The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-03-07
Tho Reconstructed Southern states.

OOOIu6U 10 uCluk GQ6 perennial waters OF
bitterness than the people of the recon-
structed States OF the South during the
last ten years. They have gone through
that which would have utterly cast down
and left forever hopeless people less
bravo, less strong. less intrinsically great.
To have shown themselves, as they havo
done. superior to every vicissitude OF
fortune; in war, superior to defeat and
humiliation; in peace-or that which is
called peace, though it is pence not in
deed, but ip nAme-superior to injus-
tice, insult, oppression, wrong, and the
ISLANDERS OF every evil tongue, stamps
them, while shedding glory upon the
country Of which they are pnrt, as DO.
ing of the very highest type Of manhood
known among men. Did they belong to
some other nation than this; did we
know them, not as brethren with whom
we have been at strife, but as strangers,
and marked how they have borne them.
| selves through Unreasonable calamities,
they would have extorted the universal
praise of the American people, including
those now blinded by fanaticisn, or
warped by an unreasonable, and it would
socm, unappeasable hatred. We should
have been proud of our own unconouer.
able blood that runs in their veins; quick
to claim them rs our kindred and really,
with al out-stroiched hand, to lift them
out OF the ruins of their fortunes with
which they arc now surrounded.
We are accustomed TO overflow with
sympathy for what it plensos us to coll
the oppressed OF other lands, strangely
forgetting that'w have something mar
velously like oppression in our own
Indeed, for such and for any, it seems,
not Of our own honsehold, We are very
tender hearted, ready to make any sac
rifces in their behalf, and take great
credit to ourselves for the exercise Of un
enlarged Christian charity abroad,
though destitute, in n significant iirec-
ton and singular manner, Of that excel
lent virtue ut home. We have cars that
are acute to hear and eyes thut are quick
to soc bonds afar of, and ais self consti-
tuted apostles of emancipation, we are
rendy to fly on the wings of the wind to
the uttermost parts of the earth to break
them. we huve n boundless vision, so
intractably boundless that we cannot
contract it to q recognition Of what is
demanded OF us at our own doors. In
the plenitude Of our benevolence toward
the inhabitants of other nations, if not,
indeed, of other planets. and in the I'M
remote enterprises of succor, we 90 trnc-
ing the rim of the horizon for som ethin ny
to relieve, carefully overlooking the
claims of those whom we need not ira
verso the globe, or get beyond our own
borders, to find, to whom is due first
justice and then fraternal kindness.
Hungary, Ireland, Cuba, have we as
steady source OF sorrow, whose griefs we
volunteer to carry in our bosoms. but for
one.third of our own land, our own kin
dred, the people of the South, bowed
down in dust and ashes, we have nothing
but contumely, an averted face, denun-
ciation, insult and o heavy hand.
AS matter OF public policy, rs mat
ter Of political wisdom, not to put it on
higher grounds, this is not only gross
wrong, but gross blunder. In any
and every view, it is indefensible and
unpardonabIe. Compared with the
vindictive blindness of the authors Of
the policy being pursued towards the
Southland it is Radical through aud
through-the blindness of the mcle is
preternatural sight. And whnt possible
good can come of such policy? It is
fraught with nothing but evil. 1t does
violence to comnon sense, to common
justice, to everything worthy Of the name
of statesmanship. and to all the better
instincts OF the American people. It is
policy not only of supreme folly, but
of supreme wickcdncss, OF vengeance,
and deserving the scorn Of every right
minded man. "Eengcuncc is mine, and
I will repay" saith Ono whose authority
to create and power to inflict penalties
we dare not dcny. Perhaps even the
champions of desolation, of retribution-
they who continually exhibit al abiding
faith, worthy OF q satanic nature, in tho
corrective and curative powers of the
sword, the faggot, aud Of NIL kindred
cruel contrivances worthy alone of savage
men-thongh deniod in acts, might be
constrained to admit III words tho super
humanity of tho decree. Yet it is
spurned from them, as is almost every
thing else that is worthy and wise. The
fuliness Of their ingenuity has been ex-
ercised to make the South uninhabita-
BILE; to set her people at each others
throats; to keep alive and active the
spirit of animosity and discord; to drive
approaching peace from her borders
and to envelop all with the breath of
calumny like contngion. And where
fore all this? Why this remorseless
policy of anger, cruelty and crime? Bad