The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-04-23
COLUMBIA.
Tuesday Morning, April %, 1867.
A Practical View OF the Situation.

AG the Clme Wnen pOutlcal issues
overshadowed every other considera-
ton of Importance among the South
ern people, it was natural for them
to turn to those who had been their
tried and trusted leaders for over O
quarter of century, for counsel and
instruction in the several emergen-
cies which kept constantly arising
from what they deemed unfriendly
and sectional legislation. And these
leaders found eager and willing lis
teners when they discoursed upon
the wrongs which this or that party
at the .Norta-had inflicted, or
would assuredly infict, upon them.
In this way, sectional animosity was
engendered and kept alive, until it
burst out into flame which, spread
ing and igniting the passions, already
at fever heat, of the people of both
sections, until at last hostiIities, in
THE shape of an appeal to arms, fol-
lowed, as naturally as at all times eff
feet follows cause. There was too
little calm discussion Of great princi-
pies, and too much of that political
haranguing, which acts not upon the
cool judgment of those who listen to
it, but upon their passions and pre-
judices, under the influence of which
they are carried away and precipi-
tated into action which that cool judg-
ment and common sense would con-
denim.
We soy, without hesitation, that it
was this line of policy, no doubt ear
nestly and honestly, but very erro-
neously, pursued by the majority of
the Southern political leaders, which
educated the people up to the belief
that no other resort was left to them
but that of arms, to preserve their
rights and liberties as free and equal
citizens of the great republic of the
United States of America. We re-
peat, we say this without hesitation,
for we were among the enthusiastic
listeners to the species of political
haranguing alluded to, and this
firing the Southern heart" found in
US, as it did in hundreds of thousands
throughout the South, the ripe ma
terial to receive promptly, enthu-
siastically, and without reflection,
its inflammatory and "so-called" pa
triotic appeals. Bnt we were not
among those whom these fiery ap-
peals deprived of common sense, and
substituted therefor the very vain
deluslon that "a world III arms" could
not whip such gallant, such high
toned and chivalrous people rs those
of the South. Nor were we among
those who shared that very vain-glo-
rious but stupid delusion, that the
very announcement of our determi-
nation to take up and defend "the
cause" Di et a1mis, would frighten
those who were deemed aggressors on
our political rights and liberties.
Nor, based upon this senseless delu-
sion, did we, while listening to the
masterpieces Of patriotic eloquence
from these fiery orators, acquire or
share in, symbollically speaking, the
peculiar propensity attributed to the
fabulous vampyre-that of drinking
all the blood which should be shed,
in consequence of the revolt of the
Southern States against the General
Government. No; we knew that,
whether deluded themselves or not,
these champions--on the stump or
forum, so-called-were deluding or
deceiving the people, who were to
bear the brunt of the coming conflict,
and whose latent patriotism was fred
up to the point which made them
eager for the fray. We all know.
alas! too feelingly and too painfully,
the result of these misguided-al-
though, we have no doubt, honestly
conceived-appcals from those who
assumed the leadership of the people,