New-York daily tribune., 1865-10-02
TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF.

TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF
South Carolina is mourning her archives
emptied and her public pigeOn-holes pillered
by the red hand of war. I" The records OF the
State" We are told, "are gone forever
Titles, deeds, wills, judgments, and DEGREES
have" it is added disappeared" ms Is
melancholy, We admit; but this is precisely
what always happens when any country is maze
the theater of hostilties. A hungry trooper,
anxious to boil bis pot, finds libraries ana
record offices very tempting receptacles OF fuel;
nor can he be expected to anticipate or to care
much for the protracted litigation which his Tree
appropriation Of precious papers may occasion
War is waste Of all descriptions, and those
who needessly and wantonly take the sword
must also take the consequences. However
delightful the dance, the piper always brings IN
his bill at the end OF it, The citizens of South
Carolina have already suffered much for their
folly, and il is probable that many consequent
nconvenicnces await them still. The fact
may be painful, but it is none the less pal
pable.
A mitigation of the evil arising from this pa
per pillage will be found in the fact that the
Rebellion has created in South Carolina large
number of entirely new titles, which are not at
all dependent upon the old conveyances The
Government is the grantor, and nobody will be
able successfully to dispute its right to give,
grant sell and convey Records of the sale OF
slaves are now of no Importance. Wills devils
lug land or slaves have lost much Of their
value Actions upon judgments and DEGREES
are not very common, and when the record Is
shown TO have been destroyed, courts will let
in the next best evidence. At any rate, we
upon the rich harvest which they may possibly
reap from these fortunate confagrations!
We appreciate the modification which a
proud people must experience at the destruc-
, ton OF their records; but as We fully believe
that South Carolina is entering upon new ex'
/ stencc which will be as honorable as her past
/. has been dubious, We feel half inclined to con-
! gratulate her upon the fortune which has de-
!, stroyed so many evidences Of her misdeeds and
mistakes. The old South Carolina, we would
fain believe, with its political institutions based
upon barbarism, with its arstocratic Olgarchy
and its pauperized rabble, with its social ex-
tremcs Of superfuity and Of want, with its
lfanatical adherence to the dogmaS of one great
but ptifully blind and mistaken intellect, with
its passionate and unreasoning arrogance-this
hn coful l
put into thocategory of defunct political bod.
les. If there was good in the old
State-urbanity, generosity, personal honor
we trust to find it retained in the
new-the mbanty which tenderly consid.
ers the poor and unfortunate; the generosity
which wisely feeds the hungry and arrays the
lnaked the honor which shrinks from q mean
and cruel action, and in the ear Of which fine
phrases lend 70 dignity to fundamental and per-
sistent dishonesty. lfSouth Carolina is about
TO enter upon the cultivation Of virtues like
these, she need not mourn over any losses
which will widely divide her from the past, and
distinctly and broadly mark the point from
which she started upon regenerated career.
onc may Dc III tlt AulcllCuu CuIoh Iuc VOL y
opposite of that which she has been-an orna-
ment and not an excrescence-an associate and
not an enemy-beloved and not hated-respect-
cd and not despised If she will not persist
emily remember that which her sister States,
however they may have been injured, are quite
willing to forget; if she will not, by incorigiblc
discomfort, keep alive tho memory ofcvents which
are to her shame and not to her honor, there Is no
State in the Union which will be more valued
or more valuable There has just been a
record made in one Of her public bodies which
is worth more to her than all that the fire or
the soldiery destroyed. II is the record Of that
vote by which the Convention declared that
"neither Slavery nor involuntary servitude,
except as punishment for crime, whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted, shall ever
be rc9Stablished in this State" Should this
clause be duly ratified there will be little need
of writing it upon paper or upon parchment.
Increased production, multiplied wealth, con.
tented and happy population. and tho general
diffusion of intelligence, all will attest its
validity
THE WAR IN SOUTH AMERICA.