Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-05-10
senator wt1son,s Campaign.


IF Senator Wilson's Southern campaign
was inaugurated more for personal than
party advancement, as has frequently been
intimated, it is a success so far as the negro
vote is concerned, and will so remain until
the next Radical stump Orator comes along,
when Harris viii procla:sa him the black
mans best friend, and the cheers for Kel-
ley, Nye or Butler, for the next Presidency,
and in turn for each of them, will be as
lusty and as honest as those which greeted
Senator Wilson on Wednesday last. If his
canvass is intended to build up and estab
lish the Republican party in the South, If
to nationalize Radical principles, it has
proven a most miserable failure. The cor
respondent of the New York Herald, travel
ing in company with Mr.. Wilson, writes
to that paper from Raleigh, from which we
make the following extracts : g He was
" followed by two colored men. One of
&c them is an aspiring youth named Harris,
&c who expects to represent the District in
g Congress. The other is respectable
preacher named Brodie. Harris declared
d" himself proud of his color. He said that
&c the black man did not want to get any
Fs closer socially to the whites. The motley
GO croacd before him indicated they had been
&c too close dlready."
F'Senator Wilson spoke at noon to-day
in front of the Capitol. Here again the
4" great majority of his hearers were col
'' ored In fact, everywhere he has spoken
&C the white citizens have kept aloof, as if
I" they had no concern in the matter. The
g general complexion of the audience is as
&c if the tour was being made through ia
''maica or Hayti. T9y fer, if any, achites
" hare been concerted to repablicaniSm, They
" are polite, but Indifferent.
"The blacks are thoroughly organized,
ss and will vote on the republican side. That
sc may drive the southern whites to com.
" bine on white mans party.
The same may be said with perfect truth
fitness of the visit here. But few white
citizens took part in the meeting, and there
were some present, although Northern men,
who have recently settled among lis, who
we regret to see giving endorsement to pro-
ceedings which they know must inevitably
result, if continued, in the estrangement
of our people and the injury of the coun-
try-which will compel the Southern peo-
pie, from a sense of self protection, to form
a ''white mans party" There can be but
little good to result from keeping open the
wounds of the past, or in persuading the
negroes that the Southern people are their
enemies.
We expect Mr.. Wilson's desire is rather
to ingratiate himself with the Radicals of
the North, than to build up his party in the
South. He has, we suspect, but little idea
that the Southern States will be admitted
in time to vote in the next Presidential
election, and he is getting too far into &c the
scar and yellow leaf to postpone six years
longer his Presidential aspirations, indie
pendent of the probable fuctuating for
tunes of his party. The effect of his
speeches thus far IS to repel and estrange
his Southern auditors. It may be very
courageous for a man, who incontinently
fled from the only battlefield he ever got
Southern people, who will not seek recon
struction through the Radical party, and it
may add to his popularity at home, but we
assure him it is doing nothing towards re-
conciling our people towards the Govern
ment-it but opens more widely the gulf
between our old and new citizens, to close
which should be, andis, the honest desire of
every patriotic man in the country
The very poor success which Mr.. Wilson
meets with, is having an opposite eff
feet from that which he desired and ex-
pected The more Conservative portion of
the Northern press is ridiculing his cam
paign, and while the distinguished Senator
is reveling in the cheers of Southern blacks,
the Northern people are laughing at his
failure. The New York Times says truly !:
"Senator Wilson's Southern tour seems to be
case of great cry and little wool. The flock sur
rounds him, but there is shealing dore, and he
is likely to come back empty-handed. The blacks
listen to him. but wonder what all the bother is
about. The whites let him alone, and have not
paid him the compliment of getting fngry at any
thing he has said. He has rated them to his
hearts content, and they hear him with civility,
if not with respect, and then Mr.. Wilson packs up
his stock of pIatitudes and diatribes and takes
himself off unnOticed to the next town. 1t seems
rather dull sort of work. 1t is not, we may be
sure, exactly what the Senator bargained for. If
there had been disturbance anywhere, what
theme it would have supplied him with-what
martyr he would have returned As it is, he
comes back in the position of one who thought to
move the universe, and finds that he has not
made so much stir gadfy in Summer. The
Southern people soon found out that it was not an
earthquake or whirlwind which had come among
them, but only reed shaken by the wind. And
say that this is very discouraging for poor Mr..
Wilson, and we hope he will bear up bravely IN
der his adversities.'
Negro Preachers.
The Philadelphia Press, one of Forney's