The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-07-27
COLUMBIA.
Friday Morning, July 81, 1866.
secure Your Representation..

III the SOuCnern people SuOulO
ask us, What shall we do to be poll
tically saved? we would answer-Se-
cure your representation in Congress.
If they should ask. What else shall
we do to be politically saved? we
would answer-Secure your represen-
tation in Congress.
There are sacrifices the Southern
States cannot make even. TO secure
her representation, and tho Neus
makes the exception, when it advises
our people to accept every PROPOSE
ton which does not involve dishonor,
through which can be accomplished
a foothold in the national legislation"
While we ara opposed to the con-
tinued monopoly Of the legislation OF
the country by the radicals, we are
utterly opposed to the adviceof our
respected cotemporary lin the follow
ing sentences.
''Let, them. march in, with flying
colors, by virtue of their rights, if
possible. If not, let them crawl in,
climb in, push in, buy themselves in,
brlbe themselves in. or steal in, get
IN what way they can, so that the
next session of Congress finds them
there. It is not struggle in q fair
field, where truth can hope to con-
quer with the weapons of chivalry."
We think we know the temper of
the Southern people, and if we are
not mistaken, we know their position
In relation to this matter of securing
representation in the Federal Con-
gress. They will never ''crawl in,
climb in, buy themselves in or bride
themselves in, and we are somewhat
surprised that our intelligent cotem-
porary has not better understood
their position. Stricken and impo-
verished as they are, suffering as they
do from the effects Of baneful legis-
lation, yet their political morality, we
think, is. of higher standard than
that indicated by the Ne,cs. Even in
her palmiest days, when she had
ample means, the representatives of
the South would scorn either to
crawl, buy or bribe their way into
political position. But humbled and
humiliated as her people have been,
despoiledand devastated as has been
her rich domain, poor and improve.
rished as her people have become, we
are confident they would never, even
tor place in the Federal Congress,
accept the advice of the Neecs, friend
ly as it has always been to them.
We can only account for this
strange ADVICE from such friend, by
his overweening anxiety to see the
Southern States represented in Con-
gress, and, in this view, he is some
what excusable. Further, he takes
his view from different standpoint
than ours. Politics, in the South,
has never been mere scramble for
place and power, as it ever has been
at the North. In the present juno
ture of public affairs, the Southern
people have acted with proper Dig
nifty IN every step they have taken to
recover their lost rights in the coun-
c'ls of the nation, and we hope they
will never stultify themselves by de-
parting from that line of action.
With the same dignity and exhibi-
ton OF sef-respect as that with which
they acquiesced in the suggestions
and conditions offered by President
johnson, they are, to-day, selecting
their best men to represent them in
nm assemblage they believe to have
been called by honest statesmen for
pure and patriotic purposes; but, be-
yond such line of conduct, the
Southern people never can go, even
when urged to do so by their best
friends in hostile section. And their
refusal to demean themselves in this
or any other juncture of political
affairs is not from any. false pride
the pride of the so often snarled at
"chivalry"-but from the high con-
victions that always control honest
men, whether in politics or the busi-
ness of life. They will come souarely