The Columbia daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1865, 1865-05-19
COLUMBIA.
Friday Morning, May l9, 1866.
Chief Justice Chase.

doubt, on politico judicial mission. lie
viii hardly visit South Carolina as a stu
teut of the picturesque, surveying her
ruins Nor is he an idler of any sort
Whatever significance may be found in the
speech which he recently m ade in Charles
Ton, chiefly, we believe, to gathering Of
the blacks, must lie in nutshell. To de-
scend to such an audience, to the level of
their understandings, must be work OF
embarrassment, and the Chief Justice is,
accordingly, not very rers2'cuous In hts
ideas-or, rather, lie is not wastetul of The
ideas themselves. There are sundry prob
lens, rs well in politics as in law and so-
cietv, which are 4 difficult Of solution; and,
whether as Chief Justice Of the Supreme
Court, sworn to a.julcate in accordance
with the Constitution, or as special mis-,
s;onary on the part of Government, his
position is one not calculated to prompt
any very free or clear exposition of.his
own or the views Of Government on any
subject. He u rather tentatively t!an
demonstratively employed. Addressing q
congregation of negroes, he desires to see
every man, whatever his color, enjoy his
natural rights; so say we. But the natural
rights Of man must depend upon his in
tellectual and moral developments There
are no rights of man which are arbitrary
or unconditional. All are conditioned
under the laws Of God and society. We
need not pursue in detail the generalim-
tions about war and peace, and freedom
and class, with which this speech abounds
The gist of his address to the negroes lies
in the sentence which demands Of the race
what it is capable to do. Well, on this
subject, the Yankees have refused all evi-
dence on the part of the whites of the
South. We shall see the evidence Of time
and experience; but at what terrible cost!
The Chief Justice has his misgivings. lie
says:
They say that you will be disordery,
shttless. lazy; that you will starve rather
than work; that wages cannot tempt you
to work; that YOU will become thievih
vagabonds. So your enemies say; so, too,
II great many people that are not your
enemies seriously fear.
1t is for you to show whether ii shall be
90 or not. Youneed not in the meantime,
Ne particularly anxious what people say
about you. Show that you will be honest,
temperate. Industrious and faithful in Your
employments; that you are ready to do
honest work for honest wages; be econo-
mical; lay up portion of every days or
every months earnings in some savings
bank for yourselves and family for rainy
day. DO everything in Your iiower to
increase the products of the country;
doing this with all your might, you will
save yourselves and reflect credit upon
those who have been your friends.
God forbid that before die l shall be
obliged to hang my head aud say, ex-
pected great deal of this people, be-
lieved them to be honest, industrious and
orderly, and find have been mistaken:
that they allowed miserable prejudices to
grow up amongst them; that they permit
ted themselves to be controlled by vim
dictiveness of feeling; that they Were
unwilling to labor for their living.
lie adds-and here we suspect that his
audience grew incredulous. if not drowsy
-"for. after all, labor must he the car
dinal law Of your lives" and he exhors
them to go to work, be honest, industri-
Gus, sober, diligent, moderate in expecta-
ton, indefatigable in effort, prudent in
aim, and ciroumspect ain performance.
Very good advice, no doubt, and such as
would be very we'll given to nine tenths of
the white populations of the world. The
more substantial meanings of this speech
lie in the following paragraphs, which have
their warnings as well as counsels, and
leave Cuffee somewhat in doubt as to
what is to be done with him, after all, in