The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-07-26
The Situation.

The Situation.
The New Orleans Crescent has an
article on the duty of the hour, from
which we make the following ex-
tracts:
We adhere to the position we have
from the first assumed. We must
make the best of the position in
which Congress has placed us, and
DO everything In our power to bring
about speedy reconstruction. Re
construction means return to peace,
the dawn of hope, the revival of
business, the influx of immigration,
the rebuilding of our levees, the
regeneration of the planting inte-
rest, the end of unrest and uncer-
tainty. We cannot afford to lose
these things, because there is but
one door through which we can pass
to get to them, and some of us don't
like the door. There is no help for
it. Let every good man use his in
fiuence as far as it will go toward
bettering our condition, and if that
influence does not GO as far rs we
should like, it is simply our misfor-
tune. We can do something, at all
events, and we have no right to leave
it undone. Every man of good cha
racter and sense, who is entitled to
vote, should secure his registration
certificate while there is yet time.
When the polls are opened, he should
deposit his ballot, and do it in such
way as to satisfy the dominant party
that they have been mistaken in
holding out the idea that the oaths of
allegiance Southern citizens have
taken do not have a binding and
sacred force. Register now, and
afterward vote for constitutions
convention, whether there is any
other reason for convention than
that it is made condition to the
renewal of our representation in
Congress. Orr Constitution may
have been changed enough. A little
while ago, the then leader of the
Republican party, the late President
Lincoln, was fully satisfied with it.
But, rs the Republican party of to-
day says Louisiana shall have no
share in national legislation until n
constitutional convention is held and
new Constitution is made, let us
get over the work as quickly rs posi-
BILE: If we don't help to do it, it
will be done nevertheless, and not as
mnch to our satisfaction.
If we cannot have everything we
wish just as we wish it, we must
strive for the best thing attainable.
We suffer from our exclusion from
Congress. We can help to remedy
that evil at least, and the less grum-
bling we do while we are reconstruct
ing, the better shall we be treated.
In reconstruction is our only hope Of
salvation, material, social and politi-
cal. For reconstruction, then, we
must work heartily and zealously,
notwithstanding all discouraging in
fuences. That is the duty of the
hour.
The New York Herald, of Tuesday,
in an article on the position of politi-
cal affairs at the South, says:
The constitutional amendment.
which was first offered by Congress
as basis OF Southern restoration,
would have answered for all the other
rebel States as well as for Tennessee,
had they only availed themselves,
Ike Tennessee, of the easy conditions
thus laid down. Unfortunately,
however, under the encouragement
OF President johnson, and the cop.
perhead leaders and organs of the
North, all the ten remaining States.
from Virginia to Texas, Indignantly
and defiantly secuted what they calf
ed these usurpations by Congress of
the constitutional rights of the States
and the people. The people directly
concerned, who ought to have known
better. stupidity consented to follow
those howling dervishes for the con.
stitution, whose broad and dusty high
road is the road to ruin. Thus, will
the indignant rejection of the first
conditions emanating from Congress
by the ten excluded States, the two