Mr. Stearns, an old friend of Mr. Johnson, has been
permitted to publish his conversation with the President upon the subject of negro suffrage. The gist of Mr. Johnson's argument is that lie is not opposed to negro suffrage, but will do nothing to secure it. It would be an interference with State rights. He is, moreover, of opinion that the suffrage should not in any case be universal, lest the hatred between the mean white and the negro should end in a war of races. The slave would vote with the planter, and the mean white, who hates the planter, would vent his hatred on the negro. In other words, the President holds that the negro with represen- tatives in the Legislature will be more defenceless than the negro without them. Consequently representation is an injury, and nobody ought to be represented—a delightful termination to a. Republican argument. It is nearly certain that the negro is abandoned—indeed Kentucky is trying to enslave him again— and quite certain in that case that the struggle between the two sections of the Union must, sooner or later, recommence. Mr. Johnson says if the South go too far he has the army, but how if the South elects the next President ?
