The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-09-17

CHEsNUT ON rHH CRISIS. 1s.-Among the
letters road at the great Liberal mass
| meeting in New York, on Thursday
evening, wau tte following from the Hon.
James Chestnut, Of South Carolina:
GENTLEMEN: I have received your in.
vitation to attend and address O grand
mass meeting to be held IN New York,
September II, of all parties who favor
the election of, Horace Greeley as Presi-
dent, and Of Gratz Brown as Vice Presi-
dent of the United States, and sincerely
thank you for the honor implied. lam
heartily in favor of the election of those
gentlemen to the Offices for which they
have been respectively nominated, and
regret that the condition OF my private
affairs absolutely forbids mo from being
with you and from personally participate
ing in the pleasures of the occasion to
which your.invitatinn refers. The Quos-
tion of slavery, as heretofore presented
to the United States, being now and for
ever eliminated from our political issues,
there is left henceforth no rational
ground for division, merely sectional.
The two great questions we have now to
deal with are simple and fundamental.
Tho first is: Shall the Government he
Federal, with coordinate departments,
with defined and limited powers, and
all restrained by the Constitution; or,
shall it continue as it has been for tho
last four years, consolidated despotism,
with the form only, without the reality
OF the three independent coordinate de-
partments, and without limitation or
constraint OF Constitution and laws? II
the people. in the present contest, shall
decide III favor of the first proposition,
then believe We shall havo IN tho future
q government of economy, of compara-
tive purity. of ability, OF prosperity, and
OF respect at home and abroad; in short,
OF we'll ordered OWL liberty and national
honor effectively maintained. If the
latter be the choice Of the people, then
the whole country must continue in sub
lection to government of caprice, cor
ruption, extravaganza and oppression,
resulting in discomfort and confusion at
home, and manifesting imbecility and
reaping harvest Of contempt abrond
In short, tyranny and shabby empire,
to end speedily In the agoniziDg throes
Of dissolution-for no empire can last
long over this vast continent, peopled
with the anglo Saxon race. Besides, the
present contest decides, for time at
least. the all-important question of local
oSAA tCFCi hAuOut WltuOuC WHICH lfeeQOm
cannot be securely enjoyed anywhere
Involved in all those is the precious idea
OF peace, now SO essential to The welfare
of the whole country.
Our feliow-citizens of tue North have
experienced comparative little of the
horrors Of wnr, and have felt nothing Of
the ten-fold greatcr horrors of peace to
which the South has been subjected.
Il .oA~ r. l.
the country with the phrase. ''Let us
have paaoe;" peace though ot Heaven
~, yet verify one (which passcth oil un-
derstanding." AS Mr.. Greeley is now
the representative man of all contained
in the first proposition, and opposed to
all in the second. will support him to
the utmost OF my capacity, feeling oil
the while cheering and rational hope of
his SUCCESS. JAMES CHESTNUT.
CAMDEN, s. O., Sept. 7. 1872.