The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-06-28

Friday Morning, june 2s. 1867.
Embarrass,nents OF sl,e Southern
Press.

? 7FI
by great embarrassments, and one
which requires prudence and sound
Judgment SO to manage it as to be
productive of the best attainable re-
suits. The Charleston Mercury, Of
the 26th, has an article on this sub
ject, from which we make the follow
ing extract:
'The Southern press is embarrassed
with great difficulties as to its course.
Those who are in favor of the militia
ry Act, of course, have smooth sea
to sail over. They have only to point
to our distressed and ruined condi-
tion, which all feel and deprecate,
to the reconstruction under this Act,
as the haven of all relief and of all
peace. Only get into the Union,
and then Northern and European
capital will overflow in our land, and
"a new heaven and new earth will
open to our happy visions, Suffering
always gives wings to fancy, as the
poor traveller, dying of thirst in the
desert, sees. water. in the moving of
the sands. But if the press attempts
to expose the futility of these antici-
pations, it is met at once with Sc
rious embarrassment. There are two
populations in the South. All you
soy with o view to the white race,
may, through the instructions given
to the black race, be considered as
against them. TO urge n policy for
the one, is furnishing fuel to incen-
diaries for alienation or hostility on
the part of the other. To say nothing,
or to speak only in favor of the en-
forcement of the military Act, is
urged as the only course for peace.
A desire, deeply felt, to keep the
races in concord together, has here
tofore restrained the Southern press
from fully discussing the reconstruc-
ton policy of the military Act. If
left to themselves, the races might
easily have settled mutual friendly
relations towards each other"
What the Mercury means by speak
ing of newspapers "in favor of the
military Act" we may not correctly
understand; but our respected CO.
temporary can we'll appreciate the
difference between submitting to the
decree of an adverse fate and laud-
ing or even being in favor of such
untoward destiny. General Lee sur
rendered his armies, and with them
the hopes of the Southern Confede-
racy and the cherished aspirations of
its people; and who will say that said
surrender was not timely and wise?
Yet neither those gallant men nor the
people of the South were ''in favor"
of it. They simply accepted their
defeat, complied with the terms
offered, and have ever since demean-
ed themselves in strict accordance
with them. And SO it is now. These
who counsel the people to comply
with the terms Of the reconstruction
Acts, do so with the same honesty of
purpose, and with the same regard
for the future welfare of their section,
as did our leaders and the whole peo-
pie accept the terms of surrender. 1t
is unjust, therefore, to class the many
true journals of the South who ad-
wise reconstruction under the Acts as
sin favor" of them.
But the Mercury refers to one point
connected with the plan of recon-
struction as presented to us in the
Congressional policy, and that is the
action of the "two populations" as
it denominates the two races, which
now have the same rights and equal
privileges before the ballot-box. But
while we see no 'serious embarrass-
ment" in relation to this matter, we
agree with our cotemporary, that had
the two races been left to themselves,
they could have soon established mu-
tual friendly relations towards each
other. But this is not the case; nor
was it hardly to be expected; for those
who enacted the military bills did so
under the belief that the freedmen
needed protection in the rights just
accorded to them, and it was natural
for them, therefore, to suppose that
she newly-made voters needed in
struction as to the proper exercise of