The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-04-11
Wanted, Another lngersoIl.

What power is public opinion. The
country is recovering from the snturnalia
which succeeded to the war. The old
fashioned words right, justice, honesty,
are again coming into vogue Demand
for reform of abuses is becominga a living
power once more. 1t ever pcnetratcd
the benighted and besotted regions of
South Carolina, and for the last six
months has taken n practical shape which
makes plunderers both squirm and curse
Back, request is the word, now. Dis
gorges is the demand. Unfortunately for
us we have but little purchase to aid in
detection and prosecutions. Rings have
been SO compact, the cohesive power
which unites plunderers is SO much su-
perior to all better influences, that while
the ring worms have peached on each
other and nothing is so common as the
most monstruous accusations the ono of
the other, they are sworn against it's
taking the form of testimony. Men
walk up and down tho streets of Colum-
bia who know their accomplices in frauds
as perfectly as they know their own, who
blab them out on occasion, but they
would leave the State or the United
States sooner than testify. They nre
afraid of duplicating themselves. 1t is
pity that we are at such disadvantage.
New York is better off in dealing with
the great ring steals Of Tweed and his
associates. It convicted them and sent
them to the penitentiary. And now,
under an honest and energetic Governor,
who knows how to lay his plans wisely,
aided by such citizens as Charles
O'Conor, the Legislature hos passed some
statutes known as Civil Remedies Acts,
whose scope is very wide. They remedy
all the defects in the law, as it pre-
viously existed, which broke down the
former civil suits against members Of the
ring, And now, again, in the lack Of
other evidence against those who have
fled the country and taken their property
with them as we'll as against those who
have not escaped, Governor Tilden has
pardoned out of the prison Ingersoll,
one of the principal offenders, who has
turned States evidence, in order to use
him in the prosecution of the other de-
1inquents. This is business. This is O
companion piece to his action in refer
ence to the canal frauds, by which 81, 500, :
600 is annually saved to the people.
These are big licks, such as suit the large
field of New York and the more advanced
condition of its reform policy and ex-
posure of abuses. If we only had now
a first class rascal in the penitentiary,
ono of tho esoteric disciples of the cor
rupt ring philosophy, who would be will
ing to barter the truth which he knows
for the free mir of which he is deprived,
we might make start. Whata splendid
revelation, for example, might not
and - and dozens of others make?
But with oil the criminals who have
been plundering the people and fatten-
ing on their substance, with NIL the vii
lains who have drawn no other breath
than thnt of corruption, we cannot find
one who can be utilized against his fell
lows. They snap their fingers ut the
puny efforts to convict. It is lamenta-
bic that with all our resources in this
line, we should be powerless to use n
single one. We are like the miser-
maJnas inter opes inops. We have cotton
and unimpeachable water power, but no
companies to spin it up. We have
minerals, but we don't mine. We have
capable men and honest mon, but they
have no more chance than if they were
in heathen lands. And, worse than all,
we even have the raw material of rogues
in lavish abundance, big and little, but
for the life of us, We can't get at ono of
the big ones, either for tho discipline
and punishment which would do him
good, or as the means of detecting others,
a service which would be of infinite ad-
vantage to the community. But, alas!
who thinks or cares for the community?
The utmost that we are capable Of is to
pass resolutions directing public officers
to prosecute and then close" them.
Oh! for convicted plundererl Oh! for
the genius and courage in o public
officer which will lind such man, mani
pulate him through the courts, give him
q wholesome course of prison life with
hard labor, and then will make him