The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-09-04
COLIJlMBIA. s. G.
Sunday Morning September 4, 1870.
Tine PolisioaltsItaation.

THE Political. .sliaatioa. Il ~,
Practical, common sense people usually
achieve results through practical. COM
nonsense measures. They do not ex-
peot to gather grapes of thorns, or figs
of thistles, nor do they believe that the
longest way round is invariably the
shortest way home. AS pertinent to this
issue, we take it for granted that the
necessity of complete change in the
management Of our public affairs has
become apparent to all. Radicalism, So
called, has played its disgusting part, to-
the utter decentralization of its agents
and the utter prostration of the best in
terests of the country. Except among
those, who profit by its corruption, it
can find none 30 poor as to do it rever-
ence. Born of confusion and inferno
cine strife, nursed at the pap of fraud,
fostered by irresponsible and arbitrary
authority. it now approaches folon's
end with felon's impertinencc. The
verdict Of popular condemnation has
been written on the walls of the Nations
House of Life, and the judgment is re-
corded in that red-leafed book-the peo-
ple's heart-never to be erased.
In view Of the consummation, 30 de-
voutly to be wished, the people Of each
State will be compelled to take COM
non-sense view of their circumstances
and surroundings, and plan the ap-
proaohing campaign with an intelligent
recognition Of oil the advantages and
disadvantages of the situation. There
must be no attempt to ignore existing
laws, or to deprive any man of rights
recognized by constitutional provisions.
Bringing the matter home to ourselves,
the first and most vital demand made
upon US, as a self-goyerning people, is
to redeem the State. Every man who
has property to be preserved from tho
rapacity of the plunderer, and to whom
the pursuit of happiness is not an en-
tirely abandoned dream, is interested in
driving out from their strongholds of
security the political adventures who
have fastened themselves as vampires on
the State. to eat away its substance, and
have Knocked our people in their calamity
with the severe scorn of spoil-loving and
spoil-holding conquerors.
To the citizens of Columbia and South
Carolina, plunderers at homo are far
more to be dreaded than plunderers at
Washington. Our local taxes are heavier
than our Federal taxes, and for our own
local shortcomings we are more directly
responsible, both in purse and feeling,
than for those which we suffer in COM
mon with all the rest OF the sovereign
people of the United States-the propric.
tors and rulers of ''boundless CONT
nent." AS preliminary to attending to
the necessities of the Nations House Of
Life, let us see to it that our own house
is set in order-that oil rodent intrudcrs
are driven from harder and kitchen, from
store house and sink, and on odor of de-
cency and propriety is again established
in that dearest of oil places homo. To
do this would be comparatively easy if
all who arc interested in bringing about
so desirable a result could be induced to
work harmoniously together.
Disturbing elements must be thrust
aside, if we wish to secure that union
which is strength. Tho anti-nigger,
Quixotic warfare against dead issues and
settled results, which sectional Hotspurs
are so prone to engage in, is not only
useless but suicidal, and must conse-
quently be frowned down. We must
ungrudgingly give the negro all his
moral, political and legal rights, or we
cannot expect that cooperation on
which alone victory may be safely pre-
dictated. His interest in faithful and
economical administration Of our public
trusts, and on honest collection and dis
bursement Of necessary taxes, is as great,
in q moral and political point of view, as
that of any other citizen. Let him,
then, be invited to join in holy effort
to maintain those principles OF unadul-
turated Republicanism which properly
attach to legitimate self-goyernment