Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-04-05
An Honest Radical Witness.

A correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial
who Is vouched for by that paper an old-fash-
ioned Abolitionist, who does not extenuate any
thing, or set down aught in malice, writing from
Southern Arkansas, says:
'During q months travel in this country-con-
versing with scores daily-I have heard less com
plant and less denunciation of the Government
than can be heard around the various corners of
Vine and Fourth Streets in your city, in thirty
minutes, by Observation-Disclosures of q Sunday
morning That there is anxiety to know when,
if ever, they again to take their places in the
Union reconstructed States, is evident enough
but there is modesty about this that does not i'll
become high-toned conquered enemy.
From all that have been able to discover am
satisfied that if the State of Arkansas was admit
ted into the Union to-day with all the rights and
privileges she enjoyed in it, except as to
slavery, she would be much better governed in
the year to come than she has been during the
year which IS past 1t matters not to me now that
her people have been in rebellion against the
Government; they have been punished for that
Whether that punishment has been adequate to
the crime committed, cannot be question with
any nobe-ninded victor, for she has cried
6 Enough " Ii we u magnanmOus victor
really powerful as talk, will not only let
this fallen enemy " get up, but 10y brushing the
dust from her sOiled garment, try and make Of
her fast friend. Her people, like other human
beings and will appreciate words and acts Of
kindness. AS proof of this Henry Ward Beech
ers sayings upon the subject of reconstruction
have made him decidedly popular here, There is
no living man who would be more cordially re-
ceived and listened to with respectful atten-
ton than he. This may be charged to selfish in
terested motives; but such suspicious, just now
when there wounds to be healed, are far more
dangerous to the good Of the country than the
helpless objects of them.
This is very different testimony from that given
by the pack of political hacks who, for partisan
ends, employed to slander the South and
everything connected with her people OF the
condition of the free people, he says
If some Christian effort is not put forth
upon gigantic scale, they will soon go the way
of the North American Indians One Of their
most ruinous vices is licentiousness. Who, that
has been at all acquainted with the negroes under
the slave system, does not know that it has been
the practice among shareholders to keep a strong
plantation police for the express purpose of pre-
venting corrupt indiscrimnate mingling of the
sexes, that they might profit by the increase
This barrier, created for such ignoble end is
now removed, and the results are obvious You
will hardly a negro infant in days Journey.
There seems to be little or care by the moth
ers for such offspring as they do have. At one
point passed on the Ouachita, [ was told that
three negro infants had been found in the river
within one week What an account will our phi
plish much for the sake of humanity the
stakeholder did, with the same material, for the
sake of dollars and cents.
But the most noteworthy part of his letter is the
following-giving the lie, it does, to the radical
stories of Southern lawlessness:
Beside, you not shut out from them now.-,
You are as safe there as here. You Will not be-
lieve in the bugbear stories of persecution and
danger in the South Such things are only true
to those who hunt for them You can find bug
bears here, as there, if you are disposed.
Memphis appeal.