The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-10-05
The Crisis.

ratification meeting iii New York,
wrote an able letter, from which we
make the following extracts. Speak
ing Of the freedmen. he says
In regard TO the freedmen, there is
disposition everywhere to protect
them in their persons and property,
and our laws in South Carolina viii
soon be altered so as % give them the
right TO testify III al! eases, and be
tried as white men are. This has
already been done in many OF the
Southern States. 1t is impossible
for the General Government to con-
tinue for any length of time its guard
ianship of the negro. This must
devolve on the State Governments,
and the people among whom they
live. Moreover, the freedmen Will
soon find that the Southern people
are their best friends. They stand in
need of their labor, and must employ
them. The experience OF the last
twelve months proves unquestionabiy
that the negro has done better, and
there was no military garrison or
Freedmen's Bureau. The only places
where there has been any disturb
ance in South Carolina or the other
| Southern States, have been where
| there was an interference on the part
of the military authorities.
The attempt of the radical party to
force negro suffrage on the Southern
States is the height of folly, injustice
and madness. IN all of the Northern
States, with perhaps one OF two cx-
ceptions, the negro is denied the
right of unqualified suffrage And
gro has been free for great number
of years, and has had an opportunity
of being educated and learning the
duties Of voter With what justice
or propriety can the Northern people
ask the South to give the right OF
suffrage to hundreds Of thousands of
ignorant and stupid negroes who
have just escaped from slavery, when
they deny the same privilege to the
comparatively few of the same race
among themselves, who have been
free all their lives, and who have been
taught the duties OF q citizen?
| he thus refers to the usurpat1Ons
of the radical Congress-:
A long bill of indictment might be
preferred against The ':rump Con
gress' by their constituents when
they come before them this fall for
reelection, and Oh every count Of the
indictment they would be convicted,
before an impartial jury, of want of
patriotism and reckless disregard Of
the interests of the country. They
have perverted, disregarded and
trampled on the Constitution which
they were sworn to support. They
have done everything in their power
to prevent a restoration of the Union.
They have excluded the loyal repre-
sentatives of ten States from Con-
gress, in violation Of the Federal
Constitution. They have passed un-
constitutional laws destructive of the
rights of the States, and tending to
an absorption Of all power in the
Central Government. They have
passed bills over the Presidents veto,
with less than twothirds required by
the Constitution. They have pro
posed amendments to the Federal
Constitution affecting the vital into-
rests of the Southern States, without
letting those States vote on the pro
position, or be heard in their defence.
They have levied taxes on the people
of the Southern States without rep
resentation, and in violation of the
great principle involved in the Ame-
rican Revolution. They have been
guilty of the most wasteful and ex-
travagant expenditures of public
money. They have taxed the poor
white man in all Of the Northern
States to support, feed, and clothe
the lazy, idle, vicious and yagrant
negroes in the Southern States,
making the honest and indus
trious white man work to support
the idle, roguish black man. They
have appropriated and given
away immense domains OF the public
lands to parcel of land-jobbers, who
have no claims on the Government.
They have taken, in violation q law
and justice, the lands of tne proprie-
tors in South Carolina and other
States, and given them to their for
mer slaves, leaving the proprietors
and their families to beg their food.
or perish. And they have doubled
their own salaries, at the close of the
session, pocketed the money, and
l. l.. I -