The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-06-05
From NJ Mississippi.

PioAi 4hASShSSippI. 4h
We make the following extract
from n letter received from a sub
scriber in Enterprise, Mississippi:
ENTERPRISE, Miss, May 10, 1867.
MEssRs. EDITORS: We must now
conform to the law-making power,
right or wrong. We cannot stop
now to inquire into the Acts of Con-
gress. We have to govern ourselves
according to the mandate that has
been issued. He who counsels to
the contrary is an unsafe leader at
this time. We must meet the mea-
sures as they present themselves.
We arc q defeated people. TO the
sword was left the arbitrament of
questions involving all our rights in
the premises; that two-edged instru-
ment has cut asunder every principle
contended for by the South. We are
no longer people to dictate terms;
there is no alternative left but to
submit to the powers that be. We
are now in an attitude never contem-
plated by any party in the land. The
negro now presents himself rs free
citizen, clothed in all the habilaments
of sovereignty-made so by power
which we are unable to resist; and it
now behooves us to shape our policy
as to act in harmony within the order
of things as they present themselves.
The course marked out for lis to
pursue is very plain one, both in q
political and pecuniary point of view.
Inaction in tho premises will prove
fatal to us and to our posterity. The
question now presents itself in this
wise-what shall we do to be saved?
The solution is at hand-go to work,
remodel the State Governments ac-
cording to the law of Congress, de-
velop the industrial resources of
the South-agricultural and manu-
factories. Take South Carolina, for
instance. No State in the Union has
greater resources. / know the old
State we'll; l know the material she
is possessed Of; [ have worked her
lands, and have for the last twenty
years worked the lands here. Take
series of years, and q planter will
realize as much in South Carolina as
he will here. There are no better
farming lands than are to be found
on the Congaree and Wateree Rivers
in fact, on all your principal riv rs
and creeks. You have one very i'm
portant feature over our Western
lands-that is, the locality of your
lands; their contiguity to healthy
and desirable settlements are to be
found everywhere. Add to that your
water power for manufacturing pur-
poses, and the facility for getting
their produce to all parts, should
stimulate your people to act in uni
son, and harmonize yourselves with
the new state of things in your midst.
love South Carolina, with all her
faults. }" (Really, L do not know
that she has any more than the other
Southern States--not one tenth as
much as some other States L could
mention.
think the freedmen of your State,
IN leaving it to hunt work in the
other States, are pursuing an unwise
course. They are not at this time
fully prepared to travel about as the
white man does. They had better
remain in their old neighborhoods;
they will find that their former
owners are Their best friends.
The day they commence immigra-
ton, from that period they may date
the commencement of their extinc-
ton as race; as the Indian has
gone. so will the negro. Parcel out
your lands among the freedmen-sell
to them upon such terms as they and
you can live. They must become
identified in the soil; they will then
vote with you on all important ques-
tions-your interest will be theirs
they will soon learn TO sustain the
policy which will add to their pros
perity and happiness.
The negro is more to be relied on
than the foreigner. Before you can
learn the latter-at least by the time
you learn him-to cultivate cotton