Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1871-11-30
From the Columbia Phoenix.
Back-handed Compliments.

Mr.. EDITOR: 1t seems that the New
York Tribune keeps a correspondent at
"the seat of war" in the rebellious Coun-
ties, whose duty it is to enlighten the
readers of that veracious journal in re-
gard to the condition of things in this
portion of Grants dominions In his
communication from Yorkville, under date
of November TO-, appears the following
language: "The average white man o.
South Carolina is the poorest specimen of
the Caucasian raceI have ever. seen on
either side of the Atlantic" Now, it
strikes me, Mr.. Editor, that this highly
intelligent and most astute (ass-tute)
and critically observant knight OF the
quill" who has seen the Caucasian race
on both sides of the Atlantic, pays rather
a back-handed compliment to that branch
of the Caucasian race resident in the
@loyal North" Let us see how it IS.
This same Mr.. SmaA-ey and his worthy
coadlutors are in the habit of representing
South Carolina as the ?" head and front
of the "great rebellion" which, they say,
was the most gigantic rebellion the world
ever saw. It's a well-kuown fact that
the Confederate States did not contain
exceeding one-ffth of the white popula-
ton OF the once United States. 1t is
matter of record-and that record that
all the efforts of the whole tribe Of Sn,al-
legs can never eradicate from the history
of the civilized world-that the 100000
of white population of the rebellious ter
ritory did pat into the field an army that
for four long, weary years held at bay all
the embattled hosts" that the 100000
Northern patriots were able to set in mar
tial array against them. What a compli-
ment to the boasted superiority of the
"loyal masses" of the North A popula-
ton of 100000, hedged in on every side
by besieging hosts, dependent, entirely
upon their own internal resources, with
the prejudices of the world against them,
and the masses of that 100000, compos-
ed of class of population the average of
which constitutes the poorest specimen OF
the Caucasian race on either side of the
Atlantic, contending for four years against
population of 100000, who, beside
their own population, had the nations of
the old world from which to recruit their
armies; and contending SO successfully,
for long time, as to cause the patriotic
hearts of the truly loil" to sink within
them when they contemplated the situa-
tion.
But again, what compliment do these
hired scribblers pay to their own section,
when they assert, as they 50 frequently
do, that this same benighted region did for
a period of seventy years control the
policy of the Federal Government to their
own aggrandizement. What pity that,
during that seventy years Of Southern
ascendancy in national affairs, the great
North did not contain within her borders
sufficient number. of this ignorant and
degraded material Of which the South is
almost exclusively made up, to form a
foundation upon which to rear super
structure composed Of intellectual power
sufficient to cope with the intellectual
giants OF the South. "Thc long and the
short of it is" that these venomous rep
tiles who are besliming the South at such
a rate, so far "outvenom all the worms of
Nile," that in their blind rage against the
people of the South, who, in the midst of
their moral and intellectual inferiorty,
are yet too proud to crouch spaniel-like,
at the foot-stool of power, and lick the
hand that smites, they are continually
overreaching themselves and placing
themselves before the world in an attitude
that will, one day Or another, cause them,
or their posterity, in case God does not, in
his mercy, deny them posterity, to curse
the hour that ushered them into existence
There is a just God presiding over the
affairs of the universe, and though justice
be tardy in its approaches, the inevitable
hour of its triumph will arrive, and that
in this world; and then woe to the Smal-
lsy tribe who are now reveling amidst the
ruins of a once prosperous and happy, but
now oppressed and down-trodden, people.
ARGUS