The Columbia daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1865, 1865-06-23

fOunGS these lnf1ateG gas OagS OF nOnStrOus
mortality in either section With the great
body of race or psople7 With few excep-
tions. at sll events, the Southern planters
~ere retiring and uhobtrusive race. and
gave much more offence in certain quarters
and among certain people, (whom it
might be scamdalum paagnatun, to name in
this Connection by their reserve and dis
tance, than by the obtrusiveness of their
claims or manners. The Tribune sin the
course of this notice. refers to the unlucky
epithet of "muds;lls," applied by the late
Senator Hammond to the working classes
of the country. Upon this epithet, the
radical press rang the changes perpetually.
thus appealing to the offended vanity Of
the class in misunderstanding selfesteem
into passion. and making its due amount
Of political capital cut of the ferment thus
occasioneds Now, the real truth is that
substantial compliment was designed by
the speaker, and not sueer. 1t was by
an inadvertence that the word in question
was employed at all. Senator Hammond
was. himself while his health continued
hard working man, perpetvalIy active of
mind, and almost correspondingly active
of body, though the former was strong
and the. latter feeble. No man respected
honest, manly labor, or working aud intel
ligent industry. more than he did; and, in
regard to this phrase, We have his own
explanation, given in private. He had no
answer for the public attacks made upon
him. We asked him, one day, how he
came to commit himself by the unfortr-
nate word "muds1Ils," when he svr.ly
meant nothing of sarcasm. He an
swered thus, and to those who knew nira,
the manner of the man would give due
force to the matter of his reply: "The fact
is,' said he, "the phrase is, as you style
it, an inadvertence. and an unlucky one.
The true word which meant to use was
'gro"ndsiNs." and was certainly not de.
signed with any offensive object They
arc the very foundations of .he fabric, aud
society builds upon them. But it so ha,-
pened that. while wrote tn, speech, l
was greatly harrassed by the labor Of re-
building my mills at the plantation. The
foundations being laid in quick sands, the
stills were washed up as fast as 1 laid them
down. 1t was subject of constant worry
with me for some weeks how to repair and
remedy the deficiency. My mind ran
upon nsa1dsiHs until cursed the mills and
n5udslis together; and it was while in this
humor. andtwith the mudsilis and their
difficulties, as we'll as their Importance,
perpetually troubling my thoughts that
prepared the speech VOLTA foutr' We
need not say how muci, use was made of
tins unfortunate expression by the radical
press OF the North, in acting upon that
morbid and ever restless vanity VIII ich
mobbed the foreign singer for the opinion
ihat we knew nothing of music, and drove
Edmund Kean from the stage for no greater
offence. we believe, than saying that our
taste for the .drama and other arts was
merely periodical. There is another
phrase ascribed to the South by the press
of the North, which no white man ever
heard uttered by Southern mouth. The
laoorlng classes of the North have, for ten
Je0rs' oeeh told Cnat the common phrase
at the South, which describes tho ls-
borer' was the poor white trash" Our
negroes may have used such a phrase,
once III a way-"poor buckrah" is, how
ever, their usual phrase-but the whites
never employed either: We never heard
1t in all our lives.a and we have had oppor
tunity enough, for fifty years, in all por-
tlons of the South. These things consti.
tuted. for many years. the capital of that
press, which has stimulated the vanities
OF its people at the expense of their moral,
and which continues unscrupulously to
sacrifice the truth to any lie which brings
money in it's train. Our chivalry. such as
1t Is, must take care of ITSELF Mr.. Tavesu
need urge no appeal on its behalf. At all
events, let him not confound the idea that
true chivalry suffers from any itch Of