The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-10-14

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conspicuous places; but the strongest
cards which the radical leaders bad.
we're disbelief in your vows of aIle,d
glance, want of confidence in Your
Proiessi onss respecting slavery, fear
Tor the future of the freedmen, and
deep distrust of your patience and
good conduct in such matters as free
d1scussion,I forbearance with differ
ence OF opinion, and the right of un-
molested travel or settlement among
you. Perhaps you are aware how
gravely such doubts and fears have
compromised your case, but it NAV
be Wholesome, if distasteful, to re-
view these widespread suspicious
and opinions little in detail.
OF course, nothing could tend
more strongly to justify the severe
measures of the Republican party
towards you, or secure for them more
surely an indefinite extension of DO
liticnl power, than &c be able to- per-
suade the North, which in the early
days of peace was inclined to place
generous confidence in your profess
sions OF sincere and absolute acuui-
escence in the event of the war, and
your purpose to abide in good faith
boy the decision, that you were mere
dlssemblers, and dishonorable per-
lurers:; That your purpose was to re-
deem by hard swearing what you lost
by hard fighting. And you your
selves, In many cases, furnished the
material for making evidence against
yourselves. Part of it was legitimate
and part was very unfair, but it all
was eagerly caught up and unspar-
lngly used. If you had been q dam
gerous foreign foe, whose utter de-
structIon was necessary to our safety,
greater pains could hardly have been
taken to influence the people against
you and to close their hearts to your
appeals. doubt if Cato took more
trouble to show the Roman people
that Carthage must be DESTROYED.
and Punic faith must have been very
bad, indeed, if it was represented to
be worse than your own. Every
hasty word, every natural regret,
every expression of pride in the me-
mories of the old campaigning days,
every ebulhtion of heat, was care
fully remembered and spread before
the North. If an irresponsible news
paper editor or reporter published q
foolish and lnfiammatory article, it
was instantly pounced upon and scat
tered all over the North, to show that
the mass of Southern feeling was as
rebellious as ever. If you made any
attempt to take part in politics. you
were bent on revolution; if you re-
Trained, you We're sullenly plotting
new insurrcction. The peaceful pre-
sence of delegates at the Convention
IN New York, was plot, and the re-
solutions were dictated by you, and
yonr only object was to seduce the
Democratic party into O new war.
These devices and thousand more
have been used SO long and SO we'll,
that 1t is no wonder that they have
produced very great effect. The
person or the paper cited against you
may have been SO obscure as not to
have reached your notice here, or SO
low rs to preclude serious attention
on your part, or the writer, or the
speaker, may have garbled or falsified,
it made no difference, the contradic
oASA ~ NioC CiOOl illtr Iu0 QaM
age was done, and was not published
to the same audience which had seen
or heard the charge made. The anti
dote was powerless to reach the poi
son.
Nor were your intentions respect
ing slavery satisfactory. It was
urged that it had become SO ingrained
that you could not, of yourselves, re.
frain from o longing for it, and the
wish would ripen into deeds if the
chance was offered. It was useless to
urge your consent to the thirteenth
amendment. If you ever had the
power, yon would surely denounce
your action therein, as done under
duress and evil. II one asked to
be shown some conceivable method
by which, under the circumstances.
such consummation could be prac
tically arrived at, the only answer was:
"Where there's will there's way"
1t was useless to urge that if slavery
was, at best, an expensive establish.
ment, it now would be worse than
valueless; nor could the very men
who had always proved this very fact.
and declared, further, that you were
sitting on q powder magazine, even
when your slaves were most isolated,
most ignorant, most guarded and alb
solutely unarmed, see that now, when