Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-03-22
" Brick" Pomeroy to Bill Arp.


it on We believe you are very bad Bill, and so
we don't want to pass you in silence You write
rs if there was something wrong with you-as if
there were clouds floating over the land of magno-
las and the sunny south generally Really Bill
are surprised.
There never was 50 ungrateful people as you
southern gentlemen are, and now, after all that has
been done for you to letters written by you so
full of insinuations is too much. The fault of all
this lies with you. Weren't you folks most dog
oned wicked before this war? Honest Indian now,
Bill! Didn't you get proud and isn't pride Il sin?
And didn't you own niggers down there, and lar-
Iup them continually to raise cotton for New Eng
land nabObs to spin-sugar to sweeten coffee,
rice to eat in puddings and tobacco to chew
and squirt over meeting house floors? Answer us,
Bill And didn't you folks stay down there and
attend to business little too close? And didn't
you have better horses finer grounds, and more
land than we had?
We are all Christians in the north. We felt that
all those fine things dragging your souls down
to hell. We didn't want you to rest III birthstone,
being III torment, tried to cOrrel you In
Abraham's bosom. Abraham was a great and
good man who died some time since, read
of somewhere.
And then, Bill, you kept your nigger6 too fat.
Our factory operatives grew jealous And our girls
went down there to teach your girls something,
and fell III love with your boys and forgot to come
home. We felt that you were wicked. We didn't
want you to go to hell! All the fine things you
had were leading you away from salvation SO we
and Steele and HOvey, and Prentiss, and Hurlburt,
and several of the elect of Christian churches
down there to win you out of the Jaws of hell by
Withdrawing your fine furniture, such panoeS,
books, pictures rosewood bedsteads, marble tables,
siverware, horses, cotton, and all such plumber, to
q place Of safety
You were wrong to engage war-vcry wrong to
do that thing. New England alone could conquer
you. Why, Bill, If you had billion of millions of
dollars, and enough nice furniture to furnish all of
the houses IN the country, New England could
steal it IN four years and if New England Aboli-
tionists could not, the Kansas saints and Western
children OF Christian Aboltionists could. Haven't
we prayed for you III all our churches? And haven't
We told you better ? You wanted to get out of the
Union All, Bill, States i'll get
ont That is what we always told you. AL those
friends of the great martyr tell you We want
to keep you IN. We fought you at Antietam, Pea
Ridge, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Fredericksburg,
Shiloh, Mobile, Fort Donelson, and devil only
knows where to keep you i'll the Union. And
then we sent Christian missionaries down there,
Bill. to rescue your Valuabes and remove them
North, you know And we burnt down your
houses, and we took what food your wives and
children had-and we sent your cotton to market
for you, you know, Bill And sent three
millions men to war to keep you burned fellers Ill
this happy Union. God only knows how many of
YOU folks we killed, for one Northern
always good for five Southern men, to say nothing
about mules, nlgSers, cotton and keepsakes And
Bill, we have stepped into some little debt
cheap Rice was too cheap. Sugar too
cheap Happiness too cheap. Our national
debt was too small. 1t was costing too much to
keep that negro boarding house of yours, SO we
remedied that by killing your negroes, or giving
them the benefit of liberty, rags, old bones, and
Abolitionism. And, Bill, we enhanced the price
Of everything for you, and made Il demand for
carpenters and house builders down there. You
forget how have benefited your country, Bill,
you would not Arp so continually on imaginary
evils
And we did all this to keep you in the Union.
We sent John Brown, peace to his ashes fresh
from stealing horses in Kansas, to atone for his
sins by rescuing negroes from your grasp in Vir-
ginia And for this little pleasantly the part
Of one of MAJ TyrsOne OF our Illuminated title
pages to history-yOu never thanked us as you
should. And didn't we throw some few iron into
Charleston harbor The waters of that pool will
he 4 good tonic for years, Bill! And didn't Cur
It's save your cotton Didn't Butler save your
gold and protect your women And didn't Banks
save the Red River property? And didn't two
hundred and eighteen generals get rich as mud
from finding things yoN folks had lost And is
there not housefull after housefull of keepsakes
picked up in the woods and on wood-piles by our
army chaplains and moral boys, while you
trying to kill those of our folks who wanted
TO visit you to keep your souls from hell ?
Bill. you are ungrateful And then didn't we
keep this war up, till the States all back in
the Union And didn't go to war and keep
going to war to keep your dog -goned States
from gong out or the Union ANA C1un we tcG
magnanlmOuS and as soon as war was over, unite
III saying that you were out of the Union Really,
Bill, it seems If YOU had 1T all yOur own way
This war has proved a success. brilliant sue
cess. We were bound to push it throughin nine
~ days, and we should but for your stubbornneSs.
All we wanted was your nlgger6-and your cotton,
mules, furniture, silver ware and such odd tricks
which you folks could buy better than VIC could,
Tor you had more money It was wrong to keep
slaves, Bill, but 1t was not wrong to steal This
war was to preserve the Union. Everybody said
50. The Union has been preserved-so much for
is No,r, byeLlre2s let rs pray.
Your States are kept out of the Union which is
still preserved. You wanted reconstruction. Well
reconstruct you! You folks are very wicked, Bill.
God Furnishes wickedness. Gods agents live III
the North, exclusively Bill! And we'll let you
back in the Union, which has been preserved,
when VIC get ready. First, you must hunt up the
balance of your property and give it to somc CT
our great and good agents generals. Then you
must move out of your hOuSeB-tnat is what are
left-and let the niggers ill., And you must give
the niggers your plantations. And Bill, you must
give them all your property, and then support the
innocent cause of the late war by manual labor.
And you must let tho niggers vote, for they are
wanted for Republican congressman, Senators and
sich. And you must ignore all Jour personal or
war debts, and not pay them even upon the basis
OF homer. And you must help us pay for licking
you. And ere you do this, you must have all your
property taken from you it will be SO easy We
Just and magnanimous people in the North
We are liberal and brOther1y! We want peace,
and harmony! We don't want you to go to hell.
Personally, We know but little of the country. In
1868 we LETT your country Immediately i'll advance
Of a bayonet for saying that some of our folks
were steallng from some of your folks and for
writing naughty letters to the La Crosse Dent0crat
charging some OF onr generals with robbing and
cOwardlce. And we have had very pleasant time
of it for thinking much as YOU think. but now we
fnr of