The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-01-26
The Refractory Southern States, Con.
gress and the Administration. Etf'


President Johnson's Southern policy has
turned out failure, profitless to the South
and disastrous to his administration. lie
began well enough, in taking the ground that
| his measures 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, 1866 he boldly diverged to the
other road, which has resulted in the ruin OF
his fortunes. He was, perhaps, dazzled and
deluded by the idea of becoming the founder
of new party, and like Jackson, the head
of a 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, he
estimated too lightly the issues of the war
and the public sentiment OF the North devel-
oped by great revolution, and counted too
much on the force of 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
graceful submission to the will Of the people.
A satisfactory approach in this direction was
anticipated in his last annual message; but
his message, as if inspired by unexpected
reinforcements, only expressed his increased
faith in 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 amendment is 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
houn and put into practice at Fort Sumter.
If the Supreme Court, then, shall next decide, ;
in deciding the Alabama appeal case now F.;
before it, touching the status of Alabama,
that she is a State of the Union, entitled to
all the rights of member in full communion,
and if President Johnson shall accordingly
proclaim this decision q law of the land,
overriding the laws of Congress, and shall
proceed to execute it in fulfilment of his oath
of office, what can Congress dol We can
not answer: but as to what President John
son is expected to do by over confident and f
unreconstructed Southern rebels We nave f
perhaps an answer from Kentucky.
We refer to the suggestive telegram pub
lished yesterday from Frankfort, stating that c
in tho kentucky State Senate, on the 18th '
instant. Mr.. Helm, made long speech in I
favor of proposition to raise ten regiments !,
of Kentucky infantry for the purpose OF re-
sisting all aggressions and to maintain the l.
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, L
when it is remembered that the Governor of z
Kentucky threw back into his face the first f;
call of President Lincoln for few regiments
of troops to assist in putting down 4 REBEL
ion striking for a Southern confederacy. and d
looking at Kentucky neutrality during the h
war and at the Kentucky Legislature since f
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 confedcracy or for the W
Union as it was" State rights, slavery, bred d
Scott decision and all.
Thss skeleton outline of the Southern sit
lation and its Northern affiliations we be- Il
lieve is not oyerdrawn. 1t is apparent then, IL
that Congress- charged by the loyal States
with the enforcement of their ultimatum to II
the South. must proceed to decisive measures,
Or that the fruits of the war, like the beauti- II
jul apples of the Dead Sea, may turn to ash a
IS upon our lips. Can any one suppose, b
hen, that the movement for President John "
sons impeachment VIII not be carried -
nrough! NO Inc repuDilcan party, all
powerful in Congress and in the loyal States,
md with no reliable footing in the rebel
States, will remove President johnson in Or IL
Ter to reach those States His scheme of
establishing the Northern democracy on
heir old Southern balance of power was o
tarted too soon. With the restoration of the Il
south on the ultimalum of the North the u
mission of the republican party will be full a.
lied. This party will then be broken up,
nd a scrub race in 1872, like that of 1924,
'ill probably mark the first step to reor- ST
of parties. Meantime the party a.
n power will tolerate no stumbling blocks ~
which it has constitutional authority to re- +
aove.-NeU York Herald q
Eorth o ard ID