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

SO to consider it, if it did not
involve the issue of life and
death to the form Of Government
established by our fathers for the
benefit of themselves and their pos
terity. If the object of the trainers
of the Reconstruction Acts was to
degrade the Southern people, it is
time for them to consider whether
the degradation may not be brought
to their own doors-whether the
poisoned cup may not be returned to
their own lips. But it may be asked,
why do not the Southern people
accept the situation and control the
negro element? This question is
much more easily asked than an
swered. In the first place, it may be
said that the influence of the corrupt
anu intriguing demagogue, who will
appeal to passion and prejudice, has
always beeu found to be more power
full with the excited and ignorant
mob, than the wisest counsels of the
best friends. Besides, the founda-
tion-stone upon which Republican
Government rests is, that the election
franchise is to be exercised by free,
intelligent and unbiased judgment;
and whenever it is admitted that this
franchise is to be controlled, or, in
other words. to be made the subject
of undue influence and of brides,
then, too, it must be admitted that
Republican Government is at an end,
and must, sooner or later, give way
to such other Government as may be
forced upon depraved and already
corrupted people. But if it is pro-
posed in advance to place the enfran-
chised negro under control, why con-
fer the franchise at all? Surely, the
part of wise government is to pre-
vent the evil, and not open the door
to the mischief which others are
admonished they must be prepared,
by trick or management. to avert.
But why press the subject further?
1t is enough for us to know that this
wild and reckless experiment comes
home to the hearth-stone of every
citizen, and involves family and pro-
perty, society, liberty, and even life
itself. Nor is this all. The courts
of justice are dragged into the mire
from their high position; our most
intelligent white citizens are excluded
from the jury, while the ignorant
negro is elevated to that responsible
position; the jury lists are made up
from the lists of registered voters,
which, rs we have said, are more
than two to one in favor of the negro.
| Not only, be it remembered, is the
negro admitted to the jury-box, but
the white man is excluded therefrom.
Think you that when the great mas
ters of the common law of England
pronounced their encomium upon
the trial by jury, that they contem-
plated for o moment such an
instrument rs an ignorant negro
panel? Think you, that when the
trainers of the Constitution of the
United States Incorporated into that
instrument the provision that the
trial by jury should always be held
inviolate, that they intended to en-
graft upon it such an enormity as
negro jurymen, fresh from the cotton
and rice fields of tho South? Think
you, that when John Rutledge and his
illustricus compeers signed that in
strument on tho part of South Caro-
lima, that they intended to forge a
chain which, in period no longer
than m ordinary lifetime, would
drag their grand children (who were
then playing around their knees, and
some of whom are now living,) for
trial before n jury of their own
slaves? Talk of additional humilia-
ton, talk of confiscation, complain of
clemency to rebels, after this! God
forbid! The Government of the
United States has enforced against
the Southern people the most stu
pendous act of confiscation that has
ever been enforced in the history of
nations; their property in slaves has
been confiscated to the amount of
three thousand millions of dollars;
other personal property, in the shape
of cotton, provisions, stock, plate
and money, has been captured or
destroyed, to the value Of one. thou
sand millions of dollars; and from
these causes their land has deterio-
rated to the extent of one thousand
millions nf dollars-n,aI.:ag ia the
aggregate the enormous sum of five
thousand millions of dollars. These
overwhelming pecuniary losses fall
exclusively upon tho Southern peo-
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