The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1865-12-02
COLUMBIA.
Saturday Morning, Dec. 2, 1865.


Legislature, very properly remarked, that
the reason for the passage of the test oath
has passed away, and that eff not repeal
cd, no one in South Carolina can fill q
Federal Office till new generation has
sprung up, for all now living-men, women
and children-did in some way, counte-
nance the war." The truth is, We do not
believe the test oath was intended for the
people of the States in rcbe';on at the
time it wac passed; and We agree with q
contemporary, that, at that time, the South
ern States were outside Of its Jurisdiction
and that it was intended simply to guard
against the possible intrusion into Govern
ment employment, of persons who might
secretly sympathizc with the States then
IN hostility. The restoration Of these
States to TIE Union, and the return Of
peace. remove the only conditions on
which the test oath was even hypothetical
or justi6ablc
The test oath is, moreover, working in
conceivable damage and inconvenience to
the public interests. How many post
masters or mail contractors, in the South
crn States, can conscientiously, before their
God, take an oath that they mover volun-
tarily rendered aid, assistance or obedi.
ence to the late Confederate Government?
Not one in a thousand. 1t has been we'll
said, that the fact that there are so few
persons in the South who can take the
oath, and so many who refuse to take it,
not only shows the feeling that existed
during the war, but exhibits sincerity
and conscientiousncss, which are highly
crcditable to the Southern people. So far
from making them justly liable to the
charge OF chronic treason and permanent
<iisloyalty, SO persistcntly urged against
them by the Radicals at the North it
should be considered, on the contrary, n
proof of their honesty and entire trust
worthiness.
A correspondent of the New York Times,
who has been recently travelling in the
South, in speaking of the defective postal
arrangements in the Southern States, saws
very truly, 'tthat the postal system is yet
very far from being in an effective condi-
xlon. Contracts have been given out and
postmastcrs have been appointed; but
still the mail bags accumulate at the ter
uninal Offices, or drag their weary way along
disjointed routes. This is accounted for
by the fact, that very many, in fact a large
majority, Of the postmasters and contrac-
tors appointed in the South since the war
are unable to take the test OATH
The New Orleans Delta, in its comments
ON this cores oondcnt's statements, has
the following paragraph:
.There is no truth more firmly estab-
Gshed, or more universally admitted by
historians and philosophers, than that a
mans moral character, his trustworthi-
ness, or his crcdibility, is not i'm the slight
est degree influenced by his political
opinions. 1t on this great truth that Ma
caulay and Buckle, one the greatest poll
tican, and the other the greatest philoso-
phcr that England has p:oduced during
This century, base their unanswerable ar,
guments against political test oaths
Besides being in all respects useless, they
src actually immoral in their effects on the
individual and on society And test oath
which goes so far as to require a whole
people to ignore the facts OF their history
and deny their own acts, is infinitely tho
worst form which such an error can as
sumo. OF course these remarks do not
apply to what is called the amnesty oath -
although this may likewise be con sidercd
superfluous and uscless-but to that form
of oath which Congressional legislation
has demanded as a condition precedent to
the exercise of any public functions under
the United States, and even to the practice
of the legal profession in the United States
Courts"
The "test oath" cannot suppress an
historical fact; it cannot blot out from the
page of history, that the Southern people
we're engaged IN armed hostility against
the Govern ncnt OF the United States at
the time it was enacted. 1t cannot ignore
the fact, that almost every citizen in the
States, thon in rebellion against that Go
verrlment, did in some way, or at some
time or other, render aid and comfort to