The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-08-14

tion scheme, which will place the
State absolutely under the control of
the blacks? Do we not also perceive,
that in this matter there istan open
ing for decisive political diversion
on the part of President johnson in
his execution of these reconstruction
laws, i'll the interval to the next meet
ing of Congress?
Granting that the Northern States
arc prepared for the recognition and
acceptance of equal suffrage to the
blacks, is New York, or is Pennsyl-
vania, or is Ohio, prepared for the
full-blown experiment of negro SUI
premacy in ten Southern States, as
contemplated by the Republican
radicals in Southern reconstruction?
Assuming tha. if, with n conserva.
tive acting Secretary of War in the
place Of Stanton, and with five mill
tary commanders of Mr.. Johnson's
way of thinking in the places of the
five commanders who think and act
according to the gospel of Mr.. Stan
ton-assuming that the result will be
to delay the work Of Southern resto-
ton for even two or three years
will this not be wiser than to rush
headlong into this danger of South
crn negro supremacy? Will not the
inevitable tendency of negro supre-
macy in South Carolina, for example,
be to drive out the white population,
or to precipitate that war of races
which, if commenced, will be apt
speedily to ripen into war on both
sides of indiscriminate determination?
Will social harmony or peace, or
financial confidence, or active and
systematic industry, ever be restored
to the South, under the threatening
danger OF negro supremacy?
"We cannot answer these ques-
tions truly without recognizing the
sagacity and wisdom of President
Johnson's policy of giving to the
Southern whites, as far as possible
under the terms of Congress, q
chance to recover their lost ground,
and to take the lead in Southern re-
construction. We are, indeed, SO far
impressed with the idea that in this
view of the question he stands in q
strong position, that we feel bound to
advise him to make the most of his
opportunity in bringing the issue be-
fore the people of the Northern
States for their sober second thought
upon it in the coming fall elections
There is no security, and there are n
thousand dangers, in the radical pro-
gramme, which now distinctly fore.
shadows the placing of the late
OOyorpino, rvbitoc Of tLo So,+l, ,,n1n,
the political control, and subject to
the caprices and revengcs, of the
black race, relieved but yesterday
from the moral darkness, expressions
wrongs and disabilities of African
slavery. These dangers are SO me-
nacing that they must be appreciated
by thinking Northern men. Wo hold,
accordingly, that he time at lust las
come for u N0ritern reaction, and the
time, therefore, for decisive measures
on the part of President Johnson"
We might suppose there was some
thing significant in the above cx-
tracts from two successive leading
editorials in paper which claims. to
lead public opinion, and which fire..
quently has been the index of its
shiftings. But we are brought to q
pause, when, in Saturdays issue of
the Herald, we find another leader,
the concluding paragraph of which
we snbjoin:
president Johnson has become
more an object of derision and con-
tempt with both parties than was
John Tyler in his worst estate. In
this condition of things, Southern
negro political balance of power,
covering ten States, is looming up
before us in bold relief. Is this to be
the settlement? 1t will he; unless
that controlling public sentiment of
the North which carried President