The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-09-01
S. G.
Sunday uprnlng, September l, 1872.
For President of TIE United States.
HORACE GREELEY. or New York.
For Vice President
u. GRATZ BROWN, or Missouri.
Shall wo DO Nothing.

her Presidential electors in the field, and
the rest have their local clubs and organi-
cations formed and time fixed for the
assembling of State convention at IN
early day. South Carolina, we believe,
is absolutely the only State in the Union
where no steps have been taken by the
people to inaugurate campaign in favor
of the Liberal Republican and Demo
cratic nominees, Greeley and Brown.
Our white people are unanimously in
their favor. This is evident. Then,
why our strange supineness? One rea-
son, undoubtedly, is that we see no pros.
poet at present OF carrying the State.
The negroes are the slaves OF their poll
tical leaders, and their leaders are the
tools of Grant. Surely. though, it is
not the despair of success alone which
causes the apathy OF the white citizens
OF South Carolina. We are not less
courageous nor more deaf to the COLL Of
duty than are the people of Massachu.
setta. South Carolinians will never ad-
NIT or believe that, and yet we find the
Democrats and Liberal Republicans of
Massachusetts entering earnestly into
the canvass, although the majority for
Grant there, in 1868, vas three times
gthat,of South Carolina.
They have as little hope of carrying
their State in this election for Greeley
and Brown as we have for carrying our
own. We cannot believe. therefore, that
'despondency alone causes our inaotion
and our disinclination to act. There are
other reasons, the chief of which, in our
judgment, is an unwillingness on the
part of the large majority of the white
people OF the State to revive the Demo
cratic party. Political parties are the
mere agents or means by which people
hope to attain certain desirable ends in
government. When party loses it's
power ns an agency Of good. it is utterly
useless. aud wise men drop it and seek
to make other combinations which pro-
mise more practical results. Such is the
present condition of the Democratic
party in South Carolina, or rather the
name of it, for We think it can scarcely
be longer eaid to exist. Itshows no life,
vt any rate.
We believe it to be safe political
axiom. that the best attainable govern
ment is that to which sensible and up
right citizens should direct their efforts.
GOOD government in South Carolina, if
it 10 possible at all as the State is now
constituted, must be looked for in q
combination between the good citizens
OF the white and the black or oolored
races. This, we take it. is self-evident
proposition. Where. then. can common
ground be found upon which both races
could aud would stand? Not in Demo
cracy, certainly. The Democratic party
has opposed. step by step, the freedom
and the further political and civil equal
ity of the negro. The reasons of this
opposition, however just and logical.
amount to nothing when addressed to
the negroes. They see nothing hut an
enemy in Democracy, aud 30 seeing, it
is very natural that they should stndious.
ly avoid it.
On the other hnnd, the white people
see nothing but On enemy in Grant, on
incompetent, tyrannical, evaricious, self
seeking ruler, dangerous to the liberties
OF the republic and damnably expensive
withal. They cannot, therefore, COM
bine with the oolored people in COM
mon support of Grant. Nor are they
willing-and God grant they may never
be-to ally Themselves with any party
which has for lis leaders lot of thieves
and dissolute characters. No man OF
proper self-respeot and regard for good
name will contaminate himself with such
association. Where, then, can we turn
The answer is evident-to that party
whose principles both black and white
can endorse, and OF whose distinguish ed
leaders the most virtuous need not be
ashamed-the Liberal Republican party.
which was organized at Cincinnati. We