Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-04-12
Whittier are we Drifting

feat and surrender the last hope of the Confeder-
ate States persisted Our authorities and people
accepted this event as final, and the other forces
/ of the Confederacy surrendered in rapid success
sion and the people returned with quiet and hum
/ BILE submission to renew their allegiance to the
United States Slavery the great and exciting
cause which lead to the war, was unanimously
abolished in all the States-four hundred millions
dollars of property, from the little left remaining
to our people was cheerfully voted away and re-
garded paltry payment for the quiet they
thought in store for them by the withdrawal
| of this question from the arena of party politics
| The debts contracted by the States during the
war, in which our own people invested largely,
especially the widows and orphans, for the faith
of the State was given for their payment, and that
faith had never yet been pledged falsely, and at
the bidding of the people of the North, it was re-
pudiated as being tainted with the 6 rebellion"
and by this means we have left widows and Or
phans dependent upon their labors for sup
port or upon the charity of an impoverished pub
lie This also was submitted to- fraught as it was
with terrible injustice to innocent holders, as q
meassre installment for the great benefits to be de-
rived by readmission.
Our legislative records are but the daguereo-
typed wishes of the Government expressed
through the Executive, and statutes for all
time to come will mark the time and nature OF our
conquest as visibly as the date of the Norman con-
quest is engrafted upon the laws and customs of
England. We had thought until recently that our
singleness of purpose, and honesty of action,
would have been rewarded by the present Con-
gress under such terms would not require of us
q sacrifice of honor all that has been left to us
untarnished by the blighting effects of the war.
But in this we Have been sadly mistaken. More
hostility is felt for to-day than this time two
years ago, when were in arms against the au-
thorty of the General Government.
The President, because he believes in our Icy
atty and objects to unconstitutional measures, be-
gotten in hate and urged by fanatcism for our
punishment and disgrace, is threatened with i'm
parchment and denounced in public prints a
BEAST and DEBAUCLED BUFTOQN, and guilty OF TREA-
son and BRIBERY. Congress has become the nurse
" of sectional hate, and under the influence OF
party drill its deliberations have degenerated into
a carnival of National dishonor and personal de-
grcdation The rights of persons and the sacred
ness of laws are trampled upon and sacrificed for
party success, and the Presidents veto, fortified
by the Constitution, is powerless to check the VIC
lence Of party malice.
In the mean time, the great Conservative ele
ment of the Government, unable to stay the terri
bic storm begin to utter fears less i'll its head
long fury it may destroy the Constitution itself.
Conservative Journals and public men are utter
ing words of warming, and sounding the alarm of
danger
That great Conservative paper, the Journal of
Commerce, in a late issue, says:
The President is environed with pitfalls dug by
whO in the disappointment of their mad ambition would
at the time dig the grave OF our political SYSTEM
We believe that the period is critical beyond Precede"
The Naionm h,tcligeucer, hopeful, always
loyal and never hasty gives utterance to its delib
crate conclusions thus
We warn the people that at a very early day the
will he startled with sudden advance step i'll the pro-
gress of the revolutionary scheme unless the traitors be
i'll the meantime discouraged by popular demonstrations
constitutional loyalty
During the recent discussion upon the passage
of the Civil Rights Bill the veto, among other
warnings uttered upon the floor of the Senate We
notice the following, from who have and still
the great conservative leaders of that body and
who give to President johnson earnest and enthu-
siastc support:
Mr.. Salisbury Del) took the floor, and said rise to
say, Sir that in my Judgment the passage Of this bill is
American people should warning and set their house
ORDER for it is impossible that the people will patiently
IL.
bloodshed, enough of mourning in every household
There too graves for one to wish
to see more Attempt to exercise this law within any
State of this Unon and in my judgment this country will
again plunged into all the horrors of civil In my
State-an humble State in point of numbers, but
State of gallant sons-your law will be observed by
the judiciary, most Of them of the Republican party
There is not, say, Republican judge-we never had
judge dead to the great uninares of the law to at
act as this conclusion, Mr.. salisbury predicted that
passage of this bill would lead to bOodshed war; and
dlsunlOn
Mr.. Davis (Ky.) in concluding his remarks said:
&c If the bill now before the Senate becomes law,
he should be compelled to regard himself
enemy of the government; and to work for its
throw. He wanted bercauracy to govern
this country
Mr.. McDougall (Cal.) spoke of this bill revo-
and unconstitutional-one of a series of
revolutionary measures now before Congress.
Still the tornado of party madness increases in
fury The telegraph announces that the veto mes
sage of the President has been swept away in the
House of Representatives, and nothing is now left
to oppose it. The conservative and patriotic cti-
zen can only look on in gloom and dependency,
as he watches the track of the storm marked by
its ravaGCs.
The people of the South are powerless specta-
tors of these scenes, fraught with much good
OF evil for them. Excluded from representation
in Congress, denied voice i'll the enactment of
laws which Will have direct influence upon their
and happiness for all time to come,
and their every word and action watched with
Jealous anxiety for evidences of disloyalty, the