Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-05-03


| tleman however seemed to have been much
influenced by Wilson's harrangue, and en-
! Enthusiastically proposed ''three cheers for
Wilson," The freedmen gratifed him by
giving one. The latter were evidently in
clined to Radicalism, and were perhaps
more influenced by Mr.. Wilson than by the
sound and convincing arguments adrOitly
advanced by Major Lee.
From the N. Y. Times.
The Freedmen Cttizens-senator VIII
sons Mission.
| In two respects Mr. Wilson'S mission
might have been expected to give better
| assurance Of practical success than 1t has
done thus far. IF that mission was under
taken with the view of spreading sound po-
litical information among all classes at the
South, it is unfortunate that his audiences
both at Orange and at Richmond have been
made up, ten to one Of q single Glass;
Equally unfortunate is it that the addresses
delivered at both points, i'll so far as they
have been intelligibly reported, deal rather
with party achievements and party claims
! than present the clear induces of broad pO
litical truth. Few men Of common sense
! belonging to either side in politics, think
of questioning the great advantage Of hav-
| ing a free and full discussion Of current
questions throughout the South, as through
out the North There, as here, freedom
| of speech now means more than the right
of asserting to the DEGREES of what was bat
the other day domineering sectional ma
jority. And if the standpoint from which
! Mr.. Wilson addresses his Southern audi
tors Is that of a mere electiOneerlng agent,
the temper and bearing Of his address,
especially that delivered at Richmond, need
not be called in question. What, however,
will occur to many rejecting people here
and III Virginia is, that when this grand
opportunity has at last presented itself OF
bringing Northern political teachers Gf
they cannot be called statesmen) face to
face with the people of the South, there
should exist among the most influential
class even a latent suspicion OF the motives
of the speaker. That suspicion doubtless
gave to the Richmond assemblage the COM
pleXion it bore--six thousand or more
blacks to q few hundred whites of no
very exalted character, with few eXcep-
tons On the other hand, the absence
of the intelligent class may have re-
acted Oh the speaker and his efforts.
Without being rudely offensive to the alb
sent class, the address could be said to
have no merit beyond an ordinary election
eering speech, with this much additional
to detract from it-that it was mainly adj
dressed not to q general or even party
gathering, but to single class in the COM
munity. How far that class-many OfWhOm
in their former condition of slaves must
have heard Mr.. Stewards name for years
and years among the foremost ofthe friends
of freedom-understood or relished Mr.
Wilson's abuse of the Secretary of State,
We do not know. But those of them pos
sessed Of common intelligence could hard
ly, we should suppose, help wondering
that the bitterest invectives Of the speaker
were reserved for those who had been fight
ing the cause of the slave long before Mr..
Wilson's name or authority was known out
side Of the mutual admiration circle of his
State.
It is not easy to portray in it's full magni,
tude the permanent mischief that may be
wrought in the political structure of South
ern society by par ty appeals addressed to
any one class in the community. The evil
will not begin to develop itself fully until
the ewly-enfranchised class, having vo-
ted having been coaxed and entreat-
ed to vote, begin to find of what
consequence they really are in their
State or in their electoral district. Like
other races and classes, they are not likely
to remain long in ignorance that there is O
consideration attached to the possession of
the franchise, and that that consideration
grows in value as voters of the same race,
or creed or class combine to go to the polls
in solid body. If Mr. Wilson does not
carry his course of political instruction so
far as to let his colored audiences know
how the value of ''solid'' vote is esti-
mated in New York, he will shortly be fol-
lowed by other instructors who will make
the matter sufficiently clear. Thirty or
forty years trial of the class-voting system
here has done more to show how the fran
abic IL b.
than anything else in the history of NUM-
cipal government. The same thing will be
illustrated all over the South, precisely in
proportion as masses of people of the same
klth are dragged into common booth, to
be made merchandise Of by their own lea
derS' OF by designing men Of another class.
The evidence is growing stronger and
more Satisfactory every day that there need
be no no such herding of the freedmen to-
gether IN order to secure free and stable
government at the South. The Petersburg
meeting held Oh Thursday of last week
was large and mixed gathering of white
and colored people together
without the prompting or the attraction of
an outside orator. The resolutions passed
which we print in full in another col
umn-shOw that those who took part in
the meeting fully recognize the principle
of political and civil equality, which should
hereafter exist among all classes at the
South. No advocate of freedom here or in
any other country could ask for more than
| is voluntarily affirmed in resolutions by q
mixed assembly, and sustained by the more
moderate and influential Virginia journals
Ii, then, missions and missionaries from
the North are to be employed in Speeding
POLITICAL information at the South, it can
not be too strongly urged that results per-
manently beneficial either to blacks or
whites, or to the country at large, a,e only
possible if party propagandism is subordi-
mated to fair and candid statement of the
situation. Any sort of political enterprise
that aims to use the freedmen as Q gotnsg