The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-11-26

made to the Government might have been
enough for that, but it was not enough for them
They had objects of their own,-matters %
arrange which brooked no intermediary. The
Government, upon the subjugation of the South,
was discharged of its Office, and they were con-
pctent to net upon the PROSTATE victim, and they
arc too well possessed of the subject to be
oustcd by such weak inventions as are now
proposed; nor is there the rcmotcst hope they
will not start back nbashcd from further inter
estlng exhibitions we may make ut the instnncc
OF the Government or the Democratic party
We have every reason to believe that the
Radical party is the real power II may not
De. The President and the spirit Of the Union
at tho North may rossscrt themselvc vcs-may
drive this party back, and stand before us in
the attitude TO speak the rcquistions Of the
North upon tho work of restoration. This
may be 30, but it is not 80 now. That party is
the power before us now. To that we must
speak, and speak as distinct and discovered
section of tho country, and accept secession,
with its responsibilities, as an accomplished
fact We have sought TO dodge the issue. In
coilusfon with the Government, VIC have sought
to show The faot was not accomplished We
have sought 10 obliteratc the traces of our
ACTS. In eager haste we have abolished, lot
only the political but the social traces Of
separate existence; but there is IN inexorable
logic in events. The fact was so; We were a
distinct people; Of necessity the incidents snd
responsibilities resulted. Wo could net or
suffer only as n distinct people. We could
treat only as distinct people accept terms
only as such, and como to such relations only
with the other section of the country as should
be in recognition and alirnance of that para
mount and irrevocable fact
There can be no restoration to the Union
That dclusiye hope had better be abandoned
There is, in faet, no Union to which to be res
tored. The Union have known was
confederacy of co-cqual States, and co-equal
States exist no longer. There is no Union
by virtue merely of the Constitution. Con-
stitutions are but expressions of the po-
litical relations actually existing among q
people. While such relations, in fact, cx-
listed between the States of the late Con-
fedcracy, they were expressed by the Con-
stitution; but they exist no longer, and the
Constitution is as nero piece of paper Us is
the programme of n yesterdays performance
The only Union now possible is in the establish
mont Of political relations between discovered
sections; the only Constitution possible, the in
strument by which these relations are express
ed. That such relations will ever be admitted
is unccrtnin. That anything short of provincial
subjugation will content the ruling section, il
not, certainly, to be assumed; but tho one condi-
tion or the other is necessity. Already they
proceed to mould the Constitution 10 their pur-
poses. 1t affords, in fa It, the blind under which
they may advance They may shape that
to give them agencies for colonial dominion
which they could not yet, perhaps, assume with
out it; and its forms and figments present the
opportunities for an indirect advance to despot-
ism which they might not yet have the hardi-
hood to make upon an open and uncovered
plain.
Under the circumstances, therefore, we think
1t were better TO undergo no more contortions to
popular approval ut the North; to sacrifice no
farther to the Democratic party; to make no
iurhucT chOrI 10 enLcr u union tnat Q0cS not cX-
ist; to struggle no further for Constitution
which, discharged Of it's office, can be used only
by our antagonists, and only to our damage; to
accept the fact that we are distinct people, if
with that VIC arc compelled to recognize that we
are charged with trusts we have not been able to
defend; that the government is yet to be form
ed under which we must live, if, in the nature of
the case, it be possible to form a government in
which VIC are to have recognized political rights;
that at present the Radical party of the North
would seem to be the party to decide upon that
question; that until it shall be announced what
power it is that shall receive concessions, we
we shall have no concessions more to make !;
and, finally, to realize the fact that activity is
| impotcnt in the prosecution of Illusions and
that, hard as many of its conditions may be, it
were better to preserve passive attitude and
wait events with the fortitude of men, Con-
ecious of having shrank from no sacrifices ne
ccssary to the acceptance of an adversary for,
tune we are the better able to meet the fate
TINT may yet await us.
| nrasIu1Ezzuu1nEzzz-zrz1a
| GOVERNOR PERRY ON THE CONSTvTU.
TIONAL AMENDMENT
! Hon. B. T. PERRY, late Provisional Governor
of this State, has addressed o letter to the New
York Herald, defending himsclf from charge
made by that paper, that he was one of the Sc
cession leaders and real enemies of the South,
4 Il