The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-04-04
COLUMBIA, S. c..
Sunday Morning, April 4, 1875.
Prosperity, auoth He.

carpet-bagger and his credulous ally.
We were charitable enough to consider it
as indulgingy in joke. But it comes up
with its figures. it's observations of pass
ing events and It's signs Of manifest i'm m
provement, to establish it's position. tits
infinitely ludicrous and the writer does
not justly appreciate himself as q humor-
ist- He blends q little of truth, too, in
his humor. to make it go down. Nobody
means to assert that the energy of the
people is dead, that they are not strug-
Cling manfully and successfully in many
places against all the evils and losses of
the past and all the spoliations and OPP
pressions Of the present. We constantly
have occasion to note that there's life
in the old land yet" We have had the
pleasure for several years of summoning
them to renewed exertions, of pointing
out the various avenues to the advance
ment of their fortunes, to the recovery
from their losses, to diversified indus
tries, to the establishment of manuf,c-
turing interests and to the improvement
Of their agriculture. We have faithfully
sought to bring into play again those
moral and intellectual forces, without
which the plough and spindle, the anvil,
hammer and plane are but inefficient
tools in listless hands. The streams of
our life are either poisoned at the foun-
tains, or flow impeded by baleful obsta-
cles at every turn. They must be .puri-
fed and cleared before their course can
be prosperous and fertilizing. The
prime need Of our people lis the
advantages Of education, the honest
and economical administration of tho
Government, low taxes, fewer offices,
smaller. salaries, and speedy radiance
from the corrupt influences which have
followed in the track of war, bringing
a worse train of evils than war itself It
would be strange, indeed, if we had not
effected something by the extraordinary
e1ertions we have been compelled to
make. But no one with spark of
manly feeling in him, no man who is
not an alien to every sentiment of affec-
ton and reverence for the past glory and
prosperity of this State, who has drop
of blood in his veins running in SYM
pathy with the terrible wrongs inflicted
on this people, more especially since the
close of the war, can look upon their
condition to-day and call it really pros
porous. To do so, he must be calloused
in Indifference, or the victim of o strange
delusion. People manage to live, but
how many educate their childrenp Where
are the schools, colleges, and other cyl
dences of civilization? where the moral
tone, the just sentiment the honor that
shrinka from wrong, the spirit of justice,
the immoyeble integrity, that character-,
ize a people free, prosperous and ele-
vated? Not gone absolutely, but all
covered over ond hidden. inert and almost
paralyzed by the moral miasma which
surroundsthem. We are happy to believe
we have been tho pfomptest to acknow-
ledge that thereJare signs: and evidences
of an Improved condition of things
within the last few months. The skir-
mishing has begun, the opposing forces
have met, and the friends of honesty
and decency, those who really care and
feel for the rights, property and we'll
being of the people, have cause to take
some hope from the results of the en-
counter. But the battle has only Just
commenced. 1t will be long and
desperate. Itshows but o shallow appro-
citation of the coming struggle, of the
immense powers that are to be engaged,
Of the vital issues involved in it, to
claim already the fruits of victory.
Prosperity, contentment, happiness of
the people, the true renaissance, can only
come from the liberation of the forces
and influences which compose at once
the foundation md superstructure of
the State, and give it its only healthy
and normal activity. Owing 10 peculiar
circumstances, whatever views arc posi-
BILE in the American system have gathered
here with all their intensity and vio-
lence. Until this headless excrescence,
this foul carbunole, full Of corrupt mat
ter, with no exit which itself can make,
is removed, we must languish, showing
only the signs of q spasmodic, and, per-
hsps, hurtful vitality
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