Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-05-03
NEGRO MASS MEETING.
SPEECH OF
HON. HENRY WILSON,
OF MASSACHUSETTS,
Delivered at the Negro Mass Meeting held
at nudley's Grove, i'm the City of Will
r.,ington. ON the first of May, 1867.
ALSO THE REPLY OF
BENJAMIN ROBINSON, Esq,
OF WILMINGTON.
Mr. WllsOn beinp introduced said ::

M President and FeUOlc-f citizens Of North
Carolina Il am grateful to you for this kind and
generous greeting accorded to me to-day.
1 came here to-day, fellow citizens, in response
to an invitation upon public affairs, and shall ell
deavor to-day to indicate the action of the gov
eminent of the United States-of the people of
the United States, and Of the Republican party CT
the United States Il mean the government OF
the States loyal to their country; the people loyal
to their country, the Republican party that saved
the country, and made it forever free country.
loud applause.)
God in his providence gave us this grand en-
pire; this land of llimitable resource, to be de-
velOped for human power and for human happi-
ness. patriotic ancestry gave US Democratic
institutions, established government of the
people for the people and by the people. For
more than eighty years that government shed its
bounteous blessings the land. We ac-
customed to contemplate with gratitied pride, the
stability OF our Institutions. As we cast our eyes
across the water and saw the revolutions the ri
sing and FALLING dyuasties OF the old worlc., we
turn proudly to our country and learn to believe
that it was immortal. (Applause.) AS we turned
our eyes toward Mexico and the republics OF Cen
trail and South America and b@held the revOlu-
tions, the shifting and changing that followed
each other like the "feeting shadows Of summer
Clouds thoughts returned to own un-
try, and we believed she was as immortal as the
fame of the man who saved her. (Cheers.) But
during the last seven years this country, with all
its blessings, and with all its hopes, presented to
the astonished gaze of mankind humiliation
occasioned by disastrous civil war, such the
world had never seen. For four years bloody
and devastating war brought upon soTrows
and woes of the most heartrending kind Mil
lions of men were raised for the purpose Of car
ying on this war. Our green fields were ridden,
our bright waters stained with fraternal blood
The young men Of the republic, iE the pride Of
life, were torn from the mothers that bore them,
the wives and sisters that loved them, to 10 eet in
deadly strife six hundred battle fields. The
land was bathed in the blood of fathers. and hus
bands and sons and the bitter tears of the moth
ers wives and sisters, their walls and their signs
resounded through the land. Who is responsible
for this before the world, before the God Of Hea-
ven, and before the government of the United
States.
Alexander Fl. Stevens said on the 18th of March,
1860, that the Government of the United states
had never done an act that any man in the United
States had any right to complain Of, and he (the
speaker,) challenged any man to show where any
man had attempted to contradict that statement
from that day to this. The people Of the loyal
they loved the Countrywide whole country includ-
ing the rebel States. They loved the people
they sent up thousands Of prayers to Almighty
God for her Welfare They say here to you to-day
that ruined hundreds OF thous 4nds of Christians
in order to carry out your doctrines of secession;
but here in the loved light OF Heaven, and under
the shadows Of shOse trees and before the Eterna!
Throne Of God, hold slavery responsible, and [
hold its supporters responsible for every drop Of
blood she'd for every death, for every dollar cx-
pended in this accursed rebellion. (Cries of yes,
yes" and cheers.)
And now I stand here to-day in the State of
North Carolina to maintain the same doctrines I
maintained on the floor of the American Senate
when MIR. Cllngman, OF your State, told us that ii
we elected President OF the United States who
would be in favor of keeping the territories for the
free laboring men of this country, their children
and Childrens children, it would be overt act
that it would justify secession, the establishment
of Confederacy, and, if it to blows, he told
us he hoped the blood would first be shed there.
| took occasion, then. to tell him that owe the
people of the North, wanted no war; that we were
a peaceable people, but that if it came to blows,
while we would be the last to go III, we would
nevertheless be the last to come out" and we
were tho last to come out Great applause) l
told him in the presence Of Congress, ''Ihat if it
was provoked they would find that the men who
had fought at Lexington and Concord, who had
trampled to a nire the fields of Chippewa and
Lundy's Lane, would maintain the national flag,
and preserve forever the government of the Uni
ted States and we have done it. CONTINUED ap-
plause.)
Gentlemen, we have passed through six years
Of de ably strife. have said to you that the gov
eminent is not responsible for it; that the rebel
chlettalns and leaders are responsible before man
and God, and now want to call your attention to
some facts, and | want you to remember those
facts, and take them home with you and give
them your most earnest attention. 1 say, here
now, all sincerity, that from the year 1886 down
to the tearing down of the old flag at Fort Sum
ter tho government of the United States had
never interfered with the rights of any portion of
our countrymen at the South. They know i'll
know lt-GOd Almighty knows it, and will hold
them responsible for the guilty talsehood by
which they fired the Southern spirit. (Applause.)
y,
the Representatives of the seeding States, came
into Congress and offered a resolution in regard
to the book of Mr.. Helper, Of North Carolina
They charged that the responsible party were re-
sponsible for everything he had written in that
book. They defeated John Sherman, the cAndi-
date for speaker. The same feeling sprung up in
the Senate, and then it was that IOOmDS and
Davis, and Brown, and Mason and Sdell, and
Benz amin, and the chiefs and leaders who were
meeting nightly, organizing rebellion, while
they were sitting in the day time by our Sides
told 11S hat J
we elected President, they would in the Ian
guagc CT Keit, Of South Carolina, " SILVER the
Union from turret to foundation stone" And
Wigfa1, of Texas, strenuously and tiagrantIy |
threatened the disruption of the country, while |
other Senators substantially reiterated the same
expression. But the people of the United States |
blessings on their fellow men, the great masses |
of tie intelligent people of the country went forth
in their might, and made Abraham Lincoln, Pres
ident Of the United States. cloud cheers for Lin
cOln.)
The Democratic party did all they could to help
elect him. They threatened to destroy the cOun- |
try, and they went into Convention at Charles
ton and rejected the choice of the party-Stephen
A. Dougiass-for the purpose of hurting the
country into rebellion. On the very day the Dem
ocratic party, after adjourning to Baltimore, nom
mated John Z. Breckenridge, leading Demo- |
cratic Senator, said to me, when asked him how |
he liked 1t, " By God, Sir, like it, lave not |
seen day for fifteen years would have made the |
Unlon-l have not seen the day | would not |
destroy it, and this destruction OF the Democratic
party is the beginning of the destruction of this
accursed Union" The battle was fought by these
men in 1860 for the purpose of destroying the |
country and building up q great slave-hOlding |
republic that should embrace Mexico, Cuba and
various other places, and they believed that they
had only to clap their hands, and the nation would
die This purpose was stated in the language
Of Stephens $ that the republic, the corner stone
of which was to rest on human bondage, should |
be maintained at any cost, even to the destruc-
lion OF the Union" Now let me tell YOU it was q
wicked thing to raise the standard of revolt
against this republic-to attempt to destroy the
lie OF this great nation. But it was wickeder
han that attempt, more wicked than the murder
d $4,000 loyal men, to attempt to establish
government resting on the slavery Of four and
lalf millions OF crushed men. s(Cheers.)
The motive of this rebellion was the most wick
~ motive that ever actuated any body of states
men ofthe Old or New World. And let me say to
'ou, that as peace is restored, and the excite
nents OF this conflict ceaee-as the poison of slave
y gets out of our blood-as perverted reason as
tunes It's empire-as the world goes on, darker
md darker, and darker will grow the pages that
ecord the motives and the acts OF the great lead
II of this great crime against humanity and God.
The Government Of the United States was COM
eied forced, driven into protection of the nation
!! life. When Congress assembled, after the cleo
ION OF Mr. Lincoln, few moderate men came in
o the national council and wanted to get up a