The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-03-10
The New Law.

The New Law.
The following thoughts and rcfec-
tons on the bill for the government
of the Southern States are from the
Baltimore SEN:
The public attention will, Tor some
time 20 come, be tyrncd from the
Congress which has enacted, to the
people over whom have been extend
ed the provisions Of the Sherman
military bill. VIII they accept or will
they reject the requirements Of the
bill? Tue New York World says that
the probabilities incline strongly to
ultimate submission on the part of
the South, and that if this estimate
be not mistaken, good policy requires
that the Submission should be prompt
enough to prevent the radicals get
ting control of the new State organ
lzations; that the planters can control
the negro vote if they begin in sea-
son, and by accepting at once what
they will be constrained to submit to
at last, they can help their friends in
the North to elect the next President
and rescue the Government from radi-
cal dominion and insolence.
The remote possibility OF electing
4 conservative President is hardly i
sufficient justification for urging the
people OF the States to decide pre-
clpitately upon the momentous ques-
tions presented by the bill, for the
decision once made will be irrevoca-
ble. The people OF the South need
no ADVICE from amy quarter. They
have at home all ,hc clements Of
knowledge and sufficient tiiscernment
20 reach enlightened conclusions.
They have IL the past shown no lack
OF craftsmanship, nor is there ground
for believing that they are deficient in
that respect ut present. The local
Do,ity OF the Northern States will be
unaffected by the result I.yen the
States Of Maryland, Kentucky, Dcla-
and Missouri Will, comparative-
!y,Wlth the Southern States, be SO
little prejudiced that they can scarcely
assume to advise. TO each Of these,
the adoption or rejection-o the CON
stitutional amendment will have no
further Influence or cocrcivc force
n than to diminish by one, or, at most,
two, the number OF their representa-
tivcs in Congress- Ii the extension
Of suffrage should, by the experience
OF other States which may adopt it,
prove unwise and prejudicial, they
have simply to pay the very small
price of that reduced representation,
and they Will remain exempt from its
evils. But to the people OF the ex-
cluded States the issue is so moment
GUS that common fairness on the part
of their border associates requires
that they should be left untrammeled
10y any pressure of opinion
But the real difficulty in the whole
case lies much deeper than all this
And it is whether, in fact, the terms
Of the Sherman bill are not such as
preclude the white population of the
greater part of the excluded States
from any power Of choice at all in
the matter? in South Carolina and
several of the Gulf States, the negro
population, together with the So
called loyal whites, outnumber the
general white population. The Sher-
man bill prescribes and defines what
people shall have the right OF choice
and shall have the power to call con-
ventlons to organize the machinery
OF new State Governments and Con-
stitutions. These are, by the fifth
section of the bill, ''all male citizens
twenty-one years old and upwards, of
whatever race, color or previous con-
dition, who have been residents in
the State for one year previous to the
( day of election, except such as may
/ be disfranchised for participation in
! rebellion or for felony at common
law" Now, as the bill indicates no
machinery for initiating call for a
convention, not placing it in the
State Legislature nor anywhere else,
and as it gives supreme dominion in
each State to the military command
cr, what shall hinder a spontaneous
election of delegates to convention
under an affirmative order, or by
sufferance without order, of the mill
tary commander? 1t will be noted,
in this connection, that no power is
given to q majority to determine
whether they will OF will not call a
convention at all. But the affirmative