The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-03-10
Judge Aldrieh's Charge to tho Grand
.Turv.

GENTLEMEN OF THE GRAND JURY:
have lately been in the performance
of my official duties in the city of
Charleston. When I looked over the
old town, and realized the ravages
that fire and war had made in the
last five years, I could not but feel
and express profound sorrow. When
I come here and see how much you
have suffered, I have no words with
which to frame my sympathy. The
day before the army of Gen. Sherman
entered, was in Columbia, and left
on the morning of its capitulation.
That night L witnessed its burning
from Winnsboro, but I had no
conception of the great devasta-
tion until my return a few days
after. When I left, this was the
most beautiful city in the South.
When returned, it was charred and
ruined. When I left, it's trees were
green; its hospitable mansions, the
seat of cultivated taste and high
social refinement, were opened; its
gardens were trimmed and inviting;
all was beautiful When I returned,
two-thirds of your lovely city was in
ashes, its temples to the living God
were burned, its school-houses and
seminaries had been given to the de-
vouring flames; even the convent, the
home of helpless nuns, who could not
bear arms, and who devoted them
selves to the training of the female
mind, even this home of the religious,
had not been spared; and your
people, who had lived in af1uenoe,
were drawing scanty subsistence
from the public stores. AS I entered
the town and witnessed all this, my
heart sunk within me, and I have no
words to express my sense of the de-
ISOLATION which surrounded me. The
predominant idea in my mind was,
can this be war? Can it be that, in
the nineteenth century, q Christian
foe will give to the flames city, turn
out in the cold its inhabitants of old
men, women and children, burn
their homesteads and leave them to
starve, when not a gun was fired to
prevent their entrance? Truth is
sometimes stranger than fiction, and
Columbia is melancholy instance.
1t is not for me, but for the historian,
to chronicle the events of that sor-
rowful day and night. Truthful his
tory will record the particulars of the
surrender, and the very words of the
conversation which were used be-
tween the mayor and the commar 4
ing officer to whom the city
capitulated
But | do not refer to this thing /
the spirit of complaint or unmanly
despondency; we staked all upon the
issue, we lost all; let us manfully
accept the condition, and bravely and
truthfully work out our deiverance.
Let us endure with dignity; we have
yet left our manhood and our honor,
this IS enough to stimulate any people,
and with this we can retrieve our for
tunes, II we are let alone. If we are
allowed to manage our own affairs,
with view to the comfort and hap
plness of our own people, white and
black, there is prosperity yet in store
for us, there is recuperation from
this widespread calamity. I say to
you, as I said to the grand jury in
Charleston, rebuild your city, and, in
so doing, have an eye to beauty,
taste, comfort, health, and all the
appliances of the most advanced
civilization. If you cannot rebuild
on correct principles, wait; or if you
must have a place in which to live
and do business, build the first story
permanently, with a view to future
Improvement as your fortunes may
advance, and if your hopes be not
realized, the value of your property
will be enhanced. Let Columbia
arise from its ashes more beautiful
and inviting than it was before its
fall.
You have the element of great
wealth and prosperity here; water
power that can work up all hecotton
that may be grown in the State, a
genial and healthful climate, with
fertile lands surrounding. I trnst
some man or men Of large views, and
of large sympathy, will devote their
capital, their talents, and their en-
terprlse to this great purpose. I
hope, when next it is my turn
to hold your court, to inhale the
smoke of the factory chimney; to
hear the busy whirl of machinery:
to see the cheerful and the healthful
laborer; to walk along the row of the
neat and tasteful cottages of the work
ing men; to rejoice in the merry
laugh of childhood, and to believe,
and feel, and know, that Columbia is
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