The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-07
AMERICA.
4 Satuyday Reuicw.

From the London Saturday Review
1t is perhaps desirable that American
affairs should from time to time attract no.
tice in England, even when they possess little
immediate interest for the more important
questions which occasionally arise can only
be understood by the aid of a general fami-
liarity with the state of political parties.
There is no reason to suppose that the singu-
larly unfriendly feeling of General Grants
administration to England is for the moment
actively shared by the general community:
but Mr.. Fishs last proceeding with reference
to the Alabama controversy is not unworthy
of observation. 1t may be remembered that
Lord Clarendon had, in studiously concilia-
tory spirit, divided into two parts, consisting
of a despatch and memorandum of the same
date, his answer to Mr.. Fish's extraordinary
invective. In the despatch Lord Clarendon
expressed in courteous terms the wish of his
Government to discover solution of existing
difficulties, and his regret at the rejection by
the Senate of Mr.. Stewards convention. The
accompanying memorandum contained a
detailed and unanswerable refutation
of Mr.. Eishs assertions and arguments;
and in conformity with custom, the date and
signature were attached, not TO the memo
randum itself, but to despatch addressed to
Mr.. Thornton, in which the memorandum
was enclosed. In accordance with his instruc-
tions, Mr.. Thornton read both papers to Mr..
Fish, and at his request furnished him with
copies; yet in transmitting the correspon-
dence to the Senate Mr.. Fish omitted the
memorandum, on the pretext that it was not
signed or dated. Lord Clarendon, who may
be supposed after forty years experience to
know something of diplomatic forms, has
explained to Mr. Motley that it was neither
customary nor necessary to sign or date an
inclosure when the covering despatch was
signed and dated; but Mr.. Fish is perfectly
consistent with himself in taking every OPP
portunity to offer an affront to the English
Government, and to render peaceable settle
ment impossible. As it is evident that Gene
raj Grant and his Minister have determined
to keep the quarrel open, the only course re-
naming to England is deliberately to abstain
from further overtures, and to cultivate a
firm resolution to resist menace or aggression.
1t is some consolation to reflect that the most
unbounded concessions would have offered
no remedy against periodical outbreaks of the
chronic animosity which existed long before
the civil war. In some future generation
American Ignorance and prejudice may per-
haps imperceptibly wear away, as the
ancient antagonism between England and
France has disappeared within recent nae
mory.
The process of reconstruction approaches
completion since the admission of Virginia
to the Union and in the certainty that the
fifteenth amendment, providing for negro
suffrage, will soon be adopted by the requi-
site number of States. The policy which has
been pursued by the late and by the present
Congress has secured the greater number of
Southern votes to the Republican party; but
its ultimate success will be contingent on the
disappointment of Republican expectations,
and on the practical reversal of the system of
reconstruction. At the close of the war it
might perhaps have been possible, by gene
rous system of confidence, to reconcile the
population of the defeated States to the re-
storation eff the Union; yet it is true that
the victors we're morally bound to take steps
for the protection of the negroes against the
oppression which might possibly be practised
by their former masters. The Republican
leaders held that the colored race could only
be secured by the possession of equal fran
chises, and they took the political aptitude of
their clients on trust. In the greater num-
ber of the Southern States the negroes have
| obtained a temporary supremacy, and
| they have returned to Congress Senators and
| Representatives belonging in a few In
| stances to their own class, but for the most
| part selected from among the Northern ad
| venturers who have settled in the South in
hopes of profit or for purposes of political
| agitation. There is reason to believe that
| ll0 WulJ6 ClIlZ6Ub Ol IuO OOulH are InOT6 ulS
| affected to their rulers than on the eve of the
war, or during its progress. Their chosen
| leaders are still in many States excluded from
local and Federal Office; and they are gov
| erned at home and represented in Congress
| by an incompetent and obnoxious class. Tht
people of Virginia, after complying with al
| the harsh conditions of the act of reconstruc
ton, were contumehously subjected to fur
ther restrictions. The State of Georgia, afte
formal admission to Congress, has been ono
more remitted to military government, an,
the general in command at present sits il
Judgment on the validity of elections and tn
qualifications of Representatives. Notwith
standing their traditional belief tina
freemen ought to be governed b
their own consent, Republican legis
lators might be excused for incon
sistency if they would condescend to exercis
prudent foresight. If the citizens of tn
Southern States were likely to submit tamel
to oppression, or if the Federal Government
had the means of overPowering resistance
it might re excusable to govern a fourth pal
of the Union against the wish of all the il
telligent inhabitants. The actual problem
be solved is of different character, ina
much as the superior race will inevitably a.
sert its natural predominance. The institr
tions of the United States provide no NEAR
of maintaining an artificial system; and il
impossible to garrison the South with an arm
amounting in the whole to twenty or thirt
thousand. The outrages which are perp
trated against the negroes in some of ii
States are in the highest degree Grim
nal; but they have been in some d.
gree provoked by the policy of Congress
and there is no force by which the
can be repressed. In Tennessee, where til
rude adventurer Brownlow two or thre
| years since treated his political opponents