Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-04-12
INTERVIEW WITH ALEX. H. STEPHENS.
Opinions on the Country-Reconstruction-
suffrage-0riginal Ideas-What
He Looks Like.


Correspondence Cincinnati Commereial.l
WAsHIxGToN, April 6, 1866 66-Probably
no man in the South, who was closely
identified with the rebellion, is less dis
trusted by the loyal people than Alex. H.
Stephens Before the elimination Of
that treason to the United States, which
is declared in the organic act of our
Government to consist in levying war
against them, Mr.. Stephens strenuopsly
opposed secession, and predicted what
has come to the Southern people as re-
suit Of their mad folly and crime But
that indescribable ignis fafuus of State
sovereignty, popularly called State
Rights, seems to have drawn not only
Mr.. Stephens, but Gen Lee, and many
other Southern men who professed 10y
atty, into the malestrom of treason. And
to conciliate that numerous class of
Southrons known there at that period as
Conservatives, Mr.. S. was selected as
their second executive officer of the Con
federacy. Officiating in that capacity,
he may be fairly presumed to at least
understand the feelings and wishes of the
Southern people, a correct reflex of
large and respectable portion of whom he
was Immediately preceding the rebellious
outbreak.
Hence, upon his arrival in this city
day or two ago, had the pleasure of
several long and interesting interviews
with him, that | might Gull from his CO.
pious and dunreserved expressions of opin-
ion on the various subjects now agitating
the public, such main features as will give
us more light on the great problem of
Reconstruction. He expressed to me
his views on Johnson policy, and thinks
that the principles enunciated by the
President in his annual message, last
December, and reiterated in various Off
cial documents and speeches since, are
the fundamental elements of our system
of government This policy is accepta-
BILE to the late insurgents, and is, in his
opinion, the only basis Of restoration
which will command the hearty cooper
alton of the conservative and peace-lov-
ing people in all sections of the country.
He thinks that all Mr. johnson has done
toward reconstruction was done under
the sanction of military law, and as com
mander-n-chief of a victorious army and
navy. What the conquered people of the
South did was part and parcel OF the
terms of surrender When they had
complied with the conditions exacted by
the President, they we're entitled to all
the rights allowed other sections Of the
country aud that Congress had no more
right to dictate any additional terms of
surrender than the same body would have
had to have dictated the terms of surren
der at Vicksburg. But why do the Re-
publicans persist in their attempt to keep
out in the cold all these States now at
peace and penitent2 Because they will
vote with the strict constructionist las
they always have done. he said, and not
with the Federals; and thus, by uniting
with the Northern Democrats, there
would be formed large national party,
possessing suffcieacy of strength and
adhesveness to warrant defeat OF Black
Republican Radicalism They think if
they can compel the adoption of univer-
sal suffrage, by the enchantment OF
the Stewart proposition of universal am
nesty, or otherwise. Then, the negro
voting with the Federals in the South,
there would be hope of longer continu-
ance in power. He could see no other
explanation of the jealous manner with
which the Radicals urged the title Of the
late slave to political equality with the
whites, new and unheard of question,
sprung upon the issues of civil war
And he does not think the Stewart plan
of ! Tickle me, johnny, and I'll tickle
you, would be sanctioned by single
Southern State he thought that the
Northern view Of the question of seces-
sion was that the Southern States had
never gone out of the Union, and the war
was prosecuted to prevent them from
going out If the Southern States were
out Of the Union, then the war against
them was cruel and atrocious. The
Presidents view. that the functions Of
these States were merely suspended
during the rebellion, and to quote from
Mr.. Lincoln. out of their proper practi-
cal relations" with the Union, he
thought consistent; and on this hypothe
sis, the moment the resistance to the
Federal Government ceased, the South
ern States stood just where they did
when the war began, with ali their rights
as States unimpaired, and their domes-
tic or other relations only changed in
such aspects as the Amended Magma
Charta designated.
Mr.. Stephens expressed bis opinions