The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1868-01-23
From the Charleston Mercury.
Our Duty towards Each Other.

The Southern people now are like
seamcn and passengers in ship, la
bouring with broken masts and creak-
ing tinbcrs, in a tremendous storm
at sea,-or like the inhabitants now
around Mount Vesuvius, buried under
it's fiery eruptions, or driven away
destitute and sorrowing from their
ruined villages and homes,-or like
the victims Of the late earthquakes in
the West Indies, with nothing but
life left, from the heaving land and
rolling oceans. We arc fellow-suffer-
ers; with as little sympathy for our
sufferings and ruin, from those who
produced them, as from the subter'
ranean fires orraging ocean,. What is
the course we should pursue towards
each other under our common calaml-
ties and distresses?
There is nothing, which proves and
elevates the virtues Of free people,
like oppression and tyranny. People
are made great, precisely as true
Christians are made holy,-by suffer-
ina. National life, like individual
life, is. kept pure by continual trial
and discipline. On the contrary,
when prosperity is won by oppression
and wrong, did it ever elevate or
purify-people? 1t is like the forced
growth of a plant by the Chinese
iuggler, which withers away, under
the free air of Heaven. Look at the
triumphant North now. Has it i'm
proved by its war successes, in pollt-
cal or private morals? Is reverence
for the constitution and national faith
increased. Has a love for liberty and
hatred of tyranny, grown brig hter in
the land; and purcr standard OF
virtue been enforced in the admins
tration of the general government?
Have the Christian virtues of charity,
justice and peace, been more faith
fully practiced towards the South;
and the noble system Of free govern
ment transmitted to them by their
ancestors, been thereby better main
tanned? We ask these questions of
the North, but cannot we answer
some of them, at least, for the South?
Great as the Southern people were
before tile aoar in their craftsmanship,
= great as they we're IN tie aoar in
their military achicvements,-they
are greater ROW, in the sublime pa
tience and checrfulness they have
exhibited, amidst the ruin and desc
lation of their country. Thousands
and tens Of thousands have been
cast down from affluence to poverty,
from being the bcnc6cent dispen-
sers OF U1rur15y + 10 rUvvtrirrs tr5--rrorrr
most refined pursuits Of life, to the
most revolving. Yet, meet these men
and these women;-and, although
the lines of suffering are on their ia
ces, what noble persistency,-what
Grand heroism illuminates their lives!
The unconquerable will, the aspira-
tions for liberty made higher by suf-
ferinas-the unquenched and un-
ouenchable trust in God and truth,
nerves their hearts for yet glorious
destiny. The maniacs or fools, or
worse than fools-thc Radical tyrants
who have cursed the whole land,
North and South, with apolitical and
moral blight, more hideous than that
which afflicted Egypt, because unde-
served, may be unable to understand
them. Their quiet endurance, may
sometimes be construed to mean, abb
iect prostration. But even the Rad
ical knows better. Hence his violent
and furious efforts of repression. No
degradation seems too deep,-no per-
secution too exhausting, in his estima-
ton, to beat down and crush the
spirit of the South. His Internal
devices of tyranny and cruelty, are
proofs conclusive Of his exhalted ap-
preciation of the Southern people,
He says, that they are not subdued.
He says, that their quletude is most
defying,- their proud submission,
most ominous to the despotism he is
building up over the United States.
Hence, war, and war eternal, is his
policy against the whole Southern
white race. Poor, wretched, mischief
-vous, driveller! He little knows,
that he may be contributing only to
their ultimate elevation, greatness
and renown. They may yet obtain
foothold in the United States; and
again lead it, as they have heretofore
done, to grand career of free gov
ernment and liberty, which shall COM
mand the: applause and admiration of
the world. Hispolicy, is that of a mean
Infamous, vulgar despotism. Ofcomse