The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-07-07

sS]f"ssC 49, ~, ohSs 0Hue ~ WuS very I'M
portant. both from party and a
national point of view, that they
should do SO. If the Republican
party went into the campaign with
the South under military rule, itwouId
be charged upon them, with powerful
effect, in such States as PENNSYLVANIA
and New York, that while the mill
tary leaders had crushed the rebel
lion, there was not craftsmanship
enough among political leaders to re-
store those conquered States to their
proper position. Financially, and in
the interest of business, also, it is
important that, as soon rs the South,
on q basis of equal rights and protec-
tion for all, can be restored, it should
be done; for then the republic and
the Republican party, with the South
ern States in Congress, would both
be stronger. He believed that the
Republicans would carry half of the
Southern States, and he was quite
sure of one-third; and he was also of
the belief that, at the next election,
the Republicans will carry the coun-
try overwhelmingly; for inasmuch as
they have freed the nation, they
ought to administer it for some time
to come. He had no doubt whatever
that the speech of General Rawlings
is an approved exposition of the po-
htical creed of General Grant, and he
was equally confident that he will be
the next President Of the United
States. He had the most perfect
faith in General Grants thorough
sympathy with Congress and the prin-
clples of the Republican party, and
spoke of him as an out-and-out Re
publican-a radical-and said fur
ther, that he had always advised the
Southern men who came to see him
to go in for the Congressional plat
form, and not to affiliate with the
copperheads, whom the country
would never again tolerate in power.
General Grant, he said, had declared
that all his generals who go South
turn radicals, and that they will ave-
rage more radicals than the Massa-
chusetts delegation. Grant, he said,
was squarely in favor of manhood suf-
frage, and has quietly given all the
aid in his power to the Congressional
programme. Congress, he thinks,
ought to con6ne itself, at the July
session, to the passage of an amenda-
tory Act, and then adjourn; and he
further believed that it would do SO.
In speaking of Grants antecedcnts,
he said it was an error to report that
he was ever Democrat. He was an
Old Wing, but voted for Buchanan
on account Of personal objections to
Fremont. He supported Lincoln, in
1864, with all his heart. He did not
think that the impeachment of Pre-
sident johnson would occur, for the
proposition had failed to take any
hold upon the country. He was op-
posed to confiscation, for it was too
late in the day for that policy. We
might have done anything after
Lee surrendered; but eonfiscation
now would produce regular Ireland
in the South. The most intelligent
negroes he met were opposed to it,
and believed there was no need of it.
We have 45,O00,O00 acres of public
lands in the South to-day, which
were opened for the whites last Janu-
ary, and for the negroes six months
before. Not one-ffth of it is taken
up. Border land. is SO cheap, and the
wages of the negroes so good, on the
average, that any industrious negro
can buy land to-day. 1t is easier for
a negro to get homestead now than
for an Industrious working man in
New England. We could settle
1000, 900 of negroes on our present
public lands in the South, counting
five on every eighty acres, without
disturbing anybody. In addition to
this, the land in the South is heavily
mortgaged, and large tracts will soon
be in the market at cheap rates.
In short, the Senator takes hope
ful view of the situation, and be-
ieves that the South will soon be
clothed in its right mind again, and
have Il place in the councils of the
nation asan equal compeer OF her re-
cent conquerors.