The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-08-19
THE "NEw CRISIS" AND THE NEW
YORK HERALD.

friends.
THE .NEw CRISIS" AND THE NEW
YORK HERALD.
Our conservative friends, 'so-called" all
through the South, arc highly delighted with the
acrobatic performances Of that skillful vaulter,
the New York Herald. Every day, for over
week past, this versatile journal has had heavy
political leader on the situation, lauding the
President and denouncing the Radicals, and
especially the negroes, yet protesting all the
while, too, to favor reconstruction on the Con-
gressional plan. How it can do this consistent
ly with the advice it daily urges upon the Presi-
dent to relieve the FIVE military commanders
of the Southern States, we cannot see. The
President, according to the Herald, must re-
place these five commanders by others OF
conservative stripe, and carry out the recon-
struction measures in liberal spirit Unless
we are very much mistaken, it was some such
motive that elected Attorney-General STAN
pERY,s opinion two months ago, which, SO far
from being regarded in accord with the will OF
the Northern people, caused general outcry
against "stanberying" the Acts of Congress.
The special session in July, and its more strin-
gent legislation, was the consequence of this
action on the part of the President
Now, no Boomer has Congress adjourned,
than the President, though unsupported by the
Northern people, and impotent in the last re-
sort as had been proved again and again in
his conflicts with Congress, reopens the strife
with not one whit more probability of being
able to carry out his views than he was last
year, or. the year before. What reason is
there to suppose that the Northern people will
bring in different verdict this year from what
they decided to be the sense of the nation last
year! We have still lively recollection of
certain Phiadelphia Convention, held just
about twelve months ago, at the suggestion, it
was understood, of the President. great re-
action was predicated upon it, and along with
the Democracy, in solid phalanI, in that Con-
vention, were found o large number Of Con-
servative Republicans, scarcely one of whom
now sides with Mr.. JOHNSON. This Conven-
lion, in which the lion and the lamb lay down
together "South Carolina and Massachusetts,
entered arm in arm," proved full Of sound and
fury, signifying nothing.
The returning sense of justice" had not
come. The elections almost everywhere went in
favor of the Republicans, and by much larger
majorities than before. Now if this proved
anything, beyond the shadow of doubt, it is
hat the people Of the North-they who at
present rule the destinies of this Continent
desired to express, in language not to be mis-
that they disapproved of the
policy inaugurated by Mr.. JOHNSON, and that
they ratified the measures of reconstruction
proposed by Congress.
So far from any signal revulsion of feeling hav-
ing since taken place on this subject in the North,
the evidences are all of contrary character.
Every time their representatives have spoken
since, in questions bearing upon the South,
they have increased the pains and penalties
because of our recusancy. 1t is not our prov
ince, and this is not the place, to discuss the
right and the wrong of the matter; whether or
not these Acts are constitutional whether we
are in the Union or out of the Union; whether
the heel of the negro is longer or shorter, and
his blood thicker or thinner than that of the
white man side issues, which have much e1-
HILL, JOHNSON, PIKE, TooMBs and others.
Nor is it pertinent to the question to affirm, as
many do, that our acceptance Of the Constitu-
tional Amendment (Article XIV would not
have ended the pending difficulty; would not
have caused our Representatives and Senators
to be admitted into Congress. There is no au-
thority whatever for such assertion; and We
should not have alluded to it here, were it not
that the same assertion is now again repeated,
in reference to the present Reconstruction
Acts.
But to return to the great change in North
ern sentiment. What proof have we that such
o revolution of opinion is in progress? Why,
the New York Herald, about q week ago, COM
menced publishing series of sensation arti-
cles on its editorial page, veering clean round,
md saying and advocating just the very oppo-
site from what had been advanced in those
same columns two weeks before. How long is
it since the Herald, every day, had one or two
demanding the impeachment of the
President? Is it not we'll known that the
Herald is consistent in nothing save in incon-
sistency? Has it not again and again boxed
the whole political compass Has it not been
on every side of every question that has agitat-
ed the public mind during the past ten years:
But it is said the Herald is a great reflex of
public opinion, and would not have taken this
position had it not been perfectly sure that
the public mind of the North was ready for
such q change. Now we should hail such a
change in the Northern mind as much as any
one. But we can see no advantage that can
accrue to our people from wilfully deceiving
themselves on matter so important and vital
as that one that now occupies our attention.
1t is no business of ours to question the
motives of the Herald. But we cannot help
asking if the Herald is such an infallible index
of public opinion at the North, how was it it
made such an egregious mistake in the i'm
parchment question! The Herald is nothing
if not sensational, and it matters but little
what the subject in hand is. Only few weeks
lgo this Napoleon of the Press" allowed
hims elf to be hoaxcd by an Associate Press
Dispatch about Russian Intervention in Ire
and The Herald was the only paper in the
country that gulped this so-called diplomatic