The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-07-22

South Carolina by destroying the
property upon which the contracts
were leased, and which constituted
the essential part of the contraots.
Every lawyer knows that wise
legislator or statesman will look at
the condition of the State for which
he is to iegisiate, and adapt his mea-
sures to that condition. N Now, what
is the condition of South Carolina,
in pecuniary point of feview, which
is the only aspect in which shall
consider it at present. You see q
PROSTATE, ruined country, the people
all impoverished, heavy indebted
ness hanging over them, and nothing
wherewith- to ,pay-these debts based
upon millions uponjmillions of pro-
perty that has been swept away.
BY 'whom?zThere is but one answer
by their own Government. Can
they pay these debts with the pit
tance that the Government and the
ravages of war has left them2 You
know that they cannot. When I
say the people, / mean at least nine
tenths of them. This is their condi-
ton. Their homesteads is about all
that is left. Will you bring them
under the sheriff's hammer; drive
their owners to desperation by turn
ing them out of doors; risk all the
horrors Of civil strife that may grow
out of it? And for what will you do
this? That few Shylocks may get
fourth part. probably not tenth
part, of what they claim. For there
arc hundreds of families owning
comfortable homes, which, if put
upon the sheriff's block. would not
bring over one-tenth part of what
they owe. Would you turn these
families out of doors, expose defence
less women and children to the howl
ing winds and pelting storms Of win
ter, without shelter to cover their
defenceless heads, and all this for no
fault Of theirs, but simply because
Government has made them bank
rupt, by destroying their property,
and thereby rendering it impossible
for them to pay their debts? L am
strongly inclined to think that it
would be far better that all the Shy
locks of the country-I won't say
and all the lawyers too-should be
sent to Davy Jones locker, or where
Wards ducks went. My advice to
you, then, is not to listen to what
law or lawyers or judges say to you,
but exercise the common sense that
God has given you, and carry out
the homestead law, as passed by
your Convention. You know that
the situation of the country loudly
calls for measure of this kind. Do
this, and you will have discharged
your duty to your constituents and
to your God. Your act of humanity
will be sanctioned by the tribunal Of
high Heaven, whatever the fate of
the measure may be before the tri-
bunals of earth.
1 will make only one more sugges-
ton. In recognizing the judiciary
of the State, I would limit the power
of the judges and the courts, particu-
larly the Court of Errors If the
acts of the Convention, always re-
garded the highest authority in the
State, can be declared null and void
by the aforementioned Court of
Errors, then the sovereign power
resides in the court, and not in the
Convention of the people. If the
Convention has just so much power
and no more, as the court in its
sovereign clemency may permit, then
the Convention is miserable farce,
and the Legislature, too, and L would
petition this august, sovereign tribu-
nal of judges to abolish both rs
entirely useless, involving useless
expenditure of the public money.
And 1 would politely request the
aforesaid august tribunal to become
the makers as we'll as the expounders
of all laws. These are some of the
views and opinions entertained by
very many of the people.
ONE OF THE PEOPLE.
Democratic Meeting.