The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-10-03
Riots sna Reconstruction Sn the
- South,

Every day we have to chronicle
some deed of violence and bloodshed
in the South, arising from the dis
turbed state of the public mind upon
the subject of politics. At one time
the State of Tennessee is in terrible
commotion, and the Ku Klux assas-'
sinations there are, according to the
Brownlow papers and proclamations,
fearful i'll number, and attended with
savage atrocity. Then the soil of
Arkansas becomes blood stained with
daily and nightly murders. Next we
have New Orleans negro procession
riots, attended with sanguinary re-
suits; and, finally, for the present at
least, comes the Camilla tragedy,
with its accompanying horrors and
widespread excitement and alarm.
Naturally enough each party as
cribes the origin of these turbulent
proceedings to the other. Each can
find witnesses to swear the other was
to blame, and each story is believed
to be true or false according to the
predictions Of those who listen to
one or the ether. The truth is, these
outrages arise from natural causes.
They are to be attributed to the sys-
tenn of reconstruction which the Re
publican party insist on forcing upon
the people of the South, against their
will and consent.
1t is struggle on the part of the
Democrats to possess power, and on
the part of the Republicans to retain
it. It is o contest between the old
Southern rebel Democracy who, with
all their force Of character, self
reliance and audacity, are striving
against the Republicans of the North,
who, on their side, with their usual
unscrupulous shrewdness and cum
ming, desires to establish the domina-
ton of the black race and its recogni-
ton upon a standard of equality, or
rather of supremacy in every respect
over the white in the South. OF
course this utter destruction of the
whole social and political relations of
the Southern white people cannot be
tolerated by the masses of the whites,
neither in the South nor in the North,
for any length of time, even if it
should be absolutely permitted for u
day. 1t is, briefly, race between
both parties as to who shall win the
black vote, and the Southern Demo
Gratis stand as good o chance as the
Republicans. The former are we'll
understood to mean what they say,
and intend to keep the promises they
make to the blacks. The Republicans
are fast losing whatever hold they
had upon the affections of the colored
people by repeated acts of fraud and
deception.
The Democrats are actively at work
getting up conventions, public meet
ings, minglipg on terms of political
fairness with the blacks and making
them understand who their true
friends are. On the other hand, the
Republicans are only making head
way with the blacks by endeavoring
to instil into their minds fear that
their former masters intend 70 reduce
them again to state of bonu ige and
by making them believe they mean
to confer upon them every preroga-
tive enjoyed by the whites-to sit in
Congress, in State Legislatures and
the like-while they tell altogether q
different story at the radical hustings
in the North, in those radical States
which have pronounced against ne
gro suffrage and negro equality. So
for as the carpet-baggers are con-
cerned, it is game of double-shufie
oil around. They are shnffling with
Sambo in the cabins at the South,
and shutting with the anti-negro
equality Republicans in the North.
But in the end, we do not believe the
Sambo shuttle will win. It is too
broad faced cheat and humbug, of
which the sensible blacks are not
likely to be made the permanent vic
TINS. Hence, with the Southerners
successful in securing the vote of the
black population, their triumph in
every Southern State is assured, and
with that influence they will rally the
old Democratic party all over the
country, obtain restoration to that
half century of power which they
unwisely surrendered in 1860, and the
nation will again have trial for an
other half century of the regular old
fashioned Southern Democratic rule.
We do not believe the Southerners
will ever undertake again to break
down the Government But they
will start anew upon the plan of Go
vernment which, with but ono or two
exceptions, they knew how to carry
on SO well for so long time, and
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