The Sun. — 1866-10-06 (London, England)

LONDON, SATURDA}, OCTOBER 6, 1866.  _ The arrival of the China brings us news from New York up to Sept. 25. We have no further news respecting the .elections, but the PRESIDENT'S difficulties are evidently not diminished. If we are to believe the New York Herald, Mr. STANTON and General GRANT have been urging Mr. JOHNSON to recommend the Southern States to accept the Congressional Constitutional Amendment as the only hope of procuring their representation and 'of saving himself from impeachment. That Mr. STANTON should do this is credible enough, the only wonder being that the PRESIDENT should have retained him so long in the Cabinet, and he would s probably have long since dispensed with hi services had his political position been more independent. That General GRANT should advise such a course is, however, more difficult to believe, seeing that he has stood staunchly by the PRESIDENT, and has upheld his conciliatory policy with all his influence and authority. The adherence of the army and the coalition of its most popular leaders has been one of Mr. JOHNSON'S strongest supports, and has furnished an unanswerable reply to the vehement denunciations cf those " carpet knights" whose only idea of fighting the South has been to divide the spoils after LEE and BEMIRE:GARD were subdued. Generals GRANT and SHERMAN, and those who faced with them the dangers and hardships and anxieties of those momentous campaigns, have a better right to decide upon the characteristics and claims of Southern people than those who, having lived at home at ease during the war, are now prepared to vindicate their patriotism and their courage by tyrannising oYera conquered people, and despoil,l  ing a peaceful country. They are prepared to sacrifice the very objects for which blood and treasure were so freely spent, and to assert their political sagacity and fidelity by outraging the fundamental principles of the constitution. They can hardly seriously believe that the South will ever agree to their Congressional amendment, which would compel them to surrender those State rights, so dear to every American, upon which the old political superstructure is built up. It would be as likely that Englishmen all through the country would relinquish their cherished rights of local self-government, abandoning all rule and authority into the hands of a central power. But Englishmen in such { a case would at least know that whatever the dangers I of the future, at least the direction of affairs was in the hands of countrymen, whose interests and sentiments were identical with their own, but the Southerner under similar circumstances would know that he was resigning himself into the hands of I avowed and unscrupulous enemies. The form of representation might be indeed allowed him, but that would be utterly valueless, as the negroes would have an equal suffrage with the whites, and in their present unsettled, excitable, and uneducated condition their votes would be easily commanded by those who could most readily inflame their imaginations, or gratify their wish to live at other people's expense rather than by their own labour. The men who have fought under LEE, who have carried on a war of gigantic dimensions during four eventful years, who have supported a constitutional form of government, which, in spite of all .obstacles, worked as well as the old regime are not likely to commit. such .an act of rational suicide as to subscribe to the Radical formula. Mr. JOHNSON is happily .net the man to demand it from them. lie would no doubt prefer the loss of his present dignity and influence to the abandonment of that wise and conciliatory policy upon which he prides himself. In the one case he would retain an honourable name, while in the other be would forfeit his political influence and character without gaining any corresponding advantage. It is said that Mr. JOHNSON, when urged by his colleagues to take the course recommended, replied that he could neither be influenced nor intimidated by personal considerations. lie believed his policy to be sound, but should cease contending for it if he became satisfied that the interests of the country demanded that he should do so. We may accept the whole of this intelligence with reserve, seeing the channel through which it comes, but it is quite certain that Mr. JOHNSON bas enough to contend against. Nothing but firmness and disinterestedness will carry him through the struggle. If he yields to the advocates of expediency, or listens to the cajolleries of doubtful allies, or the threats of poltical antagonists, he is lost, andethe hopes of America are lost with him, because it is simply impossible that the Northern States should rule the South like a conquered country. In spite of the immense preponderance of wealth, of population, of all the materials for war and for Government on the side of the Northern States, no one who looks at the map of America and contemplates the vast extent of territory which stretches from Virginia to Texas, from Florida to Tennessee, can for a moment suppose it could be held as the Russians hold Poland, as the Austrians held Venetia and Lombardy. The task would be stupendous for a despotic country, with all the appliances of au armed despotism. It would be immeasurably beyond the powers of any free and constitutionally governed country, such as America, which, with all her political vagaries, still claims to be. It is a momentous question which the people of the States have to settle, and the interests of civilisation, which, as Lord STANLEY justly said, are so closely affected by the destinies of England and America, will be influenced by their decision. In this country we are watching the crisis with the deepest interest, not unmixed with anxiety, since, in the passion and excitement of the moment, we are sometimes apprehensive that our kinsfolk may lose sight of the vital interests involved. The issue is not a mere question of policy such as the difference between our Whigs and Tories ; it is not between the conflicting claims of individual statesmen or even parties ; it is not whether ANDREW JOHNSON or THADDEUS STEVENS shall rule at the White House. It is between peaca and war, between an organised Government and a revolutionary chaos ; between a great, free, and prosperous nation and a dismembered body of States whose territorial extent will be only a source of weakness, whose national strength only gives vigour to their discord.• .The interests, like the sympathies, of England are all in favour of the peace and prosperity of the United States ; but if they are to remain united, much more if they are to be free, powerful, and contented, it must be by upholding the doctrines of WASIIINGTON and JEFFERSON, not by following the self-seeking theories of THADDEUS STEVENS and