The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-10-29
Tho Govornor,s IsroclsmlatIon.

when acts of violence are committed
and threats for vengeance have be.
come closely allied to- party feeling,
the law-abiding citizen may well
pause amid the turmoil by which he
is enveloped and inquire as to the
salOo which is needed to abate the
storm of passion which looms up in
the not distant future.
Men are now constituted as they
have ever been, and the very peculiar
and defanged situation of the body
poEtic.. inthe late Confederate States.
is not at ali calculated to allay the
pride of citizenship in Carolina; nor
can it reasonably be expected that
her law-abiding citizens will passive
ly yield to the fulminations of any
man, a1hen those fulminations are
heralded against them almost en- naasSe,
and they characterized ,as violators of
the laws, as murderers. as accessory
with, and to, murderers; and, gene
rally, as citizens in open rebellion to
the laws and government (so-called)
of the State.
If Carolinians merit. uo,o, such
characteristics, surely have they
fallen from their former high estate;
and if the citizens of the District,
classed by q late proclamation of
Gov. Scott as revolutionary and ar
rayed against his authoritory, be the
'riotous, murderous and desperate
men which that proclamation CLASH
fes them, then surely it is time that
the question be propounded:
''Shall such things be,
And overcome us like summers cloud,
And not excite our special wonder?"
His Excellency says: "Whereas,
reports are being daily received at
this Department, and particularly
from the Counties of Abbeville, An
derson. Edgefeld, Lexington, New
berry, Chester, Laurens, Union,
York and Darlington, that the laws
are being violated, and the officers of
the law set at Defiance" &c. Now
this, all of it, is certainly very Sc.
rious state of affairs, in those Dis
tricts especially; and one would pre-
sumo, as these reports are being
"daily" received, that the public
press in each of those Districts, or
Counties, would have given the peo-
plo of the State some information of
this degraded and criminal situation
into which the citizens of these To-
calities have brought themselves,
not only the white but, par excellence,
the black citizens also. His Excel
lency makes no special distinction,
and one may take it as truism that
he classes his sable fellow-citizens in
the same category. Be this as it
may, this new order of citizens have
been reconstructed, and are, conse-
quently, included.
Whenever q public officer makes q
broad assertion, under the seal of his
Office, it is to he presumed that all
due credence will be given to the
document, especially emanating from
the Governor of q State; yet, never
theless, every citizen has right to
inquire as to the base upon which
such document is issued and pro-
claimed-and hence the privilege of
the citizen as to his belief or doubt
as to the matter in issue.
The first inquiry, then, as to all
this outrage and murderous intent is,
from whom has the Governor receiv-
ed these "daily" reports upon which
ne has issued his late proclamation?
Has he received them from RESPONSE
BILE, respectable and law-abiding citi-
zens, as he himself is, or has he
received them from the interlopers in
the State-those who have not
home among US, who are squatters
for the time being, and are not wor-
thy of credence, from their associa-
tion, under the Acts of Reconstruc-
tion, with the idlers of another race?
Who are these special informants?
In other words, are they white men
or negroes?
There IS no man among us who
would deny to his ExceJlency the
right TO exercise his faith in these
informants, more especially if the
information be an implication against
South Carolina white man; but his
faith must have very extensive mar
gin to have induced such document
as his late proclamation, which de-
nounces, as it were by inuendo, the
white citizens of ten Districts in the
State, whose character, honor and
worth would not suffer at all in COM
parison with any citizen with whom
his Excellency has heretofore asso-
ciated.