subsidized in great
measure. The grand and prominent feature OF
this plan is that il imposes 50 large a share of re
sponsibility directly upon the late rebel States
themselves. The President simply opens the door
by which they may return 10 loyalty. and says:
If you are ready 10 come in ont of the cold. You
are welcome ali YOU have TO DO is TO shake the
dust or frost of rebellion from your heels. stick the
red, white and blue in your button-hole, and come
right along. If YOU are not ready Yet 10 acknowl-
edge that there has been Il bad storm. and that
yOn are In danger of freezing where you are, why
Just stay outside until the mercury in your Their
mometer gets a little lower. But arten you come,
You must come in a spirit of penitence. and show
by your acts that You recognize and dcplore the
error you committed in abandoning your fathers
house." The appointment of Provisional Govern
oTs. Federal Judges. &c.. does not IN itself restore
the old relations of the States 10 the National
Government. These are simply the preliminary
agencies through which the higher aim is To b"
reached. II i in the election of Representatives
and the choice of Senators 10 Congress that the
people will chiefly indicate their present frame of
mind and when these Senators and Representa-
tives actually occupy the seats in the National
councils vacated by the rebellion. the old rela-
ton between the Southern States and the Union
will have been practically restored. But 1t Is one
tIlnE 10 etect these men. anu alOtntt To secure
them admission to Congress. The latter can only
be effected by popular action already indicative of
genuine loyalty. for no unpardoned rebel will be
allowed TO qualify AT Washington. nor any man
knowingly elected by rebel votes, or in defiance of
regulations designed by the National Government
to place the first elections. in the South under the
influence and control of loyal men exclusively who
have never forfeited their political rights by trea-
son. and who alone, therefore, are competent TO do
the work of reconstruction. The President. IN
adopting this policy. i~nterferes not the least with
State ri1htS He steadily Iaf1SpS 10 prnNlHp for
admission TO the polls of any class excluded by
the old laws and Constitutions of the States. But
he is bound to insist on the qualification OF loyalty
in those who do vote. and he avails himself OF the
laws of Congress fixing penalties for rebellion 10
legally exclude all who are not loyal. He asks OF
the South to recognize that it has been in the
wrong and he insists on it. remembering that it
can claim no oblivion for the past until ii shall put
itself clearly in the right.
The last mail brings the following telegraphic
item, showing further the views of the President
on the present state of affairs at the South.
The substance of the Presidents remarks on the
subject of the reconstruction of tine Southern States,
during the late interviews with him, has been
given, with the Presidents approval. by Major
General G.. l.. Stcarns. of Massachusetts,. In reply
to Il remark that the Democrats claim that he had
gone over To them. he intimated that the DemOc-
racy discovered that he was i'll advance of ii, and
was now trying 10 come up TO his standard. He
hoped it would succeed in doing 50. He reiterated
his doctrine that Notwithstanding the so-called Sc
cessiOn of the Southern States. they were never
out Of the Union, but that by their rebellious
course they had forfeited civil government. to re-
construct the machinery of which. as soon as prac-
ticable. he considers the chief duty Of the time.
This, he says, cannot be done in Il moment. but
such great and happy progress is being made in II
that the results sometimes appear to him like a
dream. He did not expect to forever deprive Of
their former civil rights even the majority Of those
included excluded y i'll the amnesty p%roclama-
ton. but intended they should ask for pardon, and
thus realize the cnormity of their crime. He is in
favor OF allowing negroes who served in the army,
and those who can read and write, and those pos
sessed of certain other qualifications, to vote. bat
he does not think it policy, or that he has the right
to force those conditions on the whites OF the
! South. though he believes they will before long
concede this privilege to the freedmen. The Pres
ident also favOrs the basing of representation in
Congress on the number of qualified voters, in
stead of on population, as at present.
The change of public opinion ut the South,
after such a terrible ordeal as it has passed
through, must be a gradual work, nor ought
we to wish it achieved in n day. The slower
it comes around, the more sure and lasting will
it remain. The views of all the leading mon
at the South are rapidly changing, now that
slavery is gone and the war ended. Read the
following extracts from a letter to Gen. Grant,
written by Henry A. Wise, of Virginia. the
same who hung the immortal John Brown:
If General Terry believed in consolidation, l be-
lieved in State rights and powers. If he believed
that the EeUeral Executive dnu congress anu the
Judiciary possessed absolute 1 believed they had only
relative and delegated sovereignty. If he believed
that they were unchecked and unbalanced by other
powers, l believed that the whole system of the
United States, State and Federal, was composed Of
reciprocal checks and balances. and that the sove-
reign States were the basic. checks and balances Of
the Federal Government. | was taught that the
States were not unun, but e pluri6uS unum, and
this many in one, one in many. When called a rebtl
| shall point to the - of Virginia's buckler and
claim that my sovereign State is sole sponsor for the
acts Of her own citizens and subjects. l am no rebel
or traitor, and never was, and my State cannot be
either. She has still n sovereignty by the COnstitu-
ton of the United States, and by the original author
ity before it ever existed, unless she is now utterly
demolished by subjugatiOn, and unless that is des-
troyed by any force which has demolished her.
These are still the tenets of my faith, and | believe
these truths will perpetually revive and prevail to
preserve the republican freedom of the people of the
Unitei States. When the civil liberty for which |
devoutly pray really comes again, l can. without
hiudrance, fall on the bosom Of my country and weep
with her g for any wrongs we have done" l am
now n prisoner on parole. | dare not now ask of her
any favor, great or small. I claim only of her good
faith, the precious privilege, promised me by her
highest agents, TO go to my home and be at peace.
So far from my being opposed to the name Of
freedmen" as indicating the condition of slaves
freed by the war, the chief consolation l have in the
result Of the war is that slavery is forever abolished,
that not only the slaves are, in fact, at last freed
from bondage, but that l am freed from them. Long
before the war, indeed, I had definitely made up my
mind actively TO advocate emancipation throughout
the South. had determined, if | could help it, my
descendants should never be subject TO the humilia-
ton | have been subject 10 by the weakness, if not
the wickedness of slavery; and while | cannot recog-
nize as lawful and humane the violent and shocking
mode in which il has been abolished, yet I accept the
fact most heartily as an accomplished one, and am
determined not only TO abide by 1t and acqulesce IN
il, but to strive by all means in my power TO make 1t
beuefcient to both races and a blessing especially to