The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1867-01-30


The Refractory Southern States, Con.
gress and the Administration.
President johnson Southern policy has
turned out failure, profitless to the South
and disastrous to his administration. He
began we'll enough, in taking the ground that
hismeasures of Reconstruction, IN the absence
of Congress, were merely provisional and
subject to the approval or rejection of Con
gress but directly after his annual message
of December, 1865, he boldly diverged to the
other road, which has resulted in the ruin of
his fortunes. He was, perhaps, dazzled and
deludcd by the idea of becoming the founder
of a new party, and like jackson. the head
of new dynasty, in re-establishing the cid
political balance of power held by the South
on the nucleus of the floating elements ofthe
North opposed to the dominant party in
Congress. In this conception, however, be
estimated too lightly the issues of the war
. and the public sentiment of the North deEel-
oped by great revolution, and counted too
much on the forceof those old political asso-
Citations and dogmas, North and South,
which the war had destroyed. His fatal mis-
take was the fallacy that excepting slavery
and the costs of their rebellion the rebel
States, in laying down their arms, were rein
stated in their constitutional rights in . the
Union as it was" before the war;
1t was generally expected that the astound-
ing popular majorities in favor of Congress
cast by the loyal States, from the Atlantic to
the Pacific ocean, in the elections of last tall,
on the issue Joined between Congress and
the President, would bring Mr. johnson to a
graceful submission to the will of the people.
A satisfactory approach in this direction was
anticipated in his last annual message; but
his message, asif inspired by unexpected
reinforcements, only expressed his increased
faithin his rejected policy. This placed him
in the position of the champion of the refrac-
tory ruling politicians of the rebel States
and their Northern copperhead allies against
the loyal States, their representatives in Con
gress and their policy as embodied in the
pending constitutional amendment and as
endorsed in all the late Northern elections.
Next, in the emphatic and defiant tone in
which this amendments rejected by the out
side States, from Texas all the way up to
Virginia, it is manifest not only that they
have great confidence in the final success of
President johnson, but that there is a sort OF
league or understanding among them en- rap
port with the administration.
What can this understanding or this gen.
eral expectation be? We infer from the late
decisions of the Supreme Court and from the
hints thrown out by some of our Southern
exchanges that the ruling Southern politi-
clans rely upon some further decisions from
this court which will amount to the complete
upsetting of the pending amendment and the
theory that the excluded States are not, as
they stand, restored to all their rights as
members of the Union. Under such encour-
agements to adhere to the Executive it is not
surprising that the rebel States should stand
upon their dignity and their reserved rights
under the constitution as expounded by Cal
loun and put into practice at Fort Sumter
fthe Supreme Court, then, shall next decide,
in deciding the Alabama appeal case now
before it. touching the status of Alabama,
that she is State of the Union entitled to
all the rights of member in full communion,
and if President johnson shall accordingly
proclaim this decision a law of the land,
overriding the laws of Congress, and shall
proceed to execute it in fulfment of his oath
of Office, what can Congress do9 We can
not answer; but as to what President John
son is expected to do by over confident and
unreconstructed Southern rebels We nave,
perhaps, an answer from Kentucky
We refer to the suggestive telegram pub
lished yesterday from Frankfort, stating that
in the Kentucky State Senate, on the 18th
instant, Mr. Helm, "made long speech in
favor of proposition to raise ten regiments
of Kentucky infantry for the purpose of re-
sisti@g all aggressions and to maintain the
principles of State rights" State rights -
The old story Of South Carolina. And this
Kentucky Senator desired that these troops
should at any time be subject to the call of
the President of the United States" Now,
when it is remembered that the Governor of
Kentucky threw back into his face the first
call of President Lincoln for few regiments
of troops to assist in putting down a rebell-
ion striking for Southern confederacy, and
looking at Kentucky neutrality during the
war and at the Kentucky Legislature since
the return of peace, we can understand this
State rights proposition. 1t is movement
to put Kentucky in the vanguard of another
fight for Southern confederacy or for " the
Union as it was,' State rights, slavery, bred
Scott decision and ALL
Thss skeleton outline of the Southern sit
uation and its Northern affiliations we be-
lieve is not overdrawn. 1t is apparent. then.
that Congress, charged by the loyal States
with the enforcement of their ultimatum to
the South. must proceed to decisive measures,
or that the fruits of the war, like the beauti-
full apples of the Dead Sea. may turn to ash
es upon our lips. Can any one suppose,
then, that the movement for President John
sons impeachment Will not be carried
through9 No. The republican party, all
powerful in Congress and in the loyal States,
and with no reliable footing in the rebel
States, will remove President johnson in Or
der to reach those States His scheme of
re-establishing the Northern democracy on
their old Southern balance of power was
started too soon. With the restoration of the
South on the ultimatum of the North the
mission of the republican party will be full
filled. This party will then be broken up,
and scrub race in 1872, like that of 1924,
will probably mark the first step to a reor-
ganization of parties. Meantime the party
in power will tolerate no stumbling blocks
which it has constitutional authority to re-
move.-Mew York Herald.