The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-03-05
Fncts TO be Remembered.

monlsh the people of Virginia that
they have nothing, either of speedy
or of permanent relief, to hope for
from the Supreme Court.
Long before that tribunal can in
terpose to protect us, negro suffrage,
sustained by the bayonet, will have
been forced upon us. In this city,
N the month of April next, and in
the State at large, in May, the afro
cious bill of Sherman requires the
military to protect the negro at the
ballot box. Twice, then, before we
can hope for relief, this outrage will
have been perpctrated in Virginia,
unless the military officer, whose Will
IS the law, may consent to postpone
the city and State elections
The utter contempt with which the
recent decisions of the Supreme Court
have been treated, show how power
less that august body is when it OPP
poses reason to the mad passions of
the mob. Congress and the suborli-
nate Federal Judiciary delight, in a
hundred ways, to express their con
tempt OF the five conservative Judges
OF that elevated tribunal
Unless the people of the South can
hope to select a successor to Presi-
dent johnson as conservative as that
eminent patriot, any relief which
they may hope for from the Supreme
Court would be of very little practi-
cal and of no permanent value. 1t
will be competent for the next Pre-
sldent and Congress, acting in con-
Junction, to SO frame and change the
Supreme Court as to saturate that
body with the radicalism of Congress.
1t has been forcibly said that, so far
as thesSupreme Court is concerned,
the present conservative advantage in
that court is held by the slender
thread of single life. There are fce
conservative and .fou7 radical judges.
And of the conservative Judges, it is
doubtful whether one will ever take
his seat again, and almost certain that
he viii not live twelve months. ''The
loss of one conservative Judge will
make tie, and no law can be declared
unconstitutional but by clear ma
iority. President johnson cannot re-
place a conservative Judge by new
oRPOAhChASdp oCStttlSC SOIlSIeSS, dU It's
last session, passed law reducing
the number of judges to seven, for
bidding any new appointment until,
by the occurrence of vacancies, that
limit is reached" The conservative
judges are the old and most feeble
members of the court, and will pro-
bably be the first to die
When the constitutionality of the
Sherman law is tested, our success
depends upon the frail tenure of q
life, which no one believes will last
six months. Under the most favor
able circumstances, eminent practi-
TONERS in the Supreme Court inform
US that decision Of the Supreme
Court cannot be expected before the
winter of the present year or the
spring of 1868.
In less than three months, the
Sherman law will have inflicted the
insult of negro suffrage twice upon
the people of Richmond, even if we
are the creatures of military despot-
ism, and no convention is called.
Ii the Supreme Court, twelve
months hence, shall declare the Sher-
man law unconstitutional, that deci-
sion does not restore us to represen-
tation in Congress. Not bit of it.
1t will simply throw us back into the
clutches of the Fortieth Congress-
Congress forty times more malignant
and merciless than that which is now
i'll the articles of death. In the next
Congress, the radicals have clear
majority in the House of Representa-
tives of 1877.
The WHITE AND BLACK POPULATION
OF VIRGINIA. Charlottesville
G;'o:'icle, e ssn article discussing at
length the an-Shellabarger bill,
makes statement that we apprehend
will take most of our readers by sur
prise. 1t is as follows:
In moro than one-half of the Coun-
ties In Virginia, the negroes out
number the whites. They can COM
mand the Legislature. The majority
of the Legislature, under the Sher-
man bill, may be negroes. Allowing
for the influence OF property and in
telligence, a number of the members
of the Legislature may be negroes.
In Nottoway County. by the census
OF 1860, there were 2,270 whites and
$3.50 blacks and mulattoes. There
are three colored persons to one white
person. They unless negroes are ex-
clu6a1 from, otf;oa\ ,,,o,, ,,,.4l, $3.50