Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-11-29

as already explained, had boon generously
contributed in Baltimore, for cotton thread
such as is used for the weaving OF plain
cloth, and to distribute bunch OF that, so
far as it would go, to each fatherless family
| Mr.. Alfred Erwin, O. kind-hearted and very
estimable citizen of that county, a lawyer
by profession. was appointed to make the
distribution. AS soon as it became known
that Mr. Erwin had received this thread,
to be given away at his discretion to the
persons indicated, his Office was literally
besieged until very soon there was not a
single bunch left, and then it was truly
touching to witness the profound dlsap-
pointment and grief, amounting almost to
despair, of the numerous care-worn and
INDECENT mothers who were still unprovided
for, some of whom had come twelve or tf-
teen miles over the rough mountain roads,
on foot. bare-footed, and with scarcely
clothes enough upon themselves to cover,
in the usual way, their own persons. The
sight, I say, the sight of these very poor
widowed mothers having to return home
empty-handed, but heavy-hearted, as my
self saw many of them returning, to rick
ETY., cold, comfortless log cabins, in man
ner destitute not only of furniture and bed
ding, but also of almost every other thing,
except troop of half-staryed, half-clad,
and helpless children, was indeed specta-
Gle too sorrowful to behold with any ordi.
nary emotion"
Mr.. Helper then goes on to say that
broken-hearted over the disastrous realities
of the present, and dimly peering into the
dark and uncertain future, all the white
people there, Of whatever condition in life,
are detected and sorrowful to an extent
that he never before witnessed, and ad-
| dressing himself then to the political phase
Of the question, he adds:
among men whose hearts are not en-
tlrely callous to every consideration of JUS
tice and humanity, there should always
prevail sentiment keenly alive to the sug-
gestion that there should be both measure
and limitation of punishment. Yet
strange to say-more strange to say of
white men, and still more strange to say of
white men in the nineteenty century-the
Radicals, as represented in the Radical
Congress, seem to be actuated by no such
sentiment as this.
81 tell them that the true
Union men of the South (the white Union
men, and except these there were none,
and are none worthy of the name) detest,
with deteStation unutterable, the entire
batch of their disgraceful and ruinous mill
tary measures of reconstruction. With
few exceptions, the white Union mon of
the South feel that they have been most
foully and shamefully betrayed and dis
honored, and we reject, with Unreasonable
scorn and Indignation, the imputation that
we have any sympathies or purposes III
common with base-minded and degenerate
partisans. who, like the Radicals, are
abandoned to every high principle of honor
and right reason. We were, and are still,
Republicans not Black Republicans, but
White Republicans. Radicals we never
were, nor can we be. It is, then, the Re-
publican party, in the persons, factions
and fanatical multitudes of Radical dema-
gogues that has left us, and not we who
have left the Republican party" X
owe insist upon it that the enfranchise-
ment of the negroes and the disfranchise-
ment of the whites, whereby the supremacy
Of the negroes has already been established,
or is about to be established in almost
every Southern State, is a consummate
outrage, an nnmitigated despotism, an IN
paralleled infamy and an atrocious crime.
We insist upon it that our Federal Gov
eminent and our State governments are,
as they ought to be, Republican in form,
and that the military authorities ought, at
all times, except only in Eases of actual
war, in the future as in the past, to be
held subordinate to the civil authorities.
Mr.. Helper proceeds to argue that the
important thing necessary to be done in
order to remedy existing evils is to break
down the whole radical party, which, Sin
it's monstrous utilization with negroes is
bringing ruin upon ten States and Gripping
all the others. The radical influence in
the Southern States, he says, is coupled
with the old slaveholding influence, and
keeps the negro unnaturally and dissen-
tiously interlarded between the two great
white elements of the South" thus pre-
| venting among eight millions of people
who alone are good for anything" that
unity of sentiment and harmony of action
essential to permanent peace and prosperi-
ty. We may remark here that throughout
his whole address Mr.. Helper, with all his
, humanitarian, philosophical notions, evin-
{ ces much lower estimate of the black
man. and of his capacity, under proper in.
fuences, for usefulness and improvement
{ than we in Maryland and other parts Of
the South are accustomed to entertain
| and. in our opinion; IS about as undiscrim
mating and unj ust in his wholesale denun
Citations of that race as he was, in his g I'm
t pending Crisis" of the whites.
} Having fixed the responsibility of the
present deplorable state of things in the
| Southern States where it properly belongs
/ on the radical party, Mr.. Helper proceeds
| to point out what is desired by the white
+ Union men of the South, "and all the white
men there, " who, he says, two or three
5 dozen arch traitors excepted, would soor
become firm and faithful friends of the
: Union if they were only afforded just anC
: reasonable opportunity to become so -
, which is, that all the Southern State:
should be acknowledged and treated il
l all respects as free and equal States, will
: enlightened and republican constitution!
. of government, similar to those of New
: York, Pennsylvania and Ohio" and thai
e they should retain ''both the semblanct
e and the reality of white States, and so avoii
s the utter disgrace and worthlessness of be
L coming black States" They ask, besides
for the Immediate repeal of all militar,
: laws which are antagonistic to the spiri
y and form of republican government, anC
: especially for the speedy repeal of the ne
: gro bureau bill; for the reduction of arm,
/ and navy expenses at least one-half, AM
S the tightening of the burdens of taxation
i MIR. Helper, it must be conceded, seems t.
S understand the proper "antidote " to tn
t 'bane" which he assisted to administer
e and if he is as influential in applying tn
!; remedy as he was in communicating tn
=, disease, he will render some atonement TO