The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-09-26

xvfht is kteconstEactson
Some things are best defined by I
,neggtion, and reconstrnetion is illus
trious in the list, Whatever it pro-
posed to do,3it notorionsly has not
doneg IT, rudely thrust aside the
peaceful method of the Executive,
set onSfoot at that happy moment
when, by General Grant Il tes stimony,
the Southern people were all ready to-
return to their duty in the Union
Reconstruction set ont with very
large promises Nearly four years
are gone by, and what has the per-
formance all llemounted. 80? ,Aradical
Congress quarreled with the Presi-
dent, and broke up the Governments
which he had initiated in the lately.
rebellious Southern States, because
they We're afraid. of losing political
power by the prompt admission of
their representatives. That is the
key to this whole story. Grant testi-
fed, from personal examination, that
the Southern people were oil ready to
resume self-government and send
representatives to Congress-, and
Sumner led off by denouncing the
report as ''white- washing" affair.
The fault of all this delay, then, was
not with the people of the South nor
with the President, but with Con-
gress.
Two years ago, reconstruction had
taken such shape, after q variety of
manipulations' that it all hinged on
the acceptance or rejection of the
fourteenth amendment by the people
of the Southern States-that is, if
they chose to enlarge the limits of
suffrage, then they were to be entitled
to O corresponding increase of repre-
sentation. The very fact that such
proposition was seriously Ito appear
ance) made TO them by Congress,
proved that they were still States in
the Union-that they had full and
unqualified control of the suffrage
question in their own localities-and
that Congress could not, constitu-
tionally, set aside their civil rights
by military power. But, having sue
cceded in carrying the Congressional
elections by this deceit, the radicals
soon threw off their disguise and set
up the army rule, naked and simple,
in place of their constitutional plan.
The sword governed; it took the
place of popular elections; itbecame
magistrate and judge; it supplanted
the fourteenth amendment and every
other; and, under it's rule, which is
to-day praised to the skies by the
radical press for the quiet they claim
it has restored, (while so many MUIR
ders and outrages are reported as
taking place, nevertheless,) the
blacks are set uppermost, the peace
of the South is not yet re=established,
prosperity has not returned, and
radicalism complains, by way of an
-electioneering argument, that the
body of the people are disafected
1t would be next to miraculous, if
they were not. General Grant testi-
fed, three years ago, that there was
q remarkably good feeling among
them, and that they were ready to
return to their places and duties. If
there is such q change as is charged
now, Congress and the party that
controls it are alone responsible.
But this is what reconstruction has
led to, and this is what it means.
1t does not mean restoration.
Three years ago, the radical papers
were speaking in admiration of Wade
Hampton's frank and manly course
in advising the people of South Caro-
lima, white and black, to begin and
profit by the costly lessons of the
war, and to place themselves in har-
monious relations with the Union
without delay. Now, the same
papers are falling violently upon him
as an "unsubdued REBEL" "who would
revive war in the South. Yet they
do not show that he has changed at
oil in his sentiments for the Union.
1t is radicalism that has made the
mischief by its growing usurpations,
for which it has over and over again
been condemned, and just as often
supported, afterwards, by its own
leading journals. How long ago was
it that these journals were proclaim
ing, in the very roundest terms, that
the men of the South who openly
fought us in the field were the ones
to become the frmest friends in a
state of peace? Yet, brave men like
Wade Hampton are abused by them
for presuming to be present in
National Democratic Convention.