Year: 1866

by experienced politicians as an un-
failing political weathercock. 1t never
fails to turn to the popular side as soon
as it can find out which way the wind
blows. In 1856 it supported Fremont
until O month before the election,
when discovering that the current was
in favor of Buchanan, it changed
sides, dropped Fremont, and supported
the "Old Public Functionary." In
like manner, it has until recently sup
ported the President, but since the
Maine election, it sees how the vino
is setting, and now comes out square
for the policy of Congress. The arti.
Gle in which it announced its change is
so significant and well written, that
we copy it entire, more especially as
it also gives a clear explanation of the
practical working of the Constitution
al Amendment in regard to the basis
of representation in Congress, a matter
which is not as we'll understood as it
should be. The article will well re-
pay careful reading:-[Ed. News.
From the New York Herald, of Saturday.


The fogs and clouds in which the
great question of Southern restoration
have been covered up since the adj
journment of Congress are at length
breaking away. We know now what
to do. We have been taught by the
famous mariner, Daniel Webster, after
drifting about for many days in thick
weather and in an unknown sea, to
avail ourselves of the first glimpse of
the sun for an observation and reck-
oning, in order to ascertain how far
the winds and the waves have driven
us from our true course. We thus find
from the bearings of the Maine cleo
ton that the true course for the South
ern States and the Administration is
laid down in the constitutional amend
ment of Congress. In other words,
we are convinced from the significant
results of the Maine election that this
amendment will carry all the North
ern States yet to vote, and that against
the solid North any further resistance
from the Administration or the ex-
cluded Southern States will be waste
Of time, foolish and suicidal to all con-
cerned.


We would therefore urge upon Pres
ident Johnson the statesmanlike policy
ofa truce with Congress, and an active
cooperation with the fixed predomi-
nant public opinion of the North, in
behalf of the immediate restoration of
the South on the basis of this constitu-
tional amendment. We have shown
that there is nothing in it which the
President has not himself at one time
or another recommended as essential
to the security of the Union. 1t is not
the Radical plan it is not so near in
fact, to the rebel disabling and confis-
cation plan of Thaddeus Stevens as the
propositions put forth from time to
time by Andrew johnson. 1t is a
compromise which the President ought
to have adopted in cooperation with
Congress, and which he ought now to
adopt at all events, because his con-
fiict with Congress, if persisted in, will
be most emphatically decided against
him. 1t cannot be otherwise. The
inevitable result is as clear to the
searcher for the true situation of things
as the light of the sun through the
breaking clouds. Not one of the States
which voted for Lincoln and Johnson
will fail to adopt this constitutional
amendment, since New Jersey, the
only Northern State whose vote was
against them, has led off for the North
in the ratification.


The policy and the duty of Presi-
dent Johnson, therefore, are as clear as
q mathematical demonstration, and
equally clear is the policy of the still
excluded Southern States. We have
earnestly advocated the Presidents
policy but after the verdict of the
jury the argument is at an end. The
example of Tennessee in the ratihca-
ton of the amendment is now the only
alternative for the other Southern
States, Tennessee, in ratifying the
amendment, opened the door to the
admission of her members to both
Houses of Congress. She, by that SIM
pie act, is reconstructed and restored,