The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1865-06-14
aashrille Aniou.
VIZ. CAKEBOS 8 CO., publishers.
WEDNESDAY. JUNE u. Is65.

The Albany Evening Journal sayi
Wendell Phillips, leading the crusade
against President johnson, announces
that he will oppose the Government
policy as set forth in the North Caroli'
ma plan, because by it negroes are not
permitted to vote. The Anti-Slavery
Standard has hoisted as the motto al
the head of its columns, mo Recon
struction without Negro Suffrage" The
evident design of these extremely viru-
lent progressiVists is to make bitter
warfare upon the Administration, if it
does not Immediately put the ballot in
the hands of the freedmen.
If such an idea as political practibili-
ty can be driven into the heads of men
SO wondrously abstract in their views,
we should like to hear them state how
the plan of negro suffrage can be per-
fected, consistently with the theory of
the North during the war, otherwise
than by the very course President John
son is pursuing. Either the Southern
States have an existence, or they have
not. If they have not, then the Confed-
crates were, as they claimed, foreign
belligerents, and we have no right to
trest them otherwise. In this view,
the Government cannot try JEFF Davis
and their other leaders for treason, nor
quarrel with England because of
its vital recognition of their
independence. If the States do
exist, and-as we have all along
claimed-we have simply put down an
insurgent body, operating against their
life as well as that of the Nation, it fol-
lows that their Constitutions and Laws
continue in force until suspended by a
competent authority-the authority of
the people. If North Carolina has new
er been out of the Union, then Presi-
dent Johnson, has no more right to set
aside the fundamental law of the State
than to change that of New York. He
cannot say who shall vote He may
declare that persons otherwise entitled
to suffrage shall not vote, because of
crimes committed by them and recog-
nized by the Federal Constitution, to
which North Carolina has assented.
But he cannot open the door and ad
NIT to franchise in a Southern State
those who are expressly excluded by it,
with any more propriety than he could
pursue the same course in Maine or
Rhode Island. If the plan of allowing
States TO reorganize within themselves
shall not prove successful, then another
may be adopted. Martial law can pre-
vail where civil administration may be
powerless. Butupon the ground taken
by the Government, and so far main
-ained, no other course was possible for
.he President, than precisely the one
ne has seen it to adopt.
New York. Ohio and Indiana are
States in the Union. They allrefuse to |
allow the negro to vote. Do those er.
'atic philosophers who are so violent in
heir abuse of Mr.. johnson, see any
way in which he could force change |
of their policy, and make them admit |
10 the polls their blacks-who in the
main are vastly more intelligent and |
better informed than those of the |
South If they cannot discover q good |
ground of Executive interference in
one case, how will they justify it in the |
Understanding that the conquered |
of the South are in a con-
lition of States, and not in that of Ter
-itories ?