The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-11-08

Its own sake; for its holy Christian
influence, and for the civilization and
refinement which spring up in its
path. Do tho Reconstrnction Acts
OF Congress propose to give us this
peace? No, they give us war and
anarchy, rather. They SOW the seeds
OF discord in our midst, and place the
best interests of society into the hands
OF an Ignorant mob. They disfran-
chise the white citizen and enfran-
chise the newly emancipated slave.
The slave of yesterday, who knew no
law, but the will of the master, is to-
day about to be invested with the
control Of the Government. In all
popular Governments, the two great
sources of power may be traced:
1st. 10 the exercise of the ballot.
I'd. To the franchise of the Jury box.
Invest any people with these two
great powers, and they have at once
the government of the country in
their hands. BY the Reconstruction
Acts of Congress, these powers are
conferred upon the negro-he can
make and unmake the Constitution
and the. laws, which he will administer
according to the dictates of others, or
his own caprice.
We are not unfriendly to the
negro; on the contrary, we know
that we are his best friends. While
he occupied the position of q slave,
he was protected by the laws, accord
ing to his condition in life. And
now, that he has been made free, we
are not only willing to confer upon
him every civil right, but to protect
him in the full and free enjoyment of
those rights. In his property, in his
life, and in his person, we are willing
that the black man and the white
man, shall stand together upon the
same platform, and be shielded by
the same equal laws. We venture the
opinion, that the people of South
Carolina are prepared to adopt as
their own, the Constitution of any
New England, or other Northern
State, wherein it is supposed shat
the civil rights of the negro are most
fully and amply secured. But upon
question involving such grave and
momentous issues, we should be un-
true to ourselves, and unfair to our
opponents, were we to withhold the
frank and full expression of our
opinions. We, therefore, feeling the
responsibility of the subject and the
occasion, enter our most solemn pro-
test against the policy of investing
the negro with political rights. The
black man is what God and nature
and circumstances have made him.
That he is not fit to be invested with
these important rights, may be no
fault of his. But the fact is patent
to oil, that the negro is utterly un-
fitted to exercise the highest func-
tions of the citizen. The govern
ment of the country should not be
permitted to pass from the hands of
the white man into the hands of the
negro. The enforcement of the Re-
construction Acts by military power,
under the guise of negro voters
and negro conventions, cannot law
fully re-establish civil government in
South Carolina. 1t may for time
hold us in subsection to quasi civil
government, backed by military
force, but it can do no more. AS
citizens of tho United States, we
should not consent to live under negro
supremacy, nor should we acquiescc
in negro equality. Not for ourselves
only, but on behalf of the Anglo
Saxon race and blood in this country,
do we protest against this subversion
of the great social law, whereby an
ignorant and depraved race is placed
in power and influence above the
virtuous, the educated and the
refined. BY these Acts of Congress,
intelligence and virtue are put under
foot, while ignorance and vice are
lifted into power.
In South Carolina, the negro. ;na-
jority, under the Reconstruction
Acts, is much more than two toIone.
In most of the other Southern States,
the negro majorities. il not so great,
are almost as decided. In those
States where the white vote is in the
ascendant, the election districts have
been so arranged, as to take the poll
tical power from the white vote and
cast it in favor of the nogro vote.
What, then, is the inevitable result?
Ii invests the negro with absolute
political power in each of the ten
Southern States. and ut the same
time, invests him with the balance of
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