The New York herald., 1867-08-15
The Issue Of the Dny-Are We to be Governed
by q Negro Balance of POwers

| the American people one Of the most extraor-
| dinary and momentous issues ever presented
as a governmental measure in any country
since the Goddess of Reason was set up in
| Paris in the place Of the Christian religion.
| This issue is presented in the radical pro-
gramme of Southern reconstruction, and it is
| simply this-shall this country be governed
| hereafter at Washington through negro poll
| tical balance of power For seventy years.
! with lucid interval here and there, we were
| governed by an imperious and insOlent Southern
oligarchy of three hundred thousand negro
shareholders. Finding, at length, that their
balance of power had slipped through their
| fingers those three hundred thousand slave
| holders plunged the late so-called Confederate
States headlong into bloody rebellion from
which they emerged, after four years of tena-
slavery and all its political advantages. This
old Southern oligarchy has thus ceased to exist,
and the places which knew it shall know it
no more forever. But here the question arises
is the great North prepared for another South
ern balance of power, which it is proposed
shall be given to five hundred thousand negro
voters, just released from the moral darkness
and degradations of Southern slavery
This is the great issue of the day; and how are
we to meet it? After General Grant, at the head
of eleven hundred and fifty thousand Union
soldiers in the field, had given the decisive
blow to the shareholders rebellion at Apo
mattox Court House, the work OF Southern re-
construction might have been satisfactorily
accomplished within six months, had our fede-
governed by purely patriotic considerations.
But with the collapse of the rebellion Andrew
| johnson, of Tennessee, through Abraham Lin
| coins assassination, became President OF the
| United States and unfortunately, from the very
| first day of this promotion, Mr.. Johnson proved
himself unequal and fearfully incompetent to
grasp the duties and the advantages oil his po-
sition. Otherwise, his first act after taking bis
oath of Office, would have been proclamation
calling Congress together. This done, an
agreement between President and Congress,
with the meeting of the two houses, upon
! plan of Southern reconstruction and restora-
| tion, including qualified negro suffrage would
| have been easy and il would have been con-
elusive.
his own wisdom and capabilities Mr.. Johnson
began by assuming the functions of the law
making power, and so with the first regular
| meeting of Congress alter his promotion to
| the White House the curtain was lifted on the
| old conflict between King and Parliament
4 revived, with all our modern improvements.
| So far in this conflict Mr.. johnson has been
baffled and beaten from point to point, until
his policy has been reduced to the issue
| between rigid and liberal execution OF the
laws Of Congrcss-"only this and nothing
more" He wants a liberal application OF the
laws; and to this end his late Secretary Of War
ha. been suspended, and we have been given
| TO understand that some other Cabinet changes
and the removal OF several, if not all, of The five
military commanders in the South will proba-
bly, follow. and before the lapse Of many days
But what will this signify! At first we were
| inclined to the opinion that the radical pro-
gramme might in this way be nanked and
upset; but on looking little deeper into the
difficulty we find that il can be reached only by
1
really lies in this reconstruction programme Of
Congress, the inevitable tendencies Of which
are to negro supremacy in the ten Southern
States concerned and to q negro balance o
power in our national affairs.
In this reconstruction programme the repub-
lican party, as represented by Congress, ha.
been faithless 10 its professions and its pledges,
and 1t has betrayed the confidence and dsap-
pointed the just xpectations of the loyal States.
No such dangerous and desperate party expert
ment as this OF Southern reconstruction on the
basis Of Southern negro supremacy was ever
demanded by the popular voice Of the North
before or since the surrender Of Lee. But
unless these existing reconstruction laws o
Congress are reached through Congress itsel
we fear that the President cannot divert them
from negro supremacy without bringing upon
himself the fate OF Stanton. What we want
then, 10 such pressure from the people Of the
North upon Congress, in our coming fall elec
struct their measures Of reeonstructon, so far
OF least, ~ TO give the Southern whites fair play
ss against the blacks, in this important business
, | OF rebuilding The political and social State
| institutions Of these ten excluded Southern
, States. Surely, at least upon this issue OF III,
supremacy Of negro mlnorties over white
mAjorities IL the South, the public pulse ma!
, be effectively touched In the North, and upol
this question even the present radical Congress
ii asA tlEQvse aY sRllQAGAips AA s|eeslRRf