Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1867-08-20
SPECTATOR AND GENERAL ADVERTISER.
speculations on Coming Political Events.

Dpcculdt1UuS Oh COm1uS 1VlAt1CSA GVc11tS.
One of the most striking and significant ar
ticles that we have seen in the political weather
cock, the New York Herald, for long time,
appears in it's issue of Friday last. 1t is lead
ing editorial on the Demonstration imbroglio,
commencing as follows:
'aThe rupture between President johnson
and the refractory and defiant Secretary of War,
considered in connection with recent events and
Developments bearing upon Southern recon-
struction, brings forward the new issue of South
ern negro supremacy into bold relief 1t is
morally certain that under the stringent anti
rebel and universal negro suffrage policy of re-
construction now pursued in the South the ten
excluded States will be reorganized and rein
stated in Congress by the predominant negro
vote. Let us see what is the inevitable drift of
this business, as now progressing, from the facts
and figures before US. y
The Herald then figures up victory for the
new voters with their few white allies, in every
Southern State. Evidently alarmed at the por-
tentous display of its own figures, it submits the
following:
'Thus it appears, from the developments
and all the evidence before us touching the re-
construction programme of Congress, that if
carried out according to the laws as applied by
Secretary Stanton and the present commanders
of the five military districts, the whole ten Of
the States involved in this ordeal will be at the
mercy of the blacks. We are called, then, to
meet the question of the probable consequences
of this negro supremacy. The return of twen-
ty thirty, or forty eolored Senators and Repre-
sentatlves to Congress is but an item among the
results which may be reasonably anticipated
The consequences OF negro ascandancy In the
Legislature OF this or that State are most to be
feared when we consider the unsettled balances
as slaves which these Southern blacks will be
apt to enforce against their late white masters.
Some very significant hints in this direction
have already been thrown out in the resolutions
OF the negro reconstruction meetings Of South
Carolina. We know too, that those Northern
white radical stumpers IN the South who have
most broadly suggested the possible application
from Congress of Old Thad Stevens's panacea
of confscation have excited the liveliest enthu-
siasm among the blacks. Is it any wonder,
then that Ex-Gov. Perry, of South Carolina,
and other leading Southern men counsel the
policy of quiet submission to their present mil
itary government indefinitely as preferable to
this reconstruction and restoration scheme:
which will place the State absolutely under the
control of the blacks2 Do we not also perceive
that in this matter there is an opening for de-
cislve political diversion on the part of Presi-
dent johnson In his execution of these recon-
SIrucIlOn laws In the interval TO the next meet
lug Of Congress?
''Granting that the Northern States are pre-
pared for the recognition and acceptance Of
equal suffrage to the blacks, is New York, or
is Pennsylvania, or is Ohio prepared for the.
full-bloWn experiment of negro supremacy In
ten Southern States, as contemplated by repub.
lican radicals in Southern reconstruction? As
Stunning that if, with a conservative acting Sec
rotary of War, In the place Of Stanton, and
with five military commanders OF Mr. John
son s way of thinking in the places Of the five
commanders who think and act according to the
gospel Of Mr.. Stanton-assuming that the re-
suit will be to delay the work of Southern res
toration for even two or three years-wll this
not be wiser than to rush headlong into this
danger Of Southern negro supremacy? Will
not the inevitable tendency of negro supremacy
in South Carolina, for example, be to drive out
the white population or to preclpltate that war
of races which, if commenced, will be apt speed
lily to ripen into war on both sides Of indis-
crminate determination? Will social harmony
or peace, or financial confidence, or active and
systematic industry everb restored in the South
under the threatening danger Of negro SUI
premacy?
eve cannot answer these questions 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 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 strong position that we feel
bound to advise him to make the most of his
opportunity in bringing the issue before the
people of the Northern States for their sober
second thought upon it in the coming fall cleo
tons. There is no security, and there are a
thousand dangers, in the radical programme,
which now distinctly foreshadows the placing
of the late governing whites of the South under
the political control and subject to the caprices
and revenges Of the black race, relieved but
yesterday from the moral darkness, oppression,
wrongs and disabilities Of African lean slavery
be appreciated by thinking Northern men,
We hold, accordingly, that the time at last has
come for Northern reaction, and, the time,
therefore, for decisive measures on the part OF
President Johnson
There is food for thought in the above.