Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-04-05
THE WILMINGTON JOURNAL.
WILMINGTON, N. c., APRIL 5, 1866.
Mischievous NIisstatements.


We said then that " Mr.. Ashley no doubt did
not desire wilfully to misrepresent the action OF
the County Court of Sampson, but in a blind zeal
for the negro, and wish to assist the Radicals in
their contest with the President, he has been lead
into misstatement, which his official position
gives weight to at the North" It will be seen by
a reference to the letter of Mr. Ashley, that we
are borne out in this statement.
He says he did not intend the letter for publ
cation which is doubtless true, but the letter was
published; '' neither" say Mr.. Ashley, "was it an
official statement" We quote from the Neoc York
Ere,ainq Post: scBut while we write, letter comes
to us from another part of the South, which brings
a sadly different story. Mr.. S. S. Ashley, Super
isuenClent Of Schools for the National Feedmens Re
lief association the italics ours, writes to the
Secretary Of that Society from Wilmington, North
Carolina. Are we justified in saying that it was
an official communication ''Such q statement
rs that of Mr.. Ashley" continues the paper,
(Which we should not print except ON the author
ity of a responsible person, shows that the Civil
Rights Bill now before the President, is a neces-
sary precaution, yet in the Southern States. !"
Did we do injustice, in saying that Mr.. Ashley
was rendering assistance to the Radicals in their
contest with the President He may have done
so nnintentionally. We trust he did
In regard to the duties of the County Court of
Sampson, we respectfully refer Mr.. Ashley to Chap
ter Five of the Revised Code. The first section
of this chapter makes it 1.-the duty of the several
Courts of Pleas and Quarter Sessions to bind out,
as apprentices, all orphans whose estates of
small value, that no person will educate and main
tain them for the profits thereof, and children
whose fathers have deserted their famihes;" &c,
and further, section third enacts that the master
or mistress shall provide for the apprentice diet,
clothing lodging and accommodations fit and
necessary and such as are white, shall teach or
cause to be taught, to read and write and the ele
mentary rules of arithmetic; and at the expiration
of every apprenticeship, shall pay to each appren
tice six dollars, and furnish him with new suit of
clothes and new Bible" The section further
provides, that when it shall appear that any ap-
prentice is in-used, is not taught the trade &C.,
to which he was bound, or that any white appren-
tice is not taught reading, &C., the Court may re-
move him and bind him to some other suitable
person.
These provisions have been modified by the
fourth section of act passed by the late Legsla
ture of the State, entitled An Act concerning
Negroes and Persons of Color or Mixed Blood,
ratified on the 10th of March, 1866, which section
is as follows:
further enacted That in all cases of apprenticeship
Code, the master shall be bound to discharge the
duties to them to white apprentices, and the words las
white in third section line three hereby repeal
ed and the word apprentice shall be read after the word
such, in said ipe &c.
It will be thus seen that our law makes the same
provisions for the maintenance, education and
morals of the black as it does for the white child
This subject had not only the careful considera-
ton of the General Assembly, but of the Commits
sion appointed by Gov. Holden, of which Mr.. B.
T. Moore, one of the ablest and most careful law
yers of the State, was Chairman, and the recon-
mendation of this Commission was adopted, which
we have quoted above. Does the native State
of Mr.. Ashley provide carefully for black
children than is lone in North Carolina?
To answer Mr. Ashley's question, as to.whether
white children are bound out in the same manner,
would be giving too much consideration to a SLAM
der implied in the interrogation. Courts else
where may know distinctions between persons, not
recognized by law, but the Judicial ermine of
North Carolina is untarnished by a single blot,
and Mr.. Ashley will find, by a longer residence
with us, that Courts respect neither persons
or color in their Interpretation of the law in its
execution.
1t is matter of great regret that Mr. Ashley
had not ''awaited further information" before Civ
ing the weight of his official name to what he will
find to be false, that these children were, "by
armed and mounted police force, torn from their
homes and CARED to q forced and unnecessary ap-
premiership" The damage done is irreparable. |
The prints which publish, with such greedy avidi-
ty reports derogatory to the South, will not make
correction, even when informed of the injustice
done. Such statements are the life of the Radi-
cal party,-the very meat and bread upon which
they wax strong.
We are gratified, however, at the sentiments
contained in the closing paragraphs of the letter,
and regard it as a subject of congratuaton to our
community.
Mr. Ashley has it in his power to do great good
among the class to which his labors are confined,
and also be of incalculable benefit to our whole
people Let him labor to renew that affection the
negro once had for his master impress upon the
black, that those who once owned them, among
whom they have always lived, and upon whom
they must in future depend are better friends |
than any strangers can possibly be; that there
is mutual dependence between the whites and
blacks, for without honest, contented and reliable
labor the South will never recover from her pres
ent prostration, and the future welfare of this
country is as much dependent upon our black as
upon our white population impress upon them
the truths so forcbly put by the President in his
veto, and especially the following
The white race and the black race of the South
hitherto lived together under the relation master and
slave-captal owning labor. Now suddenly, that rea
are divorced fhsy stand now each master Of Itself In
this relation one being necessary to the other there