The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-10-24
COLUMBIA.
Wednesday Morning, Oct. "a, 1866.
INSTRUMENTATION.

the tergiversations Of the editor OF
the New York Times At one time
the professed leader of the conserva-
tive party of the North and the
mouth-piece OF the Philadelphla
Convention-this after his radical
votes in Congress now returns TO
his original herd, and with the
Herald and Bcecher, finds his most
genial associates III such characters
as Butler, Sumner, Phillips q Go.
But this is not the worst feature III
this political weather-cocll OF an
editor He blows hot and cold almost
in the same breath, eide an item from
the New York World in another
column. But this is not all, he tra-
duces and misrepresents the best
citizens of the South. We take tie
subjoined from the Times, Of Satun,-
day. After stating that an effort will
be made to array the Southern peo-
pie against the amendment, with
whom he we'll knows no such effort is
required, he goes on to say:
eve shall regret it most profound
ly, if these efforts should prove sue
cessful. Nothing, in our Judgment.
could be more disastrous to the whole
country, and especially to the South
crn States, than such result. They
are sacrificing their substantial inter
ests to false idea of their own dig
nifty and honor. They are repeating
the very mistake which dragged them
into the rebellion and overwhelmed
them with ruin. Wade Hampton is
the very last man whose advice they
can afford to follow, for he is type
OF the very class whose advice be-
trayed them to their ruin. The
Southern people were made to be-
lieve, by him and others like him.
that their honor was at stake, that
they were insultcd by the National
Government, and that self-respect
forbade their submission They had
no injury to complain of; they, could
point to no tangible and positive
wrong they had suffered; but their
honor would not permit them to sub
NIT longer to the control of the Ma
tional Government. And under this
false and fatal advice they plunged
into rebellion, with the results they
have now SO much reason to de-
plore''
The whole paragraph is one of mis-
representation. Is it 80 false idea of
dignity and honor" to refuse, at the
bidding of the crazy and malignant
lnveterates-Thad. Stevens and his
motley crew of followers cap the
climax of self-degradation by disfran-
chising nine-tenths Of the best men
of South Carolina? And it must be
remembered that, notwithstanding
the apparently saving clanse?that this
disability may be removed by two
thirds vote in Congress, if adopted,
the amendment becomes part and
parcel of the Constitution.
The editor of the Times knows, if
he knows anything at all about the
matter, that it was not the advice of
Wade Hampton and others like him,
that caused South Carolina to take
the first step in the secession move
ment. Gen. Hampton, if we are not
mistaken, was attached to the Union;
but his native State having taken her
position, with that ligh-toned deyo-
ton, honor and fidelity which have
ever been his prominent characteris-
ties, he was among the first of her de-
tenders, and the defenders of the cause
OF the South AS to the Southern peo-
pie having no injuries to complain
OF, &c., it is mere political clap-trap,
dug up, after all is past and gone, for
party purposes, as the astute politi-
clan who uses it knows very well.
In another issue of the Times, the
editor says that the extremists cannot
claim victory in the recent election
IN Pennsylvania, OF. the approach
ing election in New York; yet it says:
"We submit, therefore, that the
South should discard mere threats,
and address itself to the realities Of
the hour. And of these realities, the
amendment is the principal, not less
because 1t expresses the conditions
11nOn which n looo 4I,o