The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-05-18
safety, welfare and happiness of the
whole country.
[Signed ANDREW JoHssoE.
WGsHRdroS, D. C., May Is, 1866.
Avn EngIish YLew Of Radical Polier-

A Lesson from British History.
From the London Times, April "a.
If the Americans would but look
steadily into the mirror of British his
tory, they might discover much to in
struct them in the present coniuncture
of their affairs. We in this old coun-
try have passed through just such q
crisis as that to which they have just
been brought; we took our course, it
proved the wrong course, and we paid a
heavy penalty for the mistake =
The Southerners are prepared to shake
hands but the Northerners will not have
it. They are resolved to keep their
late enemies out of the pale of the
Constitution, to disarm them by the in
Fiction of civil disabilities, to punish
them for their recent malignancy by
political outlawry, to restrain them by
penal statutes, to introduce among
them obnoxious principles supported
by force, and thus in the heart of the
South to establish Northern ascenden-
cy. Of course they do not profess to
be doing all this in perpetuity. They
intend, as soon as Southerners and
Democrats have been made good North
erners and Radicals, to remove the po-
litical letters by the abolition of tests
and by measures of emancipation.
That is the programme of the party
now in collision with the President,
and no Englishman will have any diff
Guilty in recognizing the parallel We
see exactly what America is about 1t
is Ireland over again. ..ar
There is, no doubt, much to be said
for the policy of the American radi-
calls They can speak powerfully in
their own defence, as we see them do
ing When they allege that the peo-
pie lately in arms against the Govern
ment, always estranged from the North
by incompstibility of disposition, and
now exasperated by defeat and ruin,
are not to be trusted with large and
perhaps commanding share of power
in representative Congress, they are
advancing a specious, if not reason
able, argument. In fact, the argument
is reasonable, but it is not SO reason
able as the opposite. We had reason
at the time, and as things went, for all
our penal legislation il was only in
later days that we discovered the err
ror of our policy We found that ex-
clusion and prescription did not con-
vert conquered rebels into good sub
jects, but that the ideas which we de-
sired to efface rather grew and throve
under persecution. We completed and
intensified the very alienation of which
we complained. We found ourselves
with a source of political danger
where there should have been g source
of political strength, and were COM
PEELED to witness the difficulty" of one
portion of the Empire recognized with
eagerness as "thei opportunity" of the
other. The condition of Ireland was
always thrown in our teeth as the in
surmountable reproaeh of our legisla-
ton, our Constitution and our Govern
ment. Even when we had done our
best to redress the error, we could not
escape its consequences. Disaffection
and hostility still fingered after their
causes had been removed, and at
length, years after policy Of lbersli-
ty and Cancellation had been inaugu-
rated, we have the Fenisn conspiracy
to remind us Of bygone blunders.
The Americans may well take les
son from all this. They have not as
much justification for error as we had,
for they live in more enlightened
times We really believed that the
Pope was formidable enemy, and
that nothing but Protestant ascend
ancy could protect us in Ireland. But
the American people ought not to be
under such impressions at the present |
day. Granted that the Southern peo-
pie are but half recOnciled to their de- |
feat, how is the desired Cancellation to
be more completely accomplished ? Do
the radicals really believe that their |
countrymen whom they now distrust |
as probably disaflected would be better |
affected and more trustworthy after
years of outlawry and prescription |
If the Democratic South is governed |
on the principles of the Radical North
by intrusive officers and exceptional |
tribunals resting on the basis Of mill
tary force, is it likely to become poll
tically comfortable under such treat
ment2 Is it not rather manifest to all
who can read the future by the light
of the past that the policy which the
American Radicals are now striving to
establish will perpetuate disaffection
and create between two great sections
of the Union gulf which it will take
years Of better policy to close.