The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-08-09
interested Witnesses.

Interested Witnesses.
The Richmond Times has no idea
of admitting the testimony Of inte-
rested witnesses in anything pertain
ing to affairs at the South. It says:
There is q wise aud wen-known
rule of law which excludes the testi-
mony of those who have u direct
pecnniary interest in the issue or
result of pending controversy. The
only relaxation of this rule is where
all the parties litigant are permitted
to testify.
The application of this rule TO that
huge cess-pool of malignant menda-
city, SANDER, Misrepresentation, and
downright, old-fashioned lying, the
Report of the Reconstruction Com
mittee," would render about nine
tanths of the contents as utterly
worthless of eredence as the most
extravagant narratives of Lenauel
Gulliver.
The witnesses who have most dis.
tinguished themselves by their deli
berate calumny of the South are, as
a matter of course, the agents of the
Freedmen's Bureau, and the radical
tools who have not yet been mus
tered out of the military service, and
are stationed in the States of the late
Confederacy. The bread and butter
OF these men depend upon the con-
tinuance of the present state of
things. Their rank, their pay, their
perquisites and their pickings and
stealings all depend upon their per.
suading Congress that the Southern
people are merciless and savage in
their dealings with the freedmen, and
that the safety Of the s'Union men,
depends upon troops being kept
among us. So direct and indisput-
able Is the pecuniary interest OF these
officials IN the issue before Congress,
that, If it was transferred to our
courts, that most corrupt and unscru-
pulous of judicial reprobates-
derwood-would not hesitate to ex-
ciude their testimony.
We suppose it will not be cues
toned that nine-tenths of these in
%erested witnesses are doing better
now than they ever did in their lives
before. They were, before the war,
petty forging attorneys, small shop
keepers, tradesmen and obscure rep
resentatives of q multitude of other
commonplace occupations. But for
the military occupation of the South
and the re-enactment Of the Freed
mems Bureau Act, these butterfly
officials would have long since re-
turned to the grub state from which
they emerged when the war COM
menced. 1t would be strange if these
men were not reluctant to give ND
their rank and pay. It is not proba-
BILE that, in their opinion, the South
ern people will ever become suffi-
GENTLY loyal for the nation to be able
to spare their valuable services
They are now waxing fat in South
ern clover of the most luxuriant
growth, and they do not want it cut
and harvested too soon. Many an
obscure and mousing owl is now at
free quarters in some grand old Con-
tederate eagles nest. Many an OBJ
scure cod-fish-eating New Highlander
Is now a radical satrap lording it in
some proud old Southern city, and
enjoying state and magnifcence
"hich tne hungry and humble ad-
venturer never dreamed of five years
ago, when he was contentedly eating
his fish balls, fried potatoes, pump,
1in pies and molasses, amid the bleak
and sterile hills of New Hampshire or
Connecticut. The South is full Of
these men, and their defamatory tes-
timony is at the service of tie dis
union enemies of peace and the Pre-
sident, whenever it is wanted. But if
such testimony is worthy of belief,
then Is that great common law prin-
ciple, which excludes the evidence of
interested witnesses, unworthy Of
that respect and veneration OF the
courts, In spite of eight centuries of
precedents to sustain its wisdom.
CORN! CORN!