The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-10-07
COLUMBIA =
Wednesday Morning. Oct. z. 1858.
The Issue and the Candidates.

The Issue and the Candidates.
When Solon was framing laws for
the Athenians, he ordained that who
ever remained neutral in the time of
domestic war, should be declared in
famous for life. We have entered upon
aconfict, in which neutrality would be
a crime. This is no old-time political
bout or tournament. The issues
which hinge upon the November
election, are of an Importance which
cannot be over-estimated. 1t is not
to decide whether the bonds are re-
deemable in gold or greenbacks; nor
, is it to decide whether negroes are to
ride in railroad cars; but it is to de-
termine whether we are to have union
or practical disintegration. Whether
Congress shall still hold in its iron
grasp the State governments of the
South, and obliterate from the map
of the Union those States which first
gave it existence. The momentous
issues which hang upon the decision
of these questions, should be care
fully weighed by every thoughtful
man. The question is one of peculiar
importance.
Much has been said about the
financial plank in the Democratic
platform. Great is the out-cry which
the radicals, for political capital. have
attempted to raise against it. Let us
see what it says: Payment of the
public debt of the United States as
rapidly as practicable; all moneys
drawn from the people by taxation,
except so much rs is requisite for the
necessities of the Government econo-
mically administered, being honestly
applied to such payment; and where
the obligations of the Government do
not expressly state upon their face,
or the law under which they were
issued does not provide, that they
shall be paid in coin, they ought, in
right and justice, to be paid in the
lawful money of the United States"
Does that sound like reputation,
which the Democrats are accused of
advocating? Surely not. The radi-
Gals have attempted to draw line of
distinction between the letter and
the spirit of the act authorizing the
loan. They would, at one time,
gladly have stolen this plank, and in
corporatcd it into their own plat
form. Butler was in the van of those
who made this movement; but the
New England influence was too
strong. The pampered bond-holders
of New England were not yet ready
to loose their vampire hold upon the
laboring man. This influence, then,
determined them to abandon the
letter for what they call the spirit.
Our party would do justice to al and
oppress none.
This they have made the ostensible
issue, though, in reality, the true
point of contest is whether the States
OF the South shall be re-admitted,
nntrnmmelled by Congressional en-
actments, to their proper representa-
ton Ill the Federal Government, or
whether their surrendering all the
powers OF control into the hands of
nm inferior race, just emerged from
state OF bondage, shall be made
condition precedent to their obtain
ing their own. Not that any validity
could be the consequence of such an
admission, when the people again
come to their senses, even supposino
they should be so blind as to rat;fv
and confirm the Congressional policy
of reconstruction in November, for IL
is well settled principle of ethics as