Year: 1867

AT the present time making allowances for


natural increase on the one hand and the effects


Of the war on the other, in these ten States, in


cutting of the whites and in increasing the


blacks by accessions from Tennessee, Ken
lucky, Missouri and Maryland, brought. down
for security as slaves during the war. the ag-
gregate population is perhaps now about


4,5OO,0O0 whites against 3,75O,OOO blacks. The


blacks are in the majority in South Carolina,
Mississippi and Louisiana and they are pro-
badly about equal in numbers to the whites in


Georgia. Alabama and Florida and with UNI


versal black suffrage they form a strong bal


ance OF power in the other four States.


General Wade Hampton, then, ia simply


leading OF in behalf of the dominant Southern


white landholding class tor this important
Southern black balance Of power in this work
of Southern reconstruction. This is the true
policy for Hampton aud all his class and for


the South. But, under the regulations of Con-


gress the Secretary of War has a grand game


to play for the negro vote, and he has also


many advantages in his hands. The President


is the chief executive officer in this business


but the military commanders appointed by


him are General Grants nominations, approved


by Secretary Stanton They report to General


Grant he reports to the head of the War De-


partment, through whom all instructions be-


yond the usual routine of military authority


must pass. The President may disagree with


his Secretary Of War in this thing, that thing
or the other; but If Mr.. Stanton will
not yield there is no help for it,
because under the new Tenure OF Once
bill he cannot be removed without the consent
Of the Senate. The radicals OF Congress. in
short, have thrown the protection Of the SEN
ate around Mr.. Stanton, in order TO secure
through him, even against the President, il
necessary, thorough enforcement Of the terms
Of Southern reconstruction. In the event of
hitch between the President and the Secretary
we need not be at q loss in guessing the deci-
sion Of Congress. The test Of these reconstruc-
ton Laws will settle one way or the other the
impeachment question.


President johnson, therefore, on trial, has no
alternative Of safety but that Of leaving this
reconstruction business to the management Of
Secretary Stanton, through General Grant and
his 1--WE district commanders We know. too,
from the experience of the unfortunate General
Mcclellan and others that Stanton, when he has
an object in view and sees his way clearly, is
not man Of halfway measures, but an encr-
getic and decisive man, stopping at no impede
ments. He Is accordingly the very man for
Congress in this Southern work, and that he
will so direct II as to be gratefully remembered
in the republican national convention of 1868
we cannot doubt The prize for which he is
to contend Is the Southern political balance Of
power now held by the blacks If he can con-


troll this negro balance Of power 50 ~ to place


the excluded States in the hands Of the repub-
lican party in their reorganization he may dis
pute even with General Grant the honors of


the succession. The ruling Southern white
class, the landholders to whom the laboring
class, the blacks have mainly to look for work


and bread, can, however, II they will only


follow at once the example Of Wade Hampton,


secure their black voters in the organization Of


. new Southern party, comprchending the


political and commercial interests Of the South


in the Union, with the social interests Of both


races blended in the same community. This is


TO be the great contest in Southern reconstruc.


tion, and 50 IL Will more distinctly appear a.


the work goes on.


chy Reform In the observation-disclosures and
Piers.