The Nation 1867-11-14: Vol 5 Iss 124

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‘The Natio WoL. v.—No. 124. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1867. Fives Dotiars PER ANNUM. Twsrivs Cante rer Corr. CONTENTS. TBE WEBER 2... 2. cece cece cee ceeeee 885 | EptrorraL ARTICLES: The National Bank Carrency ....... 34 Norszs: as The Political Proepect in 1868 ...... 395 ee sr God's Will in Politics.............. 396 Eaducational...............cs.ceeeeee 389 “The Gentleman of the Old School” 397 Fee Paertiee Angat............+.+.- i ene Te 398 Upham on Witchcraft................. 391 Some Primitive Quakers ............. 392 | CORRESPONDENCE: A Treatise on the American Law of The ‘Veteran Observer” and the Earements and Servitudes.......... 393 Ohio Blection...........cseeceeess 399 Five Dollars annum. in advance ; Six months, Three Dollars; Forty Dollars to Cluds of Ten; C men, Four Dollars. Tur Nation #6 sent till positively ordered discontinued, and all arrears hane been paid. Subscribers are particularly requested to note the expiration of their subacriptione, and to forward what is due for the ensuing year, with or without further reminder from Groner Street, 30 Cornutt, Lonpon, E. C.. AGENT FOR THE RECEIPT OF SUBSCRIPTIONS AND ADVERTISEMENTS. PUBLISHERS, 130 NASSAU STREET, N. Y. The Week. Mr. Jounson has not opened his lips, as far as the public is con- cerned, since the election—a remarkable instance of reticence; and what is more significant is, that “Our Washington Correspondent” has transferred his attentions from the President to General Grant. The finest stories even of the indefatigable emissary of the Boston Post are now told about the latter, and we think the public will be able to ‘derive a good deal of amusement during the winter from the newspaper operations of which Grant will be the “ objective.” We dre already treated to full, true, and particular accounts of important conversations with him by one correspondent, which another the next day pro- nounces “ base fabrications.” As might have been expected, Colonel Forney is early on the scene, and is defending Grant against all comers ‘in his two newspapers. Thus far no impression seems to have been made on Grant's reserve. The complaints that nobody knows “ where he stands” seem to grow louder. The Philadelphia Morning Post ac- ‘cordingly solemnly warns the Radicals to keep clear of bim, and appeals to their pride “ to meet his silence with silence more profound ;” “to go their way, and, if General Grant believes as they believe, to let ‘him come to them.” There is such a thing as being too proud, how- ever, and we would strongly recommend the Radicals not to stand too ‘much on their dignity with Grant or anybody else just at present. It is safe to say that nothing has thus far been elicited from him of much ‘value to politicians, and the court that is being paid him, and the gen- eral interest evinced in his opinions, are remarkable only as showing the general concurrence in the belief that the result of the late elections se- ‘cures him the Republican nomination if he will have it. We venture 4o predict that henceforward Mr. Johnson will receive but a small share of public aitention. &. L. GODKIN & CO., The opinion which many people have all along entertained, that the Republican party owed most of its successes to Democratic follies and excesses, seems likely to receive fresh support within the coming ix months. There is very little doubt that bad the South not taken to passing outrageous “ black codes,” subjecting the negroes to asystem -of repression little short of slavery, immediately after the war, it would dhave got back into the Union under a very mild constitutional amend- ment. This brought on the break-up of Mr. Johnson's “ policy,” and per- sistence in the display of hostility to the blacks finally wen the North over to negro suffrage. The wild behavior of the Republican chiefs has now ied to a slight reaction, by which the South and the Demo- crate, by lying very quiet and even affecting moderation, might possibly profit. But, strange as it may seem, so far from having learnt anything by experience, they seem determined once more to wear out Northern patience, and rouse the public, wearied as it is of the whole business of reconstruction, into a revival of anti-Southern zeal. The World is already showing, with great elaboration, that it will be quite easy for the Forty-first Congress, should it have a Democratic majority, to allow the whites to overturn the State governments which the present Congress may set up, disfranchise the negroes, and send new representa- tives and senators under the old constitutions ; for, it says, if one Congress may decide that no government is republican in which persons are prevented from voting on account of their color, another Congress may decide that no government is republican which has been forced on the people by military force. When one reads disquisitions of this sort, one sees how very able men may sometimes be too “cute” for their own good. Practically, it makes no difference to Southerners what the origin of their government is—whether it was drawn up by a negro convention or revealed to Thaddeus Stevens in a dream, The important question for them is whether, under the Constitution now likely to be adopted and recognized by Congress, the whites will have a fair chance, within a reasonable period, of reassuming the influence in the local government to which their numbers, their wealth, and their mental and moral status entitle them. No reasonable man can deny that they will have this chance—that if the whites behave wisely the negro majorities cannot be maintained in any State, and that, the negro majorities gone, of course negro ascendency is gone also, We spoke a fortnight ago of the inaccuracy of calling the Demo- cratic party a Conservative party in any good sense of the word, and endeavored to show that there are in this country, and in the present mental condition of the people, no materials for a Conservative party, properly so called, and maintained that the two great parties wouid con- sist hereafter of the corrupt and ignorant and vicious on one side, and of the evlightened or at least intelligent and moral on the other. One or two striking illustrations of this are just occurring. The Irish in San Francisco are waging a furious crusade against the poor Chinese, whom they rob and maltreat and murder almost with impunity, and are endeavoring to drive out of the country. They have hitherto been restrained in some degree by the city police, but they now demand, as the price of their assistance in achieving the late Democratic victory, that the police organization be remodelled and placca under influences favorable to their peculiar views of civil and political rights. In like manner, one of the first exploits of the Democratic majority in the new Legislature at Albany wiil doubtless be the repeal of the excise law, and this not for the benefit of the sober, orderly, beer-drinking Ger- mans, but for that of the whiskey-drinking, stabbing, and shooting Irish, who, man for man, exercise probably twice as much political influence as the Germans. The first of the new reconstruction conventions has met in Ala- bama, where, if anywhere, the negro is the State, It tabled a propo- sition to abolish the present State government—which dates from Mr. Johnson's reconstruction days—and fill all offices with men who could take the “iren-clad” oath. This was, as we uuderstand it, a mere matter of machinery, and was not due to faint-heartedacss on the part