The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-03-20
The Press ON the Southern Position.

The Press on the Southern Position.
The New York World yields to the
necessity of the South at once ac-
cepting the reconstruction bill now
as a law of the land We extract the
following from an article in its CO.
lumns:
But while there is no possibility of
its repeal without such widespread
and stable alteration of Northern OPT
mon as will insure control of the Sc
nate, n change in any one Southern
State OF white votes enough to make
a majority with the negroes, will re-
leve that State from martial law, if
Congress keeps its promise The
weight and power of the excluded
States tor purpose of resistance de-
pends on perfect unity among their
white inhabitants and unity among
all the States. But to escape martial
law by compliance requires no CO.
operation, since each State can act
for itself without regard to the others,
and III States where the negro popu-
lation is large. a small detection Will
turn the scale. We conclude, there
fore, that mode of escape from
martial law which requires the con-
version of a distant hostile commu-
nlty, the cooperation of many States,
and time enough to change the poll
tlcal complexion of the Senate, is less
likely to prevail than one which re-
qulreS fewer conversions, no co-ope-
ration and comparatively little time.
The probabilities, as We esti1aete
them, incline strongly to ultimate
submission on the part of the South.
Ii this estimate be not mistaken,
good policy requires that the submis-
sion should be prompt enough to
prevent the radicals getting control
Of the new State organizations. The
planter can control the negro vote if
they begin in season; and by accept
ing at once what they will be con
strained to submit to at last, they can
help their friends at the North to
elect the next President, and rescue
the Government from radical domi-
neering and insolence
This exposition of the political
situation is such as we would gladly
have forborne if fidelity to truth and
the responsibility which attaches to a
public journal, which we should be
loath to think without influence, did
not constrain us. If our Southern
friends are in a den of throats
that has only one opening for escape,
we do not create the surrounding
horrors by carrying in a friendly
torch, but only disclose them.
The New York Tribune points out
the President as the great rebel. 1t
says:
The reconstruction bill is disre-
Garded by the President. March ),
three days after it was made law by
Con Gress, a municipal election was
held iii Alexandria, Va, at which
legal voters were excluded on account
of color. Nothing could be palmer
than the terms of the law, nothing
more absolute than the right of CO.
lored men to vote in Alexandria last
Tuesday. The refusal Of the Judges
OF elections to receive their ballots
was an insolcnt defiance OF the law.
the desperate act of men who knew
themselves to be minority, and who
elected q rebel mayor by denying
loyal men their rights. In Alexan-
dna, 900 men voted for the rebel
candidates; there were So radical
white and moro than 1000 colored
voters. The latter, excluded from
the regular polls, voted at polls of
their own; but while the result is a
clear radical majority, the rebel can
dldatc for mayor, Hugh Latham, is
declared elected.
The law declares that its provisions
shall apply to call elections to any
Office 1t makes no exceptions,
fixes no distant day for its provisions
to go into operation; it took effect
from the moment of its passage, and
Mr. johnson was as much bound to
obey it last Tuesday as he would be a
year hence. We are told, but can
scarcely believe, that the Attorney
General of the United States is OF
the opinion that the President was
not required to prevent this outrage,