Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1866-10-17
From, the South Carolinian.


If General Sickles intended by his recent
order, remtting civil cases to the civil courts
to create"a sensation," he has certainly sue
ceeded admirably. In fact, life long prac'
tice as civilian, politician and soldier, has
made him an adept in the art OF startling
people, and we have, therefore, enjoyed the
iuxury of astonishment by master hand.
We have been astonished by the exceeding
delicacy with which Gen. Sickles has re-
minded us of a sugar coated despotism; at
the happy ingenuity with which he has en-
shrouded his whip cord in velvet, and lays IT
across the backs of our people; astonisned
at the coolness with which, in the name OF
6 the best government the world ever saw"
he recognizes lust so much civil authority as
pleases the individual, and draws his military
sponge through laws that have been upon our
statute book for Fifty years or more; but, we
are not astonished that while seeking to regu;,
late the laws and morals, the civilization and
proeress of the age, he has taken such good
care in his generous administration OF Stan
tonian Justice, to do that which will,secure
for him the praise of every red Republican IN
the land. With mathematical nicely ne ap-
ncars to have measured out the bitter potions
We are to swallow and we doubt not, that IN
the intensity of his desire for speedy re-
construction, as indicated by his attachment
to the Philadelphia Convention, the Com
mander of QUE Department, is at this hou'
watching the wry faces that mark the opera
tion OF his remedies, and our progress TOWARDS
health. -o:..,,
Corporal punishment shall not be inflicted
upon any person other than minor, ant
then only by the parent, guardian, teacher, o
ore to whom said minor is lawfully bound b
indenture of apprenticeship Nor shall an.
-aop be sold to service as punishment 10
ro- other cause, by any authorit
crime, Or ~. -aspectively in thi
whatever. uagrancy
The laws of the States, i.
Department defining and punlshing
applicable to white persons, may be enforce.
against all persons; nevertheless, no one who
shall have used rea3nable diligence to obtain
employment, or who shall be unable to work
by reason Of infrmity, shall be deemed q
vagrant.
In examining these remarkable orders, over
which the entire Yankee press will crow, as
an evidence Of Yankee henevolence towards
rebels, who deserve to be drawn and quarter
ed, the inquiry naturally arises, by what au-
ihority, except that Of main strength, does
any power outside of our State assume to
alter our laws? The public faith has been
pledged to the South, that, having acceded
to cert1in conditions, its territory should not
be held as conquered territory, and its States
should not bo regarded as having lost their
place in the Union, or their rights under the
Constitution. The South having more than
fulfilled its obligations, by what authority
does General Sicklcs, or any other command.
er, ignore these pledges of Presidents Lin
coin and johnson, and at will annul the Leg
la,ivc enactments of South Carolina? Nay,
more, what peculiar influences are at work in
his mind which induce him to permit our
sister States of Georgia and North Carolina
to send felous to the whipping post, as has
been repeatedly done since the war, and to
make an exception OF South Carolina ? Fol-
lowing out his precedent, and his prejudices,
he may hedge US all around, with restrictions.
He may annal the law which excludes negro
from suffrage, abolish capital punishment, and
blockade the Legislature. He may confscate
our property, seize our wives and children, in
word, suit any whim of autocratic majesty.
We have put the negro on par with the
white man before the law, and hoped that he
would be punished like white man. We
have set an example to the South in adopting
tho civil rights bill aud amending our statutes
in accordance Herewith; but the prerogative
of hanging, shooting, bucking and gagging,
1maiming. tying up by the thumbs, aud other
wise abusing the colored man, appears to
have been wholly absorbed by the Freedmen's
Bureau and military authorties-these pre-.
cious "angels in disguise" We have done
all that was required of us in rendering obe-
dicnce, and accommodating ourselves to the
new condition, and what is tie result? Every
progressive effort has been met either by a
sort of kid glove sentmentality or an iron
handed brutality. While We are striving to
get into the Union, half the country ore try
Ing to keep US out. We have taken shelter
under the Stars and Stripes with the self-same
Constitution, whose principles for four long
years we defended at the point Of the bayo-
net and q sectional majority are doing their
best to override, both Constitution and flag,
and keep us in territorial condition, with
bayouet at every back to prick us into that
development of patriotism which shall even-
tually mako US shout Tiue la liberte, Vius
la Roi."
A MorHgR AND TWO DAUGHTERS IN Ala