The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-06-15
Fron, co,Iunabia.

~ lCLtSLl XII ul1O 4tNn -AOAtA 1ACf ttttt, Z
dated Columbia, 4th inst, says:
Next we group togetherthe OPT
mons of half dozen of the unrecon-
structed Southern Confederacy men
of South Carolina. Their testimony
is that of q very important and infiu-
ential body Of the Southern planters
in all the cotton States. Says one:
'I have 500 acres in cotton this year
and $50 in corn. | do not expect to
make dollar, even with good sea-
son. I have some fifty odd freedmen
at work. Under our slave labor sys-
tenn, I might expect profit of SIS, )
900 or $40, 600 from hrst-rate crop.
Now, giving my laborers their houses,
fre-wood, garden patch, rations Mt
ruinous prices, and one-fourth the
crop they make, and supplying
horses, mules, implements, &c., I
shall make nothing, and will proba-
bly, lose heavily. The great trouble
is, these freedmen will only work
when it suits them. A political stump
orator comes along, or religious
meeting is announced in the middle
of the week. They confer together,
they drop hoe and plough, and they
are off for a day or two, when the
crop most demands their attention. l
tell you, sir, L do not see the end of
this. We old planters must get other
labor, or sell out and leave this coun-
try, for these free negroes will not do
for the raising of cotton, rice or
corn. They will not do the work re-
quired."
Another intelligent planter says:
t"'This Freedmen's Bureau, sir, should
be called the Bureau for the Encou-
ragement of Idleness and Vice among
the Free Blacks. They can make up
q tale of distress to suit the occasion.
They have no clear conceptions of
what truth is, and they are adopts in
laziness and deception. They have,
too, some notions of confscation and
free farms; and some of them talk of
ruling the State. There are 10000
of them in South Carolina against
100000 whites, and they have been
made aware of their power of num-
bers if combined against us. Can you
wonder, sir, that quietly, and without
proclaiming it to the world, our white
people who can go are going to Bra
zil, in companies of one, two or three
hundreds, Notwithstanding the EN-
peror's decree of emancipation and
the mixed condition of society in
Brazil? They go to escape from the
humiliations of Il conquered people
under military despotism and negro
suffrage. -
And yet another of these uncon-
verted Carolina planters says: I'VE
are just Ill the condition Of Il man
who has received staggering blow,
and who cannot realize the extent OF
his injury. We are stunned, and we
are still. We have no fixed ideas,
hopes or purposes for the future.
We submit to Our misfortunes be-
cause we are powerless; but, sir, let
the Government OF the United States,
during the existing Southern genera
ton, or within the next twenty years,
become involved in foreign war,
and by sort of spontaneous com
busticn, you will develop the now
smothercd but still smouldering pub.
lie sentiment of the dominant white
class of the South"
"But suppose the tide of Northern
capital. emigration, enterprise and
ideas. is turned III this direction
what then?"
'Why, then, sir, it will still take Il
term of twenty years to eradicate oul
prevailing Southern ideas. Mean.
time, it is my fixed belief that q
foreign war, even between the United
States and Spain, would make these
five Southern military districts allies
of the European. Certainly, in the
case of England and France, [ think
this people would rise up once more
for u separate government. Fol
myself, in good faith, / submit to the
Union and to the terms OF conquest.
l am only speaking of what L believe
would be q case of spontaneous com
bustion i'll the event of Il foreign wa.
during the existing Southern genera
tion. Henceforth, North and South,
We are as much two peoples us those
OF England and Ireland. Human
nature and history both teach lis thi,
lesson.
HOMICIDE. A difficulty having oc
CURED, some days ago, on John.
Island mt Jenkins ,1looto+;or Lo