The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-01-03
COLUMBIA
Friday Morning, January s. 1883.
Progress OF, the Counter-Revolutfon
The Prospect Before Us.


A wall Of distress, deep and wide
spread, comes up from the entire
South. That productive region of
e country. has become as poor as If it
had been struck with sterility. In
dustry has been paralyzed through
the legislation of radical Congress-.
On one hand starvation. stares the
people, both white and black, in the
face, and on the other they live in
dread of a terrible interneoine war
between the races. Gems. Ord and
Hancock, and otSiher s.gaoi0us aud /
conservative officers of the Govern
ment in the South, see what is COM
ing, and they appeal to the authori-
ties at Washington and to the people,
through the press, for help. But
where, is help to come from2 The
North is suffering from the same
cause. The New York Herald states
that so, 600 workmen are out of en-
ployment in New York, and the same
deplorable state of things is seen
generally throughout the Northern
States. Winter has set in with q
fearful prospect for the laboring poor.
What, then, will the North be able to
do for the South when widespread
distress prevails at home? What can
the Government do? With burden
of taxation unequalled in any coun-
try-a burden that has become insup-
portable the Northern people can
not support freedmen's bureaus or
other monstrous charitable institu-.
tions for the maintenance of 5000, 600
or 1000, 900 of idle negroes and mil
lions of impoverished whites in the
South. The United States Treasury,
so far from having money for such
purpose, must soon become bankrupt
itself under radical rule. Looking
at these appalling signs of the times,
it is evident that the whole country
is on the eve of such revulsion and
such distress as it has never yet expe-
rienced.
When the war ended, the industry
OF the South was not destroyed. A
vast deal of property had been de-
stroyed, it is true; but the loss fell
chiefly upon the Southerners them
selves. Still, the rich and productive
soil remained, and the labor to culti-
vate it is here. The people accept
ed their changed situation as the ma
tural result of the war, and were dis
posed everywhere to go to work ear
nestly to maintain themselves and to
improve their fortunes. Grant, Sher-
man and many other military COM
manders, granted liberal terms on the
surrender of the Confederate armies,
looking to an early restoration of
harmony and good will. The Presi-
dent, though he made some mistakes
in his trying position, favored the
same policy. No one of sense and
divested of strong prejudice, could
help seeing that the welfare of the
North, as we'll as of the South-of
the whole country, in fact-depended
upon liberal policy and early re-
storation of the Southern States.
But, unfortunately, revolutionary
Congress-haying an overwhelming
radical majority, though elected on
no such issue as that they have since
made-adopted proscriptive and
ruinous policy toward the South, di-
rectly opposed to that of the Generals
of the army, the President and the
people generally. Instead of restor-
ing the South, with slavery abolish
ed, they undertook to reconstruct it
on the basis of negro supremacy.
Their sole object was to create radi-
cal political power in the South, by
means of the negro vote, which would
give them continued control Of the
Government and the spoils of Office.