Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-08-14
THE QUESTION OF TIE HOUR.

The New York Herod Of Thursday
last. contains an article entitled the
q New Crisis-- The President andTon-
gress on a Broad Issue 1t advises the
President to suspend Mr.. Stanton as Sec
rotary Of Var, and gives its reasons in
this wise:
This. however, is but a limited view Of
the case. Mr. Stanton's suspension is not
only necessary to the proper settlement of
the personal issue between him and the
President, but il becomes indispensable to
Mr.. johnson ifhe would so apply the re-
construction conditions Of Congress as to
give the whites of the South a fair field
against the negroes. But is there not some
danger in this thing ofmaking martyr of
Stanton to his advantage as a Presidential
candidate? There might be if he were left
standing alone as a martyr. But there will
not be any such danger if the whole five
commanders of the five Southern military
districts are made martyrs of at the same
time with their removal. The honors of
martyrdom, in being thus divided among
half dozen martyrs, will be neutralized,
and so Mr.. Stanton's calculations upon this
score will signally fail. This, then, is the
proper line of action for Mr.. Johnson
the suspension Of Stanton, the removal of
the five military commanders, and the sub
stitution for all these Of other men who will
cordially cooperate in the execution of the
laws Of Congress according to the liberal
ideas and purposes of the President to-
wards the white population Of the ten
States directly concerned in opposition to
negro supremacy.
Upon this broad and general issue Mr..
johnson need not be afraid of throwing
down the gauntlet to the Radicals in our
approaching Northern elections. Let it
appear. and let it be fairly understood, that
while Southern reconstruction under Sec
rotary Stanton and the present Southern
military commanders under his wing means
negro supremacy in the South, and the
return Of perhaps twenty or thirty negroes
as a beginning to the present Congress from
she Southern States, the execution of the
laws Of reconstruction aimed at by Mr..
johnson contemplate the supremacy of the
Southern whites, so far at least as to eK-
clude negroes from Congress- and we shall
have an issue which will change the face
Oh lllAlHH even TINS luAA IL NiN NiNNAAhhS VI
Pennsylvania and New York.
The whole issue in the South depends
upon the spirit in which these laws of re-
construction are applied. If the restric-
tions against Rebels are vigorously en-
forced, while the negroes, without question,
are freely admitted to the suffrage, as they
have been so far, the negroes will rule in
the work of reorganization and send whom
they please to Congress. If, on the other
hand, the restrictions against the Southern
whites are somewhat relaxed, and the re-
quirements to suffrage are fairly applied to
the blacks, the white majority, where it
exists in any Southern State, will be brought
into action, and white ascendancy will be
the result. We believe, too, that under
this system Southern reconstruction may
be so fairly accomplished as to compel even
the Radicals of Congress to accept it; for
if the idea Of universal suffrage has now
gone so far that it cannot be arrested, that
other idea of a general amnesty is close
behind. If JEFF. Davis, on the bail volun-
teered by leading Radicals, can be turned
loose, surely we need no longer delay in
letting all the smaller fry Of the rebellion
60 scot-free. Now, then, is the time for
IIEEluEus JuuuSOn " nldhG NhC AocAS We
have suggested between his method Of ex-
ecutiDg the laws Of reconstruction, which
means Southern white supremacy, and the
Stanton method, which means Southern
negro supremacy, and twenty or thirty ne
groes in the two houses as a beginning be-
fore the expiration of the present Con-
gress. Let Mr.. johnson prepare at once to
try New York and Pennsylvania on this
test, and he will discover before the re-
assembling of Congress that they are not
yet ready TO be jostled by Sambo in the
United States Senate. Il"
As we have before remarked, the Radi-
cal party in their greed for power have
carried the negro question to point that
has set men in both sections thinking
We have no doubt the Herald correctly
interprets popular sentiment in the North
even, upon what it calls the Broad ISSUE
yiz--the question of political supremacy
between the white man and the negro.
The same paper of the 10th thus refers
to the question, and appeals to the moder>
ate Republicans to come up to the rescue
ofthe country against the negro balance
Of power:
From the developments Of the registra
tons of voters in the five Southern military
districts, we see that under the Rebel re-
striction and negro suffrage conditions Of
Congress the blacks, in each and ali of the
ten Southern States concerned, hold the is
sues Of reconstrueGon in their hands.
From the results of the late Tennessee cleo
ton and other revelations on the subject, it
is manifest that these Southern blacks,
from Virginia 10 Texas, led and managed
by Northern Radicals, are already, en-
,iasse banded together under the dag of the
Republican party. From all these facts,
and from the general drift of the recon-
strlction movements of the day, 1t rs
morally certain that the negroes, with the
restoration ofthese ten Southern States to
Congress, will hold the political balance OF
power therein, which, before the late rebel
lion. was held and exercised by their white
masters in the control of the general gov
eminent.
In view of this startling transfer of our
national balance of power we are called
upon TO pause and consider the probable
consequences. After terrible civil war OF
four years involving the bloody sacrifice
Of over half million of able bodied men
and putting upon the country the heavy
burden of three thousand millions of debt,
we were released from the political domino
ton Of three hundred thousand Southern
Shareholders. Heavy as were the costs OF
this Liberation from a tyrsnnical and inso-
lent oligarchy, the end achieved was still
regarded with proud exultatiOn, as amply
rewarding Gs for all our contributions in
men and money. But if the power welded
In their day by those three hundred thou.
sand domineering white Shareholders is &c
| be transferred 10 their four millions Of ig
norant. debased and credulous negro slaves
we may well inquire what have we gained
or where are TO be our compensauons FOL
all these stupendous efforts and sacrifice
REQUIRED 10 put down the shareholders re
beilion? Are we drifting from the ex
cesses Of liberty, equality and fraternity
70 a French reign of terror, or 70 the BLOODY
reprisals of St. Domingo, or that fusion ans
confusion Of races which eliminated II
| Mexican anarchy
-----------------=
TIE Cincinnati Gazette calls the dis
agreement of the jury, and the conse
ouent failure to convict and hang surrat
,-,ro,-of5a rrr-