The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-07-09


must be abolished; or second, the abso-
lutte and sharp antagonism of the races
must pe SO far removed as to enable the
good people of both to combine for the
purposes OF good government. Let us
examine these alternatives in their order
First: Shall we undertake to abolish
universal suffrage? Where is the hope
OF success? The principle of universal
suffrage constitutes the basis of Demo
cratic Republicanism throughout the
world. It is the corner stone of all ex-
isting governmental in the Southern States.
The American Democracy in 1868 warred
not against the principle, but contended
only for the right of the States to control
it. The strongest Democratic States of
the Union have incorporated it into their
practice and their laws. The American
people, in the last Presidential election,
by large majorities, pledged themselves
to maintain it in the South. The fifteenth
amendment. prohibiting its abridgement
by the United States or any of the States.
has assumed the form of law and is sus-
tained and enforced by the General Go.
vernment, with all its power, by the
enactment of the strongest legal sane
tons. The Executive, the Judiciary,
and the people Of the country, are well
known to be in harmony with the mea-
sure. No party has raised the standard
OF revolution or repeal. Where, then,
shall the crusade against principle thus
fortified, begin? Let him who will, IN
dertake the task, we push the argument
to his own conclusion, and meet him
there
Assume that the technical exceptions
to the fifteenth amendment should be
sustained; that the Supreme Court of the
United States should declare the Recon-
| struction Acts unconstitutional and void.
that the next President and the Congress-
to be elected with him, representing anv
majority possible of the American peo-
pie, would undertake to re-organize these
States and to wrest the suffrage from the
colored race; does any man doubt that
the whole country would then blaze with
the fires OF civil war, fierce, bitter.
| bloody and protracted? What, in that
case would be our condition. Imagina-
tlon shrlnks from the conception: reason
recoils from its contemplation, and hor.
rified humanity revolts from the specto-
| clc-a deluge of blood succeeded bv an
unbroken reign of ruin and desolation.
we cannot tell what may be the purposes
OF the Ruler Of the universe CONCERNING
this question, but as far as the light of
human reason may guide us, it seems
evident that the world is to pass under
tho rulo of the people in some form of
Democratic government. That idea has
been terminating to its development for
at least three centuries, and its march is
still onward. Should reaction ever set
in towards other forms of progress. it
WILL be when this generation and its vex.
atious temporary and accidental local
issues shall have passed away. Let no
man deceive himself. The Thought of
r0VOIutiOni1ippv v,,,l,1io
subject by moral forces, is tho blindest
and most impotert fatuity. That of
cradicating it from our system by force
OF arma, would be more than madness
and folly; it would he wickedness. Either
movement would begin without hone and
terminate in despair. It's advocates
would be trampled out under the heel of
popular progress, but no more arrest ira
march than a falling meteor locks the
wheels of the universe It follows thot
the other alternative must be accented
1he absolute and sharp antaqon ism betreen
Me races must be so .fa,. orercozne as 10 en-.
able Me good people Of both to combine fo,.
Me purposes Of good government.
This is what the Union Reform party
OF South Carolina proposes to accom-
pllsh Tor the State. It has already been
demonstrated that this antaponism of
$1,000 ~ Oern1ClQnQ
in its effects. It's flames are fed and
famed by incendinries who, demon like.
can only live in its baleful fires The
fuel upon which it feeds is the denial of
the legal status of the coored ruce as
citizens Eliminate this point from the
politics of the day. and there remains no
Just cause OF difference between the races
Their interests will then be- identicnl at
all points; the people will be united:
harmony and peace will prevail: the
demagogue and the trickster will bn rem
dered powerless; .an economical honest
and competent Government will revive
industry and enterprise; capital and i'm
migration will flow into our borders: en-
ploy yments will be diversified; profits
increased, wages made comparative:
wealth will accumulate; cities, towns and
villages multiply; manufactures and the
mechanic arts, schools, colleges and
churches will attest q great, growing.
a prosperous, an enlightened and happy
Christian people; and universal suffrage,
no longer rod of oppression, will be.
come a staff of strength and support to
great aud glorious Commonwealth