The Columbia daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1865, 1865-06-03
The Dangers of the Union.


the Union. The only supposable evils
OF that act to the continuance Of the
Union began III the determination of
the Federal Government to meet it by
force of arms. A policy Of co,npro-
. mise and mutual concession had char
ac!erized the workings Of the Cons,i
tu'ional compact up to that moment;
but having been thenceforth spurned
for policy OF con,puson and mutual
slaughter, that change in the modes Of
Federal Government withdrew the
Union from the citadel Of its real
strength-the popular sense Of its
sanc:ity.
Bloody battle has crushed tie States
that asserted, by their secession, rights
independent Of the Union. And
Federal power, as it stands brandlsh-
ing its reek!ng sword over those pros
trate eighties, is flushed with the
pride OF complete triumph. Brawlng
faction sees only the physical fact, and
cries ont, in the blindness OF its pas
sions, for ruin and revenge, now that
It procIaims the Union perpetual!
brainless counsellor! The conqueror
that you worship, with the instinct Of
x sl've raised to authority, with the
venom Of y cur yelpng at Il chained
,ion, has. as he stands over his fallen
ioe. not only front Of brass, butt
mark you, has feet Of clay. The
nights that live by tie swo;d, all MS
tory declares to be, so sure Y rs great
], III! !ca' consequences follow general
laws. destined 10 die by the sword.
The Union remains still exposed to the
fatal consequences of the blunder o:
armed coercion, and can be saved but
by restoring it to the onIy fountain OF
It's healthy life, popular love aud rever-
ence
In the North, the Union has been
associated with a grinding despotism.
Conscrip,ion has stamped j, in many
desolate household with the mark Of
Cain. Arbitrary power has torn it
from the Prnates of private life to be
crushed under the heels of the men
whose hearts and brains it has fired
with hate IN the cells Of Federal dun
geons. Ferocious loyalty has de
graded it to the basest uses of po-
lltcal utenSli; and, as a consequence,
has thrust it upon hundreds Of thou
sands OF ,nen by whom it had been
iield in lifelong love and reverence as
type Of insults and Of iac,ious pas
sions.
At the South, the Union assumed
the attributes of a fiend let loose in
war. A fierce invader, it fell, as Satan
tell from Heaven, from the empvrean
OF popular love into the depth of
flaming hate. Like the DESTROYING
angel, 1t slew the first born in all tha'
land. The women and little ones, and
the aged men Of those regions, it sent
out upon the highways to proclaim it
a curse. The habi,a,ons Of the land
1T destroyed with fire, until the wolves,
hiding IN their blackened ruins, de-
clared the Union, in their midnight
how's, to be crime against humanity.
The corn and The honey, and the grass
Of the field, and the seed and the
plows. the horses and the cattle, and
every living thiug-except the women
and little ones and old men, whom its
mercy had cast out to starve-the
Union utterly destroyed, until millions
Of people by whom it had once been
worshipped throughout the borders of
that country, shrank from it with exc
Grafton as from a thing Of hell.
North and South the Union has
ceased to be holy thing. The sane
.ity by which it had been hcdgcd