The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-07-17
The are.. Popular Movement.

HllhuC6 u tuo AlO6EalS auQ OemOcfatS
is nothing more than bargain for the
spoils. They have to say something,
and they can think of nothing better
to say than that. Never was charge
more utterly false and untenable. The
movement which has resulted in the
nomination of Greeley and Brown by
two conventions was the work of the
people. The place-holders were bitterly
opposed to it, as they are bitterly op-
posed to the Liberal candidates. The
politicians have had very little hand in
what has been going on of late. As
rule, they were opposed to the Liberal
movement, and did what they could to
check it, and most of those among them
who are now for Greeley and Brown
have yielded with reluctance to an ire
sistible popular current. The nominees
OF the Cincinnati and Baltimore Conven-
tlons will be installed ns President and
vice-President of the United States on
the 4th of next March, but they will owe
it not to the politicians, but the people.
The Grant organs know very we'll how
this has all come about, but We can
scarcely expect them to be candid
enough to confess it. It is of the utmost
consequence to them and their candidate
that the facts should be perverted and
misunderstood, but they cannot accom-
plish what they have undertaken. The
people are not to be deceived regarding
their own acts. The candidacy Of Gree.
ley and Brown is the work of the people.
They understand how and why those
gentlemen have become candidates, and
to suppose that they can be turned from
their purpose by the charge of corrupt
and spoils-seeking alliance is to take
them for vacillating and purposeless in
capables.
AS they seem to be in want of informa-
ton, however, We can tell the Grant
people how and why it is that they find
the nominees of the Philadelphia Con-
vention opposed by such formidable
candidates.
Seven years have elapsed since the
surrender of Lee at Appomattox, but
still the war policy prevails in the admi-
nistration of the Government. Those
who have had control of the Republican
party have done everything within their
power to keep up the old war feeling, in
order that they might carry out their
selfish and ambitious purposes. During
this time, the people Of the Northern
States have been subjected to many of
the evils of partisan domination. They
have been burdened with onerous taxa.
ton, and have seen the moneys thus ac-
quired for the public treasury squan-
derod on impecunious and grasping
brothers-in-law and favorites, or cast in
one form or another into the Washing
ton maelstrom. They have seen repub-
lican institutions subverted, the laws
disregarded and the Constitution set at
naught, and all in the name of party.
The fact has been forced on their recog-
milton that Grantism is incompatible
with free institutions and republican 90
vernment. Thus with the Northern peo.
pie; and now, how has the case stood at
the South? During the seven weary
years to which We have referred, the
South has been under o cloud, which has
&c tiled over i. like pail. Surrendering
IN good faith at the conclusion of the
civil war, an accepting the doctrine of
the indi Lbility of the Union, the
Sout' States have ever since been
= -, not as States on q footing of
s4uhlity in the Union, but as conquered
provinces. The carpet-baggers and the
scalawags have had commissions from
the Federal Government to despoil and
plunder. Satraps have been enthroned
to oppress. Their elections have been
controlled by the bayonet, and the privi-
lege of the writ of ha6eas corpus has
been suspended in order to sustain the
Administration party.
This condition of things the Grant
party proposed to continue by re-elect-
ing Grant for second term. At the ap-
preaching Presidential election the
ofhce.holders and politicians thought of
nothing else than the perpetuation of the
debasing, damning and perilous policy.
The Democratic party saw itself power
less to prevent. It seemed inevitable
that the country was still to be cursed by
the rule OF unprincipled and reckless
sectional demagogues. Just ay things
seemed most hopeless the people became
aroused to the situation, and determined
to take the control of political affairs
into their own hands. Party with them
is of small consequence rs against patri-
otism. Members of the Republican
party took the initiative. A Liberal
Convention was held at Cincinnati on tile
lst OF last May, and by it Greeley and
Brown were nominated as the represen-
tatives OF purity and constitutionalism.
The overture thus made was ioyfully
met. The Democrats, with almost per-
feet unanimity, consented to an alliance
with the Liberals for the purpose of re-.
lieving the country from Grantism.