The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-01-27
CAPACITY or NAN FOR SELF.
t GOVERNMENT.

speeches and esssys upon political sub
jeots, from 1860 to 1859, the, Somhem
Reuie,O (published at Baltimore) for Ja-
nsary, 1870, saJs:
| "Our eyes are open; we see the truth.
Our leaders still believe, we are sorry to
say. that the people are capable of soli-
government'-that is to say, the people
OF the South. The Yankees, on the
by the use of that epithet,) believe that
ment-that is to say. the Yankees and
the negroes, but not the whites of the
South. Our disbelief is far moro catho-
lie. comprehensive and profound. It is
not the species Yankee. nor the species
negro, nor the species cavalier, which
has brought the experiment of self
government to grief; ii is the genus man.
All are alike, if not equally, incapable Of
self-government. The Yankee, the negro,
the cavalier, may lay the fattering unc-
tion to his soul, that his race is capable
of self-government; but it is all delu-
sion. Even our well-beloved people of
the South. we fearlessly assert, are not
so much better than all the rest of the
world, as to be capable of the enjoyment
of such II boon; for, as Rousseau well
says, or, rather, as history teaches, De-
mocracy, or the government of the peo-
pie by themselves, is good form for q
nation of gods, but lis too perfect for
man. Tho people of the South are
only men, not gods, and hence, if
scheme of pure government is not
too perfect for them, they are too per
feet for it.
Whereupon, that ably edited and high.
toned journal, tho New Orleans Times,
says:
eve enter our protest, as Southern
chievous diatribe on self.govern ment,
vented by quarterly review which
claims to represent the opinion of the
Southern people, and to speak auth orita
lively for them in their present calami-
tous circumstances.
cit is not so much an assault upon the
particular form of government under
which the American people have always
lived, and to which they are still attach
cd, because it is founded on the inalien
able rights of man, as upon human
nature itself, upon the rational nature
with which God has endowed every
human being, investing him with kind
of sovereignty-aJ least. with q control
over his own acts, if he is q moral agent,
Il citizen, or even q subject. 1t is libel
upon the wisdom and benevolence of
him who has endowed man with such Il
nature, and with consciousness of his
independence, in order to qualify him
for noble actions, fit him for elevated
pursuits, and inspire him with courage
to undertake them. It is equally an out
rage upon the character of those students
of mankind and of its capacities, Of
those philosophers and sages, who, with
the consent of the people, have formed
and established governments, founded
on this very principlo-the right and ca
pacity of man for self-govcrnment.
Had the writer maintained that men,
endowed with the power Of self-control,
do not always govorn themselves as they
should-that they frequently forget the
high vocation to which they are called as
men and citizens of q free country-that
voice of reason and the monltions of
is worthy of them, and arc driven hither
and thither by caprices, prejpdices.
opinions and passions, which involve
them in fatal mistakes, and surround
them with wretched circumstances; had
he maintained that the Government
under which we live, and which, admin
istered on the principles on which it was
originally founded, is a noble Govern
ment, has been, since the termination of
the late unhappy civil war, signally mis-
managed by a weak and unprineipled
party, who have failed to represent the
will OF the people in governing them
selves, he would have committed, pro-
badly, no great blunder; but when he
asserts, frcm the tripod, that man, gifted
with reason and common sense, is aotu-
ally incapable of solf-government and
only fit to be the subservient tool, in
strument or slave of tyrants, who, in
any conjuncture of circumstances, have
seized on the reins of Government, he
advances a mean and miserable dictum
which has been exploded for centuries,
and was never worthy of being main
tained for moment"
We agree entirely with the Times. We
have no sympathy with that affection
which leads to such conclusions as those
reached by the Southern Reriew. AS
there are men who are fond of affecting