The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-01-12
The PrOsnect.

A letter from q planter on the Pee
Dee, writing from Society Hill, and
speaking of the prospect in that
quarter, says:
'We have here what I suppose to
be the spectacle everywhere through
out the South, idleness, vagrancy and
thieving-uncertainty and great sus-
pense about the future, which miau,
be to us a most terrible apprehension,
bst for a seeming indifference every
where among our people as to what
shall happen. We have touched So
low level in fortune, and see so little
occasion for hope, that the future
seems to hold no terror in store for
us. In spite of the highest authority,
Washington seems to be only theatre
for devising new plans for our subiu-
cation and the utter dissipation equal
ly of pride and character and hope.
Such is the effect upon our people
that the danger is that they will be-
come calous to any event. We look
to the sentiments Of the past, to our
ancient doctrines of State Rights and
State Sovereignty, as we survey the
ruins of our homes, irreparable and
lrretrievable wrecks, to be regarded
only as painful delusions, which but
mock while they contrast our present
condition. Abandoning these is neith-
er hopes, laws nor principles, we have
been able to substitute nothing in
their place, since for all that we lave
sacrificed of pride, property and in
terest, we are denied all the securities
which are still the boast of the North
ern people. Is there any good pros
pect OF securing profitable labor from
the blacks in your section None
whatever ] Or are your people look
ing to foreign countries and new
sources for supply of labor ? I see
that the Legislature has passed Col.
Wagener's bill with this object. The
author of the bill appears to be san
guine-he is certainly enthusiastic on
the subject but apprehend that. if
successful, it is only through time
and much delay that it can be so. At
present we have to deal with deserted
fields, abandoned homesteads and
empty granaries, to say nothing of
licensed vagabondism, petted and
patronlzed, stimulated and goaded
into the excess of yagrancy, under
the abused name Of freedom I can
not but hope that you are somewhat
recovering from the desolation in
tilcted upon you i'll February last ::
though from my own experience and
observation of things and scenes
Immediately around me, I have no
reason to anticipate any hope IN your
case any more than in my own. So
little was left to us, and SO wide was
the desolatlon-so complete the de-
structlon-so monstrous the mass of
ruln-the debris to be cleared away
before anything can be done with the
wreck, that years must pass before
anything can be recovered, or any
thing restored, or anything rebuilt.
approxln lting in any degree the
prosperity to the past. Our unavoid
able acquiescence in the emancipation
OF the slaves entails. upon us a cause
OF barrenness which will probably
exhaust the energies of ali of the
present generation, if it does not en-
tal the same continued curse upon
our prosperity for a century to come.
If the legislation of the Congress-
denies our people to hope, there is no
hope of recuperation until time shall
work out in future convulsion those
revenges which must follow fast and
sure upon the footsteps of usurpa-
ton"
HE OLDEST CRY IN THE WORLD
Damascus is the Oldest city in the
world; Tyre and Sidon have crumbled
on the shore; Baalbec is ruin: Pal
myra lies buried in the sands of the
desert; Nineveh and Babylon have
disappeared from the shores of the
Tigris and Euphrates. Damascus
remains what it was before the DAYS
of Abraham-a centre of trade ana
travel, an island of verdure in a oe-
sert, "a predestinated capital" with
martial and sacred associations cx
tending beyond thirty centuries.
1t was near Damascus that Saul
and Tarsus saw the eight from
heaven, above the brightness Of the
sum-" the street which is called Strait,
In which it is said he prayeth, :" still
runs through the city; the caravan
comes and goes as it did one thousand
years ago; there is still the shiek, the
ass and the water-wheel; the mer-
chants of the Euphrates and the Me-
diterranean still occupy these "with
the multitude of their walters The
city which Mahomet surveyed from
nai oh hnripor ho;rlA .uJ