The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-03-17
Tho Southern Posture.

tive journal, the National hteAigencer,
in its issue of Wednesday,:
Whatever force there may have been
in the argument that the South could
take no action under tho Sherman
Shellabarger bill, without voluntary
participation in its own degradation,
is now destroyed by the bill which
passed the House OF Representatives..
That takes the question of holding a
convention out OF the realm of popu-
lar consent, and confers it upon the
military commander He is enjoincd
to make registration and to order
an election. Whatever may be done,
therefore, is done under military du-
ress, and it is the part of wise men to
accommodate themselves to circum
stances. The registration will be
made. The election will be held. The
negroes will vote Shall the whites
abstain? If inaction accomplished
aught, we might understand why men
should advise it; but when the prac-
tical effect of inaction will be to Sc
cnre the adoption of State Consti-
tuition by those who do act, and an
application for admission into the
Union from men who have voted,
while this inaction will put argn-
ments in the mouths of men who have
already too much control of the Go
vernment, we cannot exactly see the
wisdom Of hesitation. Those who
abstain now from choice will abstain
hereafter from necessity. No one
appreciates more fully the inequity of
this kind of legislation; no one realizes
more keenly its consistency with re-
publican principles; no one more
heartily deplores the stab it gives to
constitutional government; no one is
more alive to the dangers which beset
the new order of things which it is
proposed to iEaugurate; nevertheless,
we believe in the superiority of intel
lect and of culture; and If they do
themselves justice, they are bound to
control.
In this connection, we add the
following from the correspondent of
the Baltimore San:
tappears to be now conceded that
the South will speedily organize
under the reconstruction Act Such
is the opinion of all here in official
and other prominent positions.
Senator johnson, of Maryland. is
in daily receipt Of numerous letters
from the South in relation to his po-
sition on the reconstruction question.
A paragraph from one of the letters
Indicates the tone of sentiment among
some of the conservative men of that
section. A prominent citizen of
Beaufort, n. G., says:
eve sec that you voted for the
Sherman bill under the conviction
that the South could not do better. /
fear if we seriously oppose it hat
harshcr measures will be inflicted;
that the greatest Of culamlties-con-
flScation-may be the next bitter cup
| am disfranchised 10y that bill; in
fact, it takes all political power out of
the hands of the most intelligent
class of the Southern people. Yet if,
in the event Of its rejection, it is to
be followed by more stringent enact
ments, we had better submit. In
Your intercourse with Southern men,
yon indicate what You believe should
be our true course; and, my word for
it, yo"r advice will be potential for
good. regret to know we are deem
ed so unworthy Of public confidence;
yet the matter has gone so far that
the great body Of our people desire
to see it ended.