The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-04-26
COI4UMBIA. s. G.
Tuesd ~ Morning, April 26. 1870.
Tho State and che Indlvidual--Tho OBJ
legations OF tho Citizen.


sent apathy ,of the people of the State,
or, at lenst, OF part OF the people Of
the State, with respect to their duties as
citizens. It is utterly impossible for
good citizen. whose present and future
are associated with the present anu flu
ture of the State, to divest himself of his
responsibilities. If he be MAN in the
true sense OF the word, he must enter
resolutely into the political struggles of
the times, and earnestly seek to secure
the blessings and the protection Of good
government This is due no less to his
material interest than to his family. This
is associated with oil that makes life eu-
durableand desirable. Pusillanimousi in
the extreme ia the course Of that citizen
who; abdicating HE power, allows the enc
mics ofgood and honest government ''to
brave the field" Weknow the straitened
circumstances OF many of our fellow
citizens-not yet recovered from the
strokes of war and devastation. We
deeply sympathize with them. And we
are fa-, very far, from asking them to
leave their busy pursuits, to give up
their honorable labors in order to engage
in mere party strnggle, for the benefit
of this or that mhn This or that party.
The time has. passed for any sensible
man to embark Id the diDersions Of poll
tics. We want to advance the ends of
no demegogue. We want to secure no
mere partisan triumph. Our purpose is
to give good government to our people,
to the end that taxes may be reduced,
and that each citizen may be in q condi-
tion to realize, to proper extent, the
fruits of his industry. We want, too,
such government as will open the way
to hopeful future-such government
as will wisely encourage the influx into
the State of capital and labor-such q
government as will adopt the policy of
retrenchment and economy-such CO.
vernment as, rising above oil party mea-
sures, will look to the interest of the
whole people, and to the harmony of the
State. We want PURITY and WISDOM in
legislation, CAPABnITY and HONESTY in
officials. To concerns like these, we re-
peat, that no good citizen can be indif-
ferent. We know that not few are
disposed to say, that they will attend to
their own business, and let s'politics"
alone-leave 'politics" to politicians. :"
Nowthis is precisely the reason why our
political degeneracy is now so marked.
tits because good men arc disposed to
give up the ballot-box to the tools of
tricksters and demagogues-to tho worst
classes in the community-thatw we find
bad men elevated to Office, and mere pre-
tenders assuming the grave duties of
legislation and administration. Truly
does writer in Putnana's Mtsqasiae re-
mark
Everybody admits. for indeed almost
everybody deplores, the lamentable de-
cadence that has come upon politics,
both as q principle aud practice. You
will hear it said on all sides that neither
our statesmen nor our parties are what
they used to lie; and you will seldom hear
it galnsaid. Several years ago, Emerson
remarked it as the severest of satircs on
government, that the word politics had
come to signify that which was polite or
cunning, 'as if the State were only q
trick and the irony is moro trenchnnt
now than it was then. AS science and
as On art, politics has degenerated; few
regard it in the comprehensive light that
the old writer's regard it; and few prac-
tice it in the noble spirit in which it's in
trinsic Importance demands that it should
be practiced."
This is but too true, and in country
like this, where universal suffrage now
obtains, md where the great body of the
people participate in the affairs of 60
vernment, it is the moro important that
the more substantial and intelligent por-
ton should esteem it their bounden duty
to exercise what influence they can in
the right direction. We have indeed
come to pretty pass, when pilferers and
peculators fill responsible places, and
when that legislative body which was de-
signed to be the palladium Of the peoples