The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1874-08-06
COLUMBIA. S. G.
Thursday Morning. August 6. 1874.
Tho Next Crusade.

LII tu6 Ahes e"o oS suSoo years VI pie
life, MIR. Sumner seems to have been
visited by some CLEANS of generosity
and justice towards the South. Whe.
ther these sentiments proceeded from
magnanimous nature, which honestly
recoiled before the disastrous re,ults
OF the persecuting and cruel policy
into which it had been warped by
overpowering circumstances and pride
of leadership, or however else we try
to account for them. they brought him
under the stern condemnation of bis
own people. The two most powerful
impressions OF his declining days were
the sense of modification and Injury
from this overshadowing cloud and the
desire to have passed into law his
supplementary Civil Rights Bill. He
died with grief for the one In his
heart and with q recommendation to a
friend to take care of the other on his
lips. This was his legacy. to his patty,
and it is only charitable and not lilo.
gioal to conclude that the extre mism
of his State counseracted his own ten.
dency to relent and drove him back to
his old position. When he died. the
Massachusetts, idea did not die with
him. Il is true that the Civil Rights
Bill did not become Law. but that
was due to temporary causes, and to
apprehension OF consequences which
those who intend to pass it were not
prepared iuss then to encounter. It
will come up again. The very repug.
nance of the Southern people to accept
tho dogmas and doctrines which under.
lie it. their undisgnised horror Of its
practical consequences, will serge as
kind'ing to a flame only smothered,
and swell the forces OF a crusade not
yet abandoned. i,
Ths objects of the bill are we'll
known. Mr.. Boutwell, went very far
when he advocated it as necessary and
the surest means to e1tinguish the In
stinctive feelings Of race, blood and
color. Hs contepdsd that Sthese are
evils, that shey are dangers which
threaten liberty. and that they can
only be extirpated by early compulsory
association of the young Of both the
white and black races in schools,
churches. colleges and almost every
where else. ,yRarpsrs' Weekly, which
some time ago:had some words of con-
Germ for our depiorabie condition in
this State. advances to take position by
the side OF Boutwell,. It ssys the
passage OF the bill is necessary to- SO.
cure rights Of the black race gua.an-
teed by the results of war and the
amendments to the Constitution. It
insists that Federal Legislation is indis-
pensable to eradicate the prejudices
which exist in the South against the
inferior race; that the negro will not
really be equal before the law until he
is legislated into all those special pri.
vileges now denied to him in schools,
colleges, hotels aud railway cars. Like
Boutwell,, it ohaIacterises the nstu-
raj feeling of opposition to social
equality as mere prejudice. which
can be made to pass away. As oppo-
sition to enlisting negroes in the Fede-
raj army and to giving them the ballot
wiIted after they became accomplished
facts, 30 will it die with the passage of
this bill. It concludes that the party
faction which maintains the conetitn-
tional and conceded rights OF the citi-
zen, will withdraw the negro, as such,
from politics, and will leave prejudice
only its own folly to feed on" Sup.
posing this action to have been taken
and the measure to be in full operation
in all the South, its consequences will
be fearful to contemplate. These we
do not undertake to picture, nor do we
care to present considerations derived
from view of the constitution of our
society, to show why such O radical
step should not be taken. They are
such as man accustomed to the social
conditions of New York or Mussachu-
setts, and embittered by the malipnitv