The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-10-12
C0ID E5lIBI 50 %. J.
.Tassdas Merning, 0atahsE L, 1858.

A/NWA1 &JRNAlNJAXESM I'd MEDXTSts
Tuesday Aernipg, October ~, 1859.
so = Sc srh. Acsfsa 61 sviFSTafa.E p q
The new Legislature of Virginia we
are told. have sdoptsd the fifteenth
amendment--adopt ptad it not becanse they
liked it. bat because the faith OF, the
slcceasful party was thereto pledged.
This is well, and no reasonable man will
find oause TO ,criticiae ON this account the
conduct Of The .sOld Dominion" In this
respect, Virginia wisely yielded to the
iorcs 81 siroahstances,,; andf hade an
honorable surrender to power and force
Asa writer ID 'DsBowS s Rsvisve has well
said: ~ 4 AEtr.j ! .p1
s'Yirgtnia oannot be charged with any
dereliction OF honor. Her battle-felds
and her cemeteries attest her fidelity to
principlee.y Her courts Of Justice the
prey, OF adventurers, her halls Of legisla-
lation dehle6 by ignorance and rapacity,
her social aud industrial interests para
lyzed aby radical rule, would render it
shameful in any one who had suffered
less To- censure the proprietyiof her con-
duct sore. Dil..3', b!oY .r 81
But now that Virginia has fulfilled her
pledge. and ratified the, fifteenth amend
ment. which radical illiberaiity made a
condition precedent. 10 her admission
into the Uhion, let us trust that, after
her Admission; 2 Virginia win no longer
submit to the dfctation OF the Infamous
leaders Of an iufamous party; The Rich
mond Enquirer aud .Esami,,er has yield
ed inpch; but shat journal feels! thst@,it
can n-yieldlno more; consistently with the
honor and dignity and interests of vir-
ginia; ant1it we'll Says, in it's issue of the
7thi instant:, \, 80 ~ ~ ~ WI.
1tsThere is wide distinction between
complying with the Acts of Congress on
the subject OF reconstruction and volun-
tarily performing other acts in addition
to the requirements of the Federal Co.
vernmentin that regard. There is diff
ference between submitting to what we
have no power to resist and voluntarily
searching for fresh displays Of oomplai-
sance. Our view is that we have accept
ed the Underwood constitution and the
fifteenth amendment because we had no
option in the matter; we have remodelled
our internal polity in obedience to a
mandate from stronger and conquering
power. Now, to go beyond this, and
manifest superhuous alacrity in appeas-
ing and modifying the victorious party,
is not only against nature. but is direpu-
table and unmanly They have laid
down their terms, and it is not denied
that they were severe and harsh in the
extreme; and we shall have performed
our part when we shall have complied
with them.
Eve do not desire to enter the Union
with any hypooritical face. It is abso-
lutely impossible for hs at the South to
enjoy at heart the process of reconstruc-
tion, or to revolutionize our social order
in any gushing frame. We say. .We do
it; and we do it in good faith. We aban-
don our theories aud our projects, and
return to the Union. We return with
the idea that it is the government we
shall live under. and with the desire to
make ourselves happy by making it-so
far as we cana good government. We
wish to make o substantial peace-and
to leave it to time to obliterate and to
erase the traces Of bitter contest
"We do not go back into the Union in
the spirit OF slaves. We do not propose
to purchase favors and benefits by obse-
quious and servile demonstrations.
Thank God! we stand erect, as those
who have nothing to be ashamed of, and
who have not had the opportunity to
learn how to bend tho pregnant hicges
OF the knee.
''The preservation of this spirit we
know very we'll is not railroads nor plum
der; but it is the preservation of our race
and Of that without which life is con-
temptible, and the comforts of life void
OF satisfaction. Preserve the brave,
fearless, manly temper of the Southern
people, and you save from the wreck of
our fortunes the most precious gem that
sparkled in the crown in our days of
prosperity. For railroads, and turn
pixies, and bridges, and aqueducts, did
not save Rome when the immortal spirit
had been attacked like % worm i the
bud And therefore the cry for material
development per fas am nsfas-at any
sacrifice of feeling, honor or principle
on the ground that the days of principle,
like the days of chivalry, are ended, is a
6ecantivo md Aoo~oxk ell.