The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-02-20
If the radicals are to have full swav

IF the radicals are to have full sway
IL Congress for The next four years,
the Constitution will have become
Like Dean Swift's stocking, $50 darn
ed that none of the original yarn will
be left" But it is not alone In
amendments that the destructives are
seeking the overthrow of this once
venerated instrument. They are
rushing through Congress, with in
| decent haste, Legislative measures,
which, If they become laws, Indirectly
will have the effect to make the Con
| stitution itself a dead letter. Chief
among these measures is the Freed
mems Bureau bill, that was passed
through tho Senate last week with
such hot haste, and in defiance of the
| solemn agreement made, that the bill
should come up the next morning for
reconsideration, sent down to the
other House for its action. Aside
from the enormous expense that this
bill contemplates, in supporting
millions of worthless, lazy negroes, It
was a cruel wrong to the States not
represented in Congress, and within
whose limits it is to operate. The
motive Is now clear to the mind of
any rejecting man, why the radicals
have been so persistent in shutting
out the Representatives of the late re-
belllous States from the floor of Con-
gress-lt was to afford an opportunity
to mature this and kindred schemes
OF wrong and outrage, and incorpo-
rate them into legislative acts. This
Freedmen's Bureau bill, in all it's de-
tails, Is worthy of its author. It in
vests an institution unknown to the
Constitution with high judicial pow
authorizing the President to
assign army officers to the exercise of
those judicial powers. 1t breaks
down the middle wall of partition
between the powers of the General
Government, and blends and concen-
traIes in the same hands executive
and Judicial powers, besides depriving
the citizen Of his right of trial by
Jury. 1t was most properly charac-
ter1zed hy Senator Davis, of Ken
tucky, when he moved to amend the
title by substituting the following:
"A bill to appropriate portion of
the public lands in some of the
Southern States, and to authorize
the United States Government to
purchase lands to supply farms: and
build houses upon them, for the freed
negroes; to promote strife and con-
t11ct between the white and black
races, and to invest the Freedmen's
Bureau with unconstitutional powers
to aid and assist the blacks, and to
introduce military power to prevent
the commissioners and other officers
OF SAID bureau from being restrained
or held responsible in civil courts for
these illegal acts in rendering such
aid and assistance to the blacks, and
for other purposes :"
There must come a time when the
healthy reaction in the popular mind
must hurt these disorganizers and
dlsunlonlsts from power; and per-
haps just such bills as this and the
negro suffrage bill, will hasten it's
coming. When that time arrives, it
will become the duty of the repre-
sentatives of the people and the
States, in a united republic, to ex-
punge from the statute book these
acts of radical legislation. Let the
young men of this generation, there
fore, look at and study thenl closely,
that they may be all the better fitted
to perform this wholesome work of
reform understandingly and well.
Usurping legislation, commercial
robberies, the monopolies of wealth,
the Corinthian manners, engendered
by our late civil strife, will yet all
work out Heavens just retribution;
and when it comes, the oppressed
people of this country will look up
and see the handwriting of the
fingers on the walls of tyranny, and
hear the footsteps of the avenger.
Neto York Me,cs.
At reception in Washington,