The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1866-10-04
From the London Spectator
Is Right also Might in America? ?

Is the governing class of Great Brit
ain about to make another American
blundcrl 1t looks like it, if we may
Judge from symptoms to be observed
both in the press'aud in society Identical
with those which appeared in 1860 and
1861. In every comment upon this
quarrel between the President and Con
gress, there is the same terocity Of pref
udice on the side of the South, the same
disposition to applaud its leaders, the
same refusal to look beyond the mar
rowest legal issues for the principles OF
the struggle. Above all, there is the
same inability to look the facts of the
matter in the face, to discern where
power really lies, to reckon up forces,
or calculate, as men would calculate in
any European contest, to which side the
probabilities incline. Names have
changed since 1851, but everything else
remains as unaltcred as if all English
publicists were Stuarts or Bourbons,
equally unable to learn and forget, All
that was said of the South is now said Of
the "great Democratic party" Mr..
johnson is exalted instead Of Mr., Davis,
General Sherman has taken-we suspect
without his own consent-the place Of
General Beauregard, and the calumnies
once hcaped.upon ''the North are now
spattered over "the Radical fanatics,
that is, the majority Of Northern men.
The cause at stake is forgotten i'll silly
gossip about the follies of those who
defend it, every out rage committed by
Democrats is blankly deuied, every
bet,se committed by Radicals illustrated
with pictorial coloring and imaginary
additions. Above all, the ancient
constitutional" arguments are Return
ished, and anybody who ventures to
suggest that the true quarrel is between
ideas which cannot be equally triumph
ant, slavery and freedom, privilege and
equality, caste and Christianity, is beat
en- down under a hail, of puerile legali-
ties about Conventions and Legislatures,
and the divine right ofwhite majorities
everywhere except in New England to
do what seems pleasant in their own
eyes, U.g ...,.a4. -gg5ga. .h.g..s,
Opponents are deafened in 1866 with
chatter about illegal Legislatures, just
as they were deatened in 1861 with talk
about State sovereignty and tho pro-
slavery clauses. Our correspondent
palmetto affords an excellent illus
tration of the revival of the old spirit.
As Southern in feeling as If he had been
born among the trees whose name he
adopts for his signature, he perceives
lnstinctivey that the recent riot at New
Orleans was the consequence of an out
break of Southern feeling, and grows
white at the lips with anybody who
thinks the right was with the North
erners, talks about truth as if it were
impossible that an honest man should
think his ideas utterly bad, and Of course
proves to demonstration that the killing
of citizens who happen to believe that Il
colored man has rights as well as a
blanched one, by local police armed
with revolvers for the occasion, aided
by frantic mob, was thoroughly
legal and constitutional" proceeding.
We have answered his 'pont' else
where, but it is waste of time and
trouble, for the real idea ia his bead, OF
rather the trpe feeling in his heart, is
precisely tho one upon which we base
our whole argument in disproof of his
assertions. lie believes that il the
reign Uilegality were restored to the
South, that is, if the State conventions
aud legislatures were really elected by
the white majority, the reign OF The
| Radicals would be over; and 80 do we
and it is therefore that we believe d
renewal Of the war SO completely within
the range Of political probabilities, and
Mr.. johnson so false to the nation that
elected him. 1t is because men hike
hiU, S0therDCrs only in sympathy. be