The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1866-11-21

Sress and tho Pian Demanded BY the
Crisis.
President Johnson's plan Of Southern re.
storation, failing in the South, discarded by
Congress and condemned in the North, is
dead and done for. In the outset, with its
three conditions precedent, viz. THE recog-
milton Of the supreme national sovereignty Of
the United States, the ratification Of the con-
stitutlonal amendment abolishing slavery, and
the reputation Of the debts and obligations Of
the rebellion, it seemed to be o fair and
promising programme. It started of hand
somely, in the absence of Congress and under
the stimulus of Executive pardOns, but the
State reorganizations thus effected were slip
shod and too loosely put together to pass an
examination under any test of the constitu-
ton or the law of nations. The civil rights of
the liberated blacks and the important ques-
ton Of negro suffrage and negro representa-
ton were meantime left untouched; for the
leading idea of Mr.. johnson was to restore the
disabled States, as far az possible, with their
old State rights intact, as before the war.
This was grave mistake, and it was followed
too far, as events have shown but it could
have been easily repaired had the President
adhered to his original declarations, that his
provisional work was subject to the approval
or rejection of Congress This was the rock
upon which he Notwithstanding an equal
jurisdiction with Congress, and the popular
verdict of the late Northern elections, in re-
jecting his policy and his defence Of the course
he has pursued in his conflict with Congress,
amounts to decree from the sovereign people
taking this business from his hands and re-
storing it absolutely into the hands of Con-
gress. Hence the present views. inclinations
and purposes Of the President in this matter
are important only SO far as they are likely to
operate in facilitating or retarding q settlement
by Congress.
The plan Of Congress, endorsed by all the
Northern States, is that embodied in the pend
ing constitutional amendment. It appears to
be, however, in the face of these recent cleo
tions, so bitterly repugnant to the South as
to be hopeless Of any voluntary ratification in
that quarter during the existing generation OF
loading Southern politicians. The especially
obnoxious feature Of the amendment to those
politicians is the section which excludes from
all federal Offices hereafter, till absolved by q
two-thirds vote of Congress, certain class of
the Southern leaders identified with the late
Leaders and followers plead that
the dishonor of their own condemnation in
volved in this condition they must at all hazards
reject with scorn and disgust. This is serious
difficulty. How ia it to be removed
The duty Of solving the problem will de-
volve upon Congress. The alternative pre-
scented is the exclusion Of the unrecognized
States to the end Of the present generation, or
some notifications Of the amendment, in order
to bring them in without further loss Of time
A general amnesty will at once remove the
main difficulty indicated, and universal suf-
trage will settle all the endorsements arising
from the negro question. But the prejudices
Of caste and color cultivated in the South for
two hundred years are so infused into the
blood and bones Of the Southern white race
that they revolt at this idea Of negro political
equality, and will never consent to it. What
then? Ia the Union to remain disorganized
and discordant, is the South to be INDUCED
indefinitely in quasi state Of rebellion, with
its vast resources of wealth, trade and pros
perity lying waste, and with its people drifting
to sedition, riots and anarchy, because South
ern prejudices block the way! No! There
must be remedy for this evil and for the
good OF the whole country 1t must be applied.
President johnson has said that il there are
but Eve thousand good and loyal men in one
Of these disabled States they are enough
for its reconstruction. Congress, then, in a
law providing for certain organic State cleo
tons, and defining, a. the President has done,
who shall be voters, with the power and
authority given to General Grant to enforce
the law 10 these elections, may very readily
overcome this aforesaid obstruction Of caste
and color. Some such legislation, beginning
at the bottom, Is evidently demanded for
Southern reconstruction. The interests OF
the South. the North, the Treasury, and OF
the whole Union, demand this legislation.
Beginning tho work Of reconstruction, then,
de novo, Congress, in an enabling act, has only
to weed oul the impracticable secesh and fire.
eating elements of the States concerned and
to put General Grant on guard, in order to
make the work OF Southern restoration as
simple as the rule of subtraction. The first
essential is to accept the selfsvidcnt facts that
the Presidents work of reconstruction is an
embarrassment, that Congress must begin at
the beginning from Virginia to Texas mas
much as the rebellion, from the Potomac to
the Rio Grande, though disarmed, still remains
to be subdued.
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