The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-10-17
The New Civil War.

Afsc new CIVIL Wan.
We have, several times within the
last two months, felt it our duty to
warn our countrymen that we stand
on the declivity towards another civil
war. The proofs that onr fears were
not chimerical or premature, thicken
every day. Violent language and
fierce recrlminations have been fol-
lowed, as was natural, by political
riots in several cities. The public
mind has been kiudled to such an in
tiammatory pitch, that men have
grown reckless and defiant. The
present state of the public mind
forebodcs infinite mischief. The
following extracts, all taken from the
New York Republican journals, of
Thursday last, show that we are not
singular III supposing that the coun-
try IS In imminent danger. These
extracts are, of course, tinged with
party feeling. They are quoted by
us merely as evidence that intelli-
gent observers of all parties consider
the present state of public feeling as
critical al.d portentous:
"The great mass of our population,
excited almost to the same degree as
when the rebel guns bombarded Fort
Sumter, will listen to no project of
reconstruction short of the accept
ance of the amendments to the Con-
stitution. ''-E'rening Posi-
Il warn those who are now seek
ing what they term q conservative
restoration of the Union, that a re-
public cannot be pinned together by
bayonets-that it must rest on and
be upheld by the affections of its
people-that if Tie loyal blacks of
the South shall not be fully enfran-
chised, there will soon be another
outbreak of the rebel spirit now
Smoulderlng there, even more des-
perate and formidable than that
which has cost the country such lakes
Of blood and such mountains of trea-
sure. Count the 1000, 900 of black
clphers, and the rebellion has to-day,
what it had not in the winter of go
/, decided preponderance at the
South; and that preponderance will
soon bloodily manifest itself There
is no safety. no real peace, but in
universal justice and impartial free
dom. "-7j.i6une.
"Outside of Congress, the political
stump speakers on both sides have
been yet more riotous and violent.
The Buffers and Brownlows and
liamiltons on one side, and the
Sharkeys and Dawsons and Monroes
on the other, have done their best to
excite the prejudices and passions of
the people, and to destroy the bless
ings OF peace. One set of men in
the Southland, another set in the
East, have used their breath unceas-
ingly to fan the smouldering embers
Of fanaticism and sectionalism once
more into II flame. On one side we
are told that Congress is to be forci-
bly, entered by the Southern members
and the organization carried at the
point of the bayonet. On the other
we are promised the impeachment of
the President as soon as Congress re-
assemblies. ''-He1uld.
''fhe same feeling prevailed six
years ago Few then attached i'm
portance to the threats of the fire
eaters, or realized the crisis which
was imminent SO it is to-day. The
explosive force of the elements which
are at work is under-estimated The
possibility of collision, of conflict, of
civil war, is not acknowledged. The
causes which operate in that dircc-
tion are passed over as of no imme-
diate Importance, ana the influences
that are most likely to bring it about
are persistently disregarded.
T,tes.