The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-01-28
IT have been in the South this sum-

any exCeptlOu, are the Governments OF
the Southern States at this hour. There
is nothing comparable to then. They
arc unparalleled for their iniqnity, their
infamy and their outrages. Their law
makers are incompetent to make laws.
With Legislatures four-ffths of whom
can neither read nor write. and who pay
levying untold millions of taxes upon
the property of the States, what can you
expect except the worst government be-
meath the sun?
"In my deliberate judgment, tho 60
vernments hive been built in tho South
ern States. if you will allow the express
sion, upon the wrong end. The pyramid
stands not upon its base. but upon it's
apex. You have founded your govern
ments upon the vice, upon the ignorance,
upon the responsibility OF mankind |;
not upon the stability, not upon the in
teiligence, not upon the classes that are
responsible for the peace, order and vel.
fare OF society, and now you are reaping
some OF the fruits of your system. DO
men gather grapes of thorns, or 6gs
from thistlesP' No; neither will yon
gather the blessings of good government
from system which has brought into
power and place the worst and most ie-
norant classes of tho human race. I al
lude not merely to the black element of
the South; 1 allude, also. to the oppor-
tunity which your plan of reconstruction
gave to adventures from the North, aud
to the vicious and corrupt OF all races
and from oil quarters Of the world. I
allude to that feature OF your policy dis.
franchising the intelligence and tho vir-
tue of the South, which distinguished
gentleman from South Carolina, q few
days ago in this Capitol, declared had
made his State government disgrace to
the civilized world. It. ia confined, how
ever. to no one State. The evils OF your
iegielation are spread broadcast through
out all the South. It salutes the eve
every where. Your failure to establish
peace and prosperity is universal"
Speaking Of the ruinous financial oon-
dition in which the Sonth has been en-
quilted, under the operation of Radical
control, Mr.. Beck, of Kentucky, pre-
sents facts and figures with telling effect.
Said he:
when Georgia elected Legislature
which was Demooratic, the President,
through General Terry and his soldiers,
re-reconstructed that State. and put into
the Legislature nineteen Republicans,
who had been defeated, turning out the
duly elected Democratic members, 30 as
to make it a Republican Legislature.
The result is, that her debts and liabili-
ties, as Mr.. Angler. the Treasurer,
shows. was $50, 1000. 600 when Bullock
left, many millions of which have been
stolen, and are forever lost to the people
OF that State. Those two great States
have thus been plundered by men i'm
posed upon them by Congress and the
President against their will, aud 80 it has
been in nearly all the Southern States.
Virginia, it is true escaped, as my friend
from Indiana (Mr. Voorhees) says; she
never fell under Radical rule; and Mis-
sissippi happened to elect one of her
own citizens, which partially snved her
for timc. In North Carolina Governor
Holden was successfully impeached for
high crimes and misdemeauors; he is
now editor of the Government organ at
Washington City. Governor Bullock.
of Georgia, resigned his position, and
fled from the State to prevent certain
conviction for like offences. Governor
Smith, of Alabama, retired in disgrace,
proved to have officially plundered his
State by the illegal and corrupt issue of
SoOO, OOO OF her bonds to the Alabama
and Chattanooga Railroad Company;
Scott, of South Carolina, proved by his
own partisans to be public plunderer,
who, if ho escapes impeachment, must
buy his corrupt Legislature; Reed, of
FLORIDA, wilfully robbing his State by
illegally placing millions of her bonds in
the hands Of such u thief as Littiefeld
is shown 10 be; Clayton. of Arkansas,
charged by Radical officials with ali
sorts of corruption, and indicted in
Radical court by Radical grand Jury
for the most fragrant offences; Yarmouth,
of Louisiana, if half that is said against
him by his own party friends bo true, is
worse than any of them; Brownlow,
while IN Tennessee. making pandemo-
mum OF that State; Davis, of Texas, Il
tyrant and usurper, who is denounced
by his people, regardless of party, us O
lend IN human form. whose orders aud
acts are disgrace to American civiliza-
tion-theso arc the men placed by Con-
gress over 7,000.OOO people in nine once
free and Independent States; men who
are loathcd and execrated by the people
whose rights, liberty and honor it was
their duty to project. Retributive JUS
tice is on their track; some have been