The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-03-25
South ern Convention Proposed.


Southern Convention Proposed.
We extract the following paragraph
from the New York Herald, paper
always fertile in suggestions:
''Let all the Senators and Repre-
sentatives elected to Congress from
the lately rebellious States meet
together in Washington, or some
other convenient place, in the form
of q convention, for the considera-
ton of their present position and the
course best adapted to secure the
recognition of the claims of their
several States to an early re-admission
into Congress. In such conven-
ton the discussion of what the States
interested have done, what they are
doing and what they expect to do, as
loyal members of the Union, jander
the new order of things, would con-
tribute, no doubt, vast amount of
useful information to Congress and
the people of the Northern States.
Finally, i'll the shaping of a memo
rial to Congress, submitting their
claims and asking what additional
safeguards and securities for the
Union and the freedmen will be
deemed sufficient to reopen the
doors of Congress to the South, the
convention may bring the Recon
struction Committee ut least to q
clear understandings
The correspondent of the Rich
mond Dispatch, writing from Wash
ington, says that this suggestion is
regarded, in that city, as very plausi-
BILE, and thatsalthough the matter has
not taken any definite form, yet
there are many who believe such O
meeting would be invested with ex-
cellent results, and says further, that
it is not thought uncertain that such
meeting will take place before long.
We are not of opinion that such a
meeting or convention would result
in any benefit: The Herald suggests
a memorial to Congress, and thinks
some such proceeding has become
necessary to secure the people of the
Southern States fair and full oppor-
tunity ''to lay their claims before
Congress and the country, and to
secure, if possible, a statement of the
conditions essential to re-admission
of the late rebel States into the
councils of the nation" It further
says that it knows of no other move
ment better calculated to effect a
speedy understanding between Con-
gress and the South.
We do not believe that such meet
ing is at all necessary. We do not
wish to see the Southern States stul-
tify themselves by (figuratively speak
ing) going down on their knees to
''Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania,
Charles Sumner, Wendell Philips,
and Others of the same stripe" and
begging admission to such body as
now controls the legislation of the
country. We have had humiliation
enough; let us not put the finishing
stroke to it by becoming abject sup
plants to the horde of radicals who
now WELD the power in Congress.
Besides, has not the President said
all that can be said in defence of the
| rights of the Southern States to be re-
presented in Congress ? Has he not
used every argument, and, in fact,
exhausted the argument, that could
be offered to induce the radical ma
jority to yield to our just claims
Has not the Supreme Court of the
United States, as will be seen by a
paragraph from the National IteNi-
gence', affirmed that the Southern
States are in the Union ? Could any
convention of the Southern Senators
and Representatives lay anything be-
fore Congress and the country more
sotent and cogent in argument than
the speech of the President and the
Supreme Court We think not; and
for the sake of the dignity and self
respect of the Southern States, we
hope that the suggestion of the
Herald will not be acted on. Let us
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