The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-02-24
Southern Enterprises North.

IN q recent letter, says:
There aretwo delegations of South
ern gentlemen ut present in town
each on an errand of almost religious
duty. One is from Charleston. S. c..
trying to discover the whereabouts Of
some valuable communion plate that
was stolen from one OF the churches
there, while John Browns sonl was
marching on in that region of the
country; the other is from Virginia
making an effort to procure some
assistance for the institution of which
Robert E. Lee is President. Idoubt
whether the former will meet with
much success. The gold and silver
communion plate, doubtless, has been
all melted up ere this, and sold at
current quotations, with the usual
difference for greenbacks. The latter,
however, it is pleasant to hear, is
meeting with more encouragement
notwithstanding sectional hatred and
partisan prejudice, there are many
hberal-minded men here, who know
what real greatness is, and who are
not slow, on all proper occasions, to
recognize its claims upon their con-
slderation. The name of the present
institution alluded to has long ago
won the respect of every man in this
community who is not so given over
to Puritan fanaticism that he can see
nothing good away from Faneuil Hall
or Plymouth Rock. You will not
wonder, therefore, that only this
morning one eminent and wealthy
citizen quietly gave his check for
", 900; another has given 81, 600, and
a third has promised SIS. 900. The
Jacobins will howl at this when thev
see it in print. Let them how'll
will do them good.
Did you see that extraordinary
letter i'll a Norfolk paper the other
day, stating that likes Booth is not
dead, but actually living in the West
Indies? 1t has been widely copied
by the journals here, and though
some of them affect to laugh at it, I
have reason to believe that there are
some persons holding high official
positions who treat it much more Sc.
rlously. cannot say what truth
there is in the report that Secretary
Stanton made an effort to suppress
the publication of the document. as
soon as his attention was called to it,
bnt do know that there are not
few eminent lawyers Republican
lawyers eyen-who are IN q very
uneasy state of mind on the subject
"Why, sir, said one Of these to me,
not half an hour ago, what positive
proof has been given to the world
that that man WILKES Booth is really
dead? None, positively none what
ever Such judicial proof, I mean,
which would satisfy the judgments of
any twelve men of average intellect.
True, Boston Corbett swears he shot
him in the barn, but as the barn was
on fire and full of smoke at the time,
his line of vision must have been ne
cessarily obscured; and as Boston
Corbett had no previous personal ac-
qualntance 18th him, and was, more
over, religious fanatic, how easily it
must have been for him to be mis-
taken In his man! Then. the subse-
quent method of IDENTIFYING the
body, by persons pecuniarily inter
ested IN the business, would never
have been accepted as satisfactory by
the most ignorant of coroner's iuries.
Above all, the mysterious manner
with which the remains were finally
said to have been disposed of, was
but too we'll calculated to raise doubts
and excite suspicious. "Was it not
sir? Was it not?"
Now, don't pretend to be able to
answer these pungent. if not perti-
nent, queries of the Republican
member of the bar. NY duty, as q
faithful chronicler of the savings and
doings of the metropolis, is restricted
to simply placing them on record
and to leave to others their solution.
TO use cant phrase of your modern
Shoddy patriot, ''we are making his
tory" and while the manufacture is
IN progress, we may as we'll have this
mystery about Wilkes Booth cleared
up at once. Ii would look well in
the eyes of posterity, you know, to
have 1T on the books, that while Har-
per's Weehly was giving ghastly pic
torlaI illustrations, showing how the
body of the assassin who murdered
our sainted President was deposited
during the darkness of the night in
the river Potomac; and while old
Bennett was blackguarding his
brother for playing in theatre that
don't advertise in the New York
Herald, the horrid wretch himself had
all the while corporal existence in
the West Indies. The Loyal
Leaguers ought to call a special
meeting at once ana pass resolutions
on the subject.