The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-10-06
What is Reauire,l of Us.

affairs will not be restored, or we will
not allow the restoration of the Union
for which the North fought. But
what guarantees can be offered that
would satisfy them beyond what
already exist? AS the Nashville Jiii0s
says, we must submissively admit
that we are no better than Brownlow
and his sort, and not SO good as
Fred. Douglass and his sort. We
must profess to despise our friends
and love our enemies. We must sub
NIT uncomplainingly to every slander,
and unresistingly to every injury. We
must learn that not to patronize q
New England radical in preference to
Southern rebel, is conclusive evi-
dence that we are not properly dis
posed towards the Government-that
is, towards the radicals-they being
the Government. We must educate
ourselves to regard Robert E. Lee as
traitor, and Benz. T. Butler as a
patriot. We must scatter flowers
upon the graves of those who come
with torch in hand to destroy our
homes, and pass by in silence our
loved ones who nobly died defending
them. These are hard terms-we
might say unnatural-and their per-
formance beyond our power to COM
ply with-yet such are, practically,
the demands made of us before we
can be received back into political
fellowship. Hard as they may seem
to honorable men, there are some to
whom they are not hard. They sit
lightly upon the shoulders of men
who are insensible to shame, and
whose highest ambition is some low,
selfish end. They are not hard to
Brownlow, who so distinguished him
self in his debate with Pryne, and
many others whom we could name.
Human nature is very weak, and men
are often astonished at their own de-
pravity. The majority, however, pre-
fer honor to disAonor. and would
accept subiugation rather than be
false to every noble emotion that dis
tinguishes man from the brute.
The CASE OF Mr.. DAVIS. What
ever may be Mr.. Greeley's political
alterations, he speaks the truth forci-
bly, in the following paragraph:
"There is "a conglomeration of shut
he, sham, shirk and sneak in the
treatment of this prisoner, which is
calculated to nauseate the civilized
world, and for which somebody will
yet be held to q stern responsibility
Every manly instinct demands that
Davis should be promptly tried; if he
is not to be tried, or is only to be
subjected to costly and mischievous
sham trial, with no expectation or de-
sire of convicting him, he should be
liberated at once. And, if he is to be
tried only for treason, then the charge
of assassination should be retracted
as publicly as it was made. And it is
the duty of the Executive, through
his AttorneyG General, to act promptly
and frankly in the premises, so as to
relieve the Government from the i'm
putation of calumniating an enemy
and holding for eighteen months a
prisoner whom it dare not put on
trial. The American people are being
disgraced by the acts of their rulers,
and they must insist on speedy
change
Our ONLY SOURCE OF SAFETY.-We
take pleasure in copying and endors-
ing the following language, which we
find in that well-known Republican
journal, the New York Ecemiug Post:
ss,fie strictest observance of con-
stitutional forms is our only source of
safety. There is nothing which the
people of all parties should so peril
naciously insist on; nothing which all
lovers of liberty should so jealously
demand. If those of one side tole-
rate, for their own purposes, viola
tions of the Constitution and the
laws, they will have to see them vio-
lated in the interests of their oppo-
nents. We shall presently come to
that pass where, as in Mexico, the
party in power will claim the right to
ID x,,bo@ ~ ,>Ioocoo ,.oc-o,J1ooo g ~.