The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-01-05
An Earncst Arraignmcnt OF the Oul-
prlts Dem ntled.

OtVu6ub .Iu urtlo!e8 OF Imprisonment
against Warren Hastings, Governor.
General OF India, for high crimes and
miRdemeanors, lie meant something. II
was not, for him, an occasion for an or.
namental display OF rhetoric, or an his.
trionic exhibition of spurious feeling.
He was above anything spurious at such
time. His own greatness, the great
ness OF Ills cause, the greatness even of
the accused, forbade it. he roso as the
! champion of the outraged rights of men.
and on the minds Of oil, accusers and nc
oused, he left no doubt that he was in
deed the champion that he claimed to be-.
be had accusations of the most grave
character to make, and he made them
MADE them In manner worthy OF him
solf md worthy Of tho OCCASION; and as
they thundered through the British EN-
pre-. with amazing eloquence and power,
| there was, in all the realm, no living soul
| that did not feel, through all the crimson
|of his blood, that Mr. Burke WAS pro
foundly in earnest.
| 1t is our misfortune, in this country,
to have worse than Hastings to deal
Wlth-a swarm Of s1ch-a hydra a-headed
criminal, compared with which Warren
hastings was an exemplary character.
we mean I'VE could mean nothing else,
Tor II 10 the worst thing that ever rose to
emlnenoe on American soil.) that incar-
nation OF wiokedness, the Radical party.
which is daily and systematically trend
ing under it's feet every cardinal princi
pie OF free, and daily and systematical.
~ exa!ting into supremacy every cardi-
nal principle Of despotic, government
Even the worst that was charged against
Warren Hastings, and which brought
around his head the accusing thunders
OF Burke. were venial crimes in COM
per,ecn with the aggravated assaults
ruth!essly made by this, our destroying
angel. upon tho very life principle, en-
nedded IN our institutions, of those great
truths OF enlightened government,
evolved from the conflict of ngcs. which
have transformed barbaric into civilized
peoples. England had her Hastings,
land he was not her worst, but let it not
be forgotten, she had her Burke, too.
Ii Hastings deserved ut the hands of
the British people the opprobrium of be-
ing, rs he was charged, "rho common
enemy and oppressor of all," and the
punishment duo to such n character,
how much moro do our swnrming Hast
ingses, who have so far outstripped him
In tho darkest political iuiquitics, dc.
serve Mt the hands Of the American pco-
pie like opprobrium, immeasurobly in
tcnsltied, and commensurate punish
ment? Echo answers: How much morcI
How much more! But who-who are to
be tho prosecutors Of these ravagcrs of
the best that belongs to the best exam-
pies OF civil government, scorners of the
sacred heritage of political maxims
which enlightened thought, and bloody
conflict, and timo have won from de-
spotic systems aud their defenders?
n Iny l,or H..
with moving cnrncstness, with doep con.
vlctions, without paltrincss or paltcring,
with stern sonse of what it is to tram
pie under foot maXims so dearly bought,
80 dearly priced by any people that is
tree, tho full measure, with all their
darkness and deformity, Of the crimes
committed by those combined Radical
revolutionists? Certainly such prose.
cutIon, such an exposure and tho needed
reform arc not to be looked for Mt the
hands Of their confederatcs and cocoon.
spirators There is manifestly no DOS.
sible hope in that direction. It is not
common for tho lawloss to reform each
other, and for the guilty to hold the
guilty up to common execration. The
voice OF accusing Justice must be heard,
IL nt all, from different direction, and
it should not fail to bo heard like tho
voice of many waters. It is to Demo
cratic md independent journals through
out the country, and to Democratic and
independent representatives of tho poo
ple>in both houses of Congress-, that we
must look, therefore, to find the Burkcs
to charge, and spare not, the worse than
Hastingses of our day. This is their
office. This is their duty. It is duty
which they cannot shirk and which they
| should meet manfully, md in its full per-
formance bring home to tho conscious
ness and hearts of the people Just
sense of the most grave and startling
| offences committed, and being commit
| ted against their liberties, and by whom
| the offences came.
DIsavowlng any disposition to with
hold any expression of approval thus
far OF tho course Of our representatives
in Congress, we cannot help saying to
them, especially in all earnestness, being
impelled thereto by strong, indignant
sense of how, on tho right hand and on
the left, tho people are being robbed,
not only Of their substance, flor this,
serious as it is, compared with the rest
that is being sacrificed, is but of minor
consequence but, one by one, of the
very essentials Of their freedom, and that
the occasion is one that demands of
them the full measure of their powers in
hearty, indignant. downright. bitter de-
nunciation of the monstrous usurpations,
the fragrant wrongs against the people,
the destroying, revolutionary proceed
ings, and the startling crimes, in many
forms and in many fold, tending. if not
designed, to subvert tho Government,
which arc perpetrated almost daily. by
the insolontly revolutionary party, OF
which General Grant is tho head, and
the majority in Congress tho month
piece.
If there ever was timo it is now
when the representatives of the people,
| (of the honest masses, and not tho cor
/ ruIat QQiao Il l L. 1,