The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1874-10-17
North and sou,h-To tho Point.

the New York Times, from which we
Gull few sentences. The Times be-
gins by asserting that the negro must
be protected in his rights, and adds:
"But to sit down and invent stories
OF murders, or to exaggerate the ru-
mors which como in all sorts of wild
shapes from Alabama or Louisiana
this is work which we should have
thought no man of ordinary humanity
would be- willing to undertake. The
attempt to- set North against South, or
white against black, is not only not
justified by the plea Of political ueces-
sity,' but that plea only nggravates the
offence. The sooner the whole coun-
try is ut peace the better will it be for
the people. AS we pointed out the
other day, we cannot afford to have
large section Of the Union lying in q
state OF prostration, not to say Of abso-
lutte beggary. When the South was
prosperous, we derived practical I'D
vantages from her prosperity. Tho
Southern people came here for many
, of the necessities and almost all the
Injuries of life. That source Of trade
is gone, and can nybody suppose that
the mercantile community does not
feel the loss? The effort to excite fresh
ill,feeling between the North aud
South is, therefore, short sighted,
viewed merely in its relation to our
own intercsts-cven if we did not
choose 10 consider it from o higher
| ground"
All this is true; and as to the bnsi-
| rtIn - .ki,
less different policy towards the
South be pursued, there will he yet
worse news from the South for our
Northern friends. There will be re-
pudiation. Not repudiation from ma
Iioe or vindictiveness, but Reputation
from necessity.
With regard to the source Of the ru-
mors of the reputed Southern cruel
ties, the Times makes these sensible
remarks:
"We havo noticed one very curious
fact, and it is this: The reports OF a
reign Of terror, and all the rest of it,
never come from the State in which they
ure said to have broken out. Almost
all these blood thunder stories are,
oddly enough, dated from Washing
ton. You read in the head line fright
full Atrocities in Alabama-Mo Ne
groes Butchered.' But when you come
to look little lower down, you find
that the dismal tale is dated from
Washington; and this, we must con
fess, strikes us ~ very suspicious.
Some weeks ago we despatched several
special correspondents to Alabama aud
Louisiana-men on whom we knew
that We could depend. We have re-
ceived and placed before our readers
three or four letters from them, but al
though they show (what wo oil knew
oefore) that Southern society is utterly
disorganized, yet we cannot see any
evidence of reign of terror"
The Times says the Republican
party began the work OF reconstruc-
ton and will be held responsible for
its successful accomplishment. That
responsibility it never can fulfill. It's
reconstruction had the fatal sordid
seed in it Of which it must perish.
The object to gain votes by giving the
negro the ballot, all unfit as he was for
it, is the great and rninous error of the
whole system. The Times says:
"a perfect project for restoring
peace, order, md prosperity to the
South would have called for something
more than human ingenuity or wis
! dom to devise"
And the plan for gaining Republican
votes by making the negroes voters
was the best thing that "human inge-
nuity" could invent for defeatipg any
"project" that might have been pro-
posed. But for that plan, for the
qualification OF party greed and parti-
san rapncity. the Republicans could
have made, probably, wise system of
reconstruction. Party depravity is at
the bottom OF all our woes.
Finally, the 1imss announces the
following proposition, the truth OF
which none can deny:
eve shall never have united
country while one section of the popu-
lation is being bounded on to crush
the other section. Party interests and
politics afford no excuse for crime OF
that kind"
Here is the whole matter in a nut