Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-07-12
Especial Correspondence of the Journal
PrANTaTJoN June 80. 1867,

1 -
life in a cou ntry, whose stiffness has never
been disturbed by the shrill shrek of the
railrc a / whistle, / find myself so far be-
hind :he progress of the age, that L seem
indeed to be one Of those venerable men
&c come down from Il former generation -
but what else could be expected from man,
whose nearest railway station IS distant for
ty miles, who lives i'll woods III which the
| great iron horse has never snorted The
Golden Age has indeed passed away, and we
now live in iron houses, move IN iron car
riages and have our being in iron times
We ascend to the mountain top upon the
iron horse we go down to the sea III iron
ships, and what is more remarkable, we
come up in them to the shore IN safety
again we drink iron water, we take iron
pills, we swear iron clad oaths ; we have
iron heels, iron hands, iron nerves, iron
hearts and iron heads Amid this deluge
of iron it Won d indeed be q matter of sur
prise if some had not entered our souls as
we'll us our stomachs and unfortunate is 1t
that not as the wind is tempered to the
the South We are indeed shorn Of our
strength, and are as lambs led to theslaugh-
ter, but the temper, as indeed every other
characteristic of the age is that of iron and
vet it is wonderful to see how much due
tileness and how much pl;ableness have
been developed together with SO much
hardness. Extremes once more have met
! These, or similar reflections, occur to ne al
most every time the high waters abate
enough to allow the transportation Of such
mail matter as We can obtain by private
! hand Or through the occasional kindness Of
the Government. Every news journal
shows as glaringly the contrast between the
iron and the golden ages Of the politica
world as that of the material world.
The mighty changes and perversions 60
ing on doubtless do not strike you with as
much force, who watch them from incep-
ton to completion, as one to whom they
appear at once full grown. The moral
sense of the whole country seems to be en-
tirely and unconsciously distorted. Utter
auce is given to sentiments, with a COM
placency and earnestnoss scarcely to be JUS
tilted by the greatest moral truths, that dis
play an entire obliQuity of moral vision.-
But, alas, what else can we look for when
each eye has its beam, when every eye is
indeed evil. An extract from an article in
late number of the National IateHfgencer'
(late at least to me- upon the action of the
Executive on the Southern complications,
has brought home to me with peculiar force
the conviction Of the degeneracy of the
times in which we live. That paper in
former times Of even the bitterest partizan
| feeling, seemed always to preserve its NOR
al vision undimmed, and would neither OPP
pose nor support the acts OF the Govern
ment simply because of party bias or party
utilization. This seems now, however, to be
sadly changed, as will appear from the fol-
lowing extract, above referred to
"Doubtless, however, correspondence will
speedily be opened with the Generals Who have
usurped the power Of removing civil State officers
at the South and appointing others and when
the facts i'll each case shall nave been Obtained and
considered, r:medy suited to the particular
wrong will be sternly applied 1t is very evident
shat no general ru!e could be adopted i'll refer
once to replacing the deposca officers. While the
removals. in the manner they effected, were
all obviously illegal and wrong, the matter might
assume new phase when the question Of re-
placing a particularly obnoxious person in I'M
portant posts came up for Executive c0nsidera-
| ton.
! The removals were all "obyiouslv lille
gal and wrong" on the part of the General,
but at the same time 1.-The matter assumes
new phase" when the Executive is called
upon to apply the remedy in pursuance of
| his oath, to see the laws Of the country OK
ecuted. 1t brings the blush Of shame and
of anger, red upon my check, to see such
paltry, cowardly equivocation in that paper
which was SO long known as par e. ccNence,
the respectable and truthful Journal of the
country--of shame, because my country has
sunk SO lLw-of anger, because of the in
suit to our understanding, conveyed in the
attempt to deceive us with SO shallow Il pre-
tence. But remedy suited to each par
ticular case will be sternly applied" unless
| forsooth ''the matter assumes new phase"
when it reaches Andrew johnson Doubt
| less, General Sheridan is even yet trem-
| bling in his boots at this direful threat
And we poor wretches are expected to laugh
and smile, praise and cry halo hurrah
Andrew Johnson is our friend. ''God save
me from my friends, say I, if they be such
as he. If the removals are so "obviously
illegal and wrong" then in law, they are
not removals, ana the 1nOlVlQudlS ana the
sovereign peoples they represent have suf-
fered a great outrage which the Command
ing Generals have committed, and these
individuals, thus ousted by force and VIC
lence, are still obviously the rightful in
cumbents, and in legal possession (the ap-
pointees of the Generals being simply tres
passers,) whom it is the plain, sworn duty
of the President to recognize as such, and
to whose legal possession it is the plain,
sworn duty of the President as the superior
officer of these Commanding Generals to
give practical effect and actual enjoyment.
It is 'obyiousl y illegal and wrong" for
Commanding General to remove the Gov
ernor of State, though the matter as
sumes a new phase with the President if
the removed Governor happens to be ga
particularly obnoxious person." Alas
alas How low we have fallen Obnox-
ious To whom ? For what Justly or
unjustly? And is this that virtuously
boosted "stern application" of the, Exc
cutive remedy? Can it be simply matter
of discretion whether subordinate officer
shall be allowed to commit an act cob
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