The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-06-24
COLIJ.NBIA.
Wednesday Morning. june "a. 1868.
Apply tho Napoleonio Maxim.

maxims was-neoer do ,ohat your ad-
versa-ies desire you to do. We hope
that the Southern delegates to the
Forthcoming Democratic Convention
will act upon this principle. Tine
New York Times takes as its text an
extract from. Mr.. Edmund .Rhett's re-
cent letter to the Charleston Mercury,
and founds threupon its predictions
as to the results to he anticipated
from the Convention of the Fourth
of Julygproxs Q Itregards MIR. Rhett's
views as expressing the tone and
opinions of the, Southern extremists,
and thereupon argues that the South
will be in that Convention Sin its old
oolors. with its old spirit, and, we
may add, with its old tendency to
self-destruction.,"' It says:
"The Southern extremists, however,
scout the suggestion as treason to
their rights, not less than to the ira.
ditions of Democracy. They care
nothing about the candidate-every-
thing about the platform. They
are willing to vote for Mr.. Anybody,
provided he stand on their platform.
In this way. they intend to re-anact
the folly of 1860. They demand the
privilege of debating terms. They
claim the right Of saying of what
stuff the platform shall be built, and
how it shall be put together. Grant
this, and they will be satisfied. Deny
it, or qualify it, and they threaten to
bolt, to depart incontinently, to
shake off their feet the dust of Tam
many, and to retire to their States
disgusted and Indifferent. We might
quote many passages from Southern
journals to show the accuracy of this,
rendering of their tone" 7i ~
We. will say to the Times, that it
will be disappointed in its expecta-
tions. The South will go in that
Convention in no such spirit as that
suggested. But deferring to the wis
dom and Judgment of the Northern
wing of the Democracy, we expect to
be able to fake up the man and the
measures agreed upon, and work for
them with will. But although the
State will illustrate a becoming mo-
desty in that Convention, her dele
gates will also, we are sure, show q
becoming manliness. They must not
be expected to 60 further than to ac-
cept the legitimate aud logical results
Of the late war. They must be
allowed to remain faithful to the
memories of the past, whilst they &C.
cept the accomplished facts of the
present. q p.
But we must not close before re-
spectfully suggesting to our cotempo-
rary of the Mercury, how extreme
utterances injure the cause of the
South, and the Democratic party as
we'll. Does not the Mercury observe
how its own extremism of tone and
expression, honest and manly though
it is, is made the instrument of
serious injury to its own cause? For
instance, in the editorial letter re-
ferred to by the Times, and COM
mented upon so as to prejudice US in
the minds of the North, why need
the author have used this language:
"In the meantime, the South stands
by, and asks but one question-what
party will place US under the protec-
ton of the Constitution, and release
us from illegal negro domination? If
either, we sustain that party. IF
neither, then a0e hare no further inte-
rest in The proceedings, and they may
go TO The devil together, for all that s0e
care. The whites will. in that event,
be counted out, and leaoe The North
and The niggers to settle their squab5les
together. about party spoils and settle
naent Of debts" r-s,i
AS for ourselves, we regard this as
scarcely considerate enough to the
Convention soon to assemble, and to
the Democracy of the North. The
Mercury is our senior, but we ven.
ture, whilst conceding to it much of
ability and all of aincerity, to, spg-,
-