The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-04-08
COLUMBIA, S. G.
Friday Morning, April 8, 1870.
wha, Reconstr4so.ion Means.

Friday Morning, April 8, 1870.
What Reconstrasction Means. 5tr3
Don Piatt, the Republican correspond
ent of the radical Cincinnati Commercial,
says:
The Senatorial confusers of useful
knowledge are pounding away at Geor-
gia. Senator Revels is to deliver, to-
day, Governor Bullock's speech, and the
old routine of talk will go on over and
over to ~ dreary length OF aPoplectic
stupidity. Troops are needed in North
Carolina. Troops are called for in Ten
nessee, and there seems to be no end of
tinkering, patching and threatening on
the part of the majority in Congress.
And ,ohen zoe sU7 il fzo,cn to q real de,an;-
sion. reconstruction means voting The Re
publican ticket. ~
We have given to the negro the ballot
We have expended vast sums on his
education and for his support, and yet
the legislation in his behalf has no limit.
It is the hopeless legislation of ven
geance. Some fellow writes Senator
Sumner letter full of lamentations and
direful forebodings and Massachusetts,
elongated agony-the animated personal
pronoun "I"-rises in his place. has the
letter read, and then moves an enact
ment looking to the annihilation of the
disloyal element of the South. Well,
gentlemen, it can't be annihilated in that
way. This disloyal party, as you call it,
is the growing element in the South and
cannot be suppressed, unless we are
willing to give up our theory of govern
ment and wipe out the State lines, and
substitute military dependencies in their
stead. Let us see where we are.
After passing the most stringent enact
ments, after driving the disloyal element
from all political power, we find that it
yet exists. It makes up the majority in
numbers, and the vast preponderance of
brain. It controls the press, makes pub
lie sentiment and holds the property. 1t
is more dangerous to our Government
out of Office than in. Oppressed, in
suited aud abused, it grows in deadly
autagonism to- our best interest. and
sooner or later will come up and take
control to our injury.
know Of nothing more childish or
puerile than to, hear Charles Sumner or
Puritan Drake reading anonymous let
ters, and shaking their Senatorial fingers
at power that has to-day moro brain,
more pluck, and far more statesmanship
tuan CueSo OuI Aupolouo u" .hahCio.
I have no question but that Sumner,
Drake & Co.,ta honest III this. Bnt
one in saying 30 is forced to compliment
their morals at the expense of their in
tellect. But back OF these, and urging
them on, are certain other lawmakers
not SO honest. AS the matter stands,
neither the brain nor the material inte-
rests Of the South are represented in
Congress. New England and Pennsyl.
vania both represent that region. The
scalawag or carpet-bagger sits like L
monkey on a handorgan. watching with
keenest eyes the whip of his master.
The immense moneyed interests, the
accumulated and accumulating capital ol
the few, own and possess and occupy the
South. Hence it is we'll never to be done
reconstructing. We have toled the South
along as farmer does stupid OK, with
nubbins of corn, until the poor beast
finds that it was the yoke and not the
feed that he was to get.