The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-05-08
Radical Aggre,s,sons,

full OF the Democratic organs that We can
safely let things go on for the present az
they are going, and trust that Democratic
majorities in Congress will, within two or
three years at furthest, correct all the politi-
| crimes aud evils that are perpetrated. We
believe that we ourselves have occasionally
ventured to give something like assurances
TO the same effect, but we must confess that
| observation and reflection tend to fill our
minds with deep misgivings and dark fore
bodings. We do not distinctly or even in
distinctly see how the action of the ag-
gressive spirit sof radical andacity and out
rage in Congress is to be effectually resisted.
No matter how many members Of Congress
the Democracy may succeed in electing, the
radical members, having all the arbitrary
and responsible power of an unprincipled
aud unscrupulous ajority, will admit lust
as many of the elected Democrats as they
please, and not one Democrat more. TO
them tue popular vote is nothing, Weighed
against their political necessities or even
their political or personal preferences, it is
less than the dust of the balance. They
manufacture precisely as large majority
for themselves as their purposes. whatever
these may be, seem to them to require.
For instance, although the Democracy of
the nation elected, with unquestionable
fairness, considerably more than third
OF the members of the present Congress,
expecting thereby to prevent if necessary,
the radical majority from overriding the
Executive vetoes during the current four
years as they did during the last four, the
radical members excluded so many elected
Democrats and admitted so many unelected
radicals rs to secure for themselves q MAORI
ty Of two-thirds with quite a large margin
to spare, and would have done this even if.
in order to accomplish it, they had found
Of 1a,
twice rs many elected Democrats and ad-
mitting twice us many unelected radicals as
they did. Only by their wishes did they
measure or think of measuring the extent
OF their bold and undisguised usurpations
OF power. Worst of all, the people submit
to these things, if not with patience, at least
with an appearance OF it. We gee no popu-
lar outbreak, such as events like those now
occurring would have created only little
while ago. Most of the people seem to
submit as dumbly as if they were cattle.
Just before the late adjournment of the
House ofRepresentatives, the radical majority
ef that body forced into it, by their own vote
and not on account of any vote of the peo-
pie of South Carolina of whatever color, a
so-called Representative of that State, 5000
votes in the minority i'll his district. On
the same day, in defiance OF the Louisiana
people, white and black, they forced into
the House, Us the Representative of a dis
trict in that State, II man 5000 in the mi
nority. They have in the House the most
infamous Election Com mitteo that could
have been made up in body of unequaled
infamy, and all opposition to the voice of
the Committee is In vain. Aud no opportu-
nifty is allowed for fair discussion or even
for the semblance of discussion, all election
cases being decided under the stress of the
previous question. While one Representa-
tive from Louisiana, representing nobody
but himself, with no constituency whatever
except himself and the radical majority of
the House, Is voted into seat two genu-
Inc and regular representatives from the
same State, one of them elected by a major
lty OF more than 5000, and the other by
more than 10000, are excluded. From
Connecticut, the radical majority take in
three radical Representatives without even
certificates of election. The Democracy of
the Union elected between seventy and
eighty members, but the radicalism OF Con-
gress, by its action in regard to Missouri,
tennessee, Louisiana, and persons elected
from other States, have cnt down the De-
mocratic strength to between forty and
| fifty. Are such things expected to last
always? If not, when and how may we
look for them to be stopped? Is there no
point at which we may venture to hope that
the nation will rise up and demand it's
rights, hurting from power, at whatever
cost, the political miscreants who have
usurped the Government? Is the image
of freedom, is Gods own superscription
crushed out of the souls of our people for
ever?
would seem so; and yet the country is
not without hope, for what the people deny
to civil liberty, justice and humanity, they
are pretty sure to concede their own selfish
interests when the time arrives for them to
look at the political situation with reference
to their own immediate welfare. Many
questions loom up before us which promise
to help US out of the slough of radical mis-