The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-09-28
aCOLUNB1A.
Saturday Morning, Sept. %, 1867.
"Going Over to the Radfcnls.',

II
"Going Over to the Radicnls,Y
A great deal of injustice has been
done towards many prominent South
ern leaders and others of less note,
who, because they favored recon
struction under the Acts of Con-
gress, are accused of going, neck
and heels, over to the extremists of
the radical party. This is a grieyous
wrong, committed against some of
the. best and most eminent citizens
of the South. Prominent among
the distinguished men of this section
who have suffered in this way is Gen.
JEFF. Thompson, who has been very
harshly spoken of by ultra-Southern
papers, which have not failed to de-
nounce him as a renegade from the
cause he fought for so gallantly. But
he has set himself right. In q circu-
lar which he has just issued to the
officers nd'soldiers lately under his
command, he explains what he meant
by his letter to Mr.. Prentice, en-
dorsing Gen. Longstreet, for which
he has been unsparingly denounced.
He does this. he says, as the best
method of replying to numerous let
ters from persons of his old COM
mand the gist of all being contained
in the following extract from one of
them: 5sA
'Longstreet is forever damned
throughout the country which be-
came the theatre of his Immortality,
and your old friends are not reserved
in their anathemas against you. Give
me some argument with which to
defend you, for 1 am too well ac-
quainted with the spirit which ami
mated you in our disastrous struggle,
with your Cheerful endurance of suf-
fering and your persistent fealty to
the last, to believe that you have
abandoned your devoted followers, or
have relinquished the principles or
memories OF the past.
The reply which Gen. Thompson
makes to these allegations may be
briefly summed up. He assumes
that the Southern people lost not
only Confederate independence, but
also the Southern theory of the
Federal Government This theory
being dead, he argues that Southern
men can do nothing towards improv-
ing their situation, unless they frank
ly recognize its utter extinction, and
apply themselves to "thc live lessons
of the present and future" After
some arguments to sustain his posi-
ton, the General closes as follows:
"A few years will demonstrate the
wisdom or fallacy of their theories,
and during this probation, we should
work to build up our broken for
tunes, and prove ourselves worthy to
be trusted; therefore, I advise you
not to NOPE over the past, but re-
member our Lost Cause only as the
widowed husband remembers his
bride when he looks upon his mo-
therless children; accept all political
privileges that may be granted you,
and then, without being actuated by
hatred or revenge, (neither of which
are soldierly sentiments,) strive man
fully for the true interests of your
State and country, by working to
develop her resources and increase
her wealth."
The most unwavering Southerner
could give no better advice than this.
1t presents the position of the writer
in very different light from that of
unreserved adherence to radicalism,
which many supposed him to occupy.
The difference between accepting
terms which there was reason to be-
lieve could not be rejected, without
mourning something worse, or affilia-
tion with the authors of those terms,
it is needless to point out.
LATTER-DAY SECEssIoNIsT.- of
the Columbia Radicals, a man of more
intelligence than any other amongst
them, and of more substance, re-
norlra6 t1o >tI,a,. Jox,