Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-11-15
RADICALISM I'm AMERICA.
IT'S INJURIOUS EFFECTS AS DEPICTED BY A
BRITISH OFFICER.
From the London Times, October %

There appears to beno longera doubt that
the long struggle of parties in the United
States is about to pass into another phase.
The Republicans, who have now had the
control of power for more than six years,
have long been encouraged by their friends
to believe that they were sure Of the sup
port of the people, no matter what line of
policy they chose to pursue. The elections
of last autumn, following closely upon some
of their most stringent measures for the
regulation of the South, fully confirmed
them in this supposition, and when they
reassembled at Washington, strengthened
by the addition to their numbers of some
Of the most extreme men in the country,
they soon proved the expansive nature Of
Radical principles. The Executive was
made subservient to Congress, and the
Federal judiciary was threatened with their
revenge if it dared to oppose their policy.
Enactments of the most conflicting kind
were placed upon the statute books, but
their boldest stroke was reserved for the
existing system of State governments in
the South, and for the principle upon which
the elective franchise was expressly based
by the Constitution. The Legislature soon
proved its superiority to organic laws and
proscriptive rights. The local governments
we're summarily destroyed, and new suf
frage law enforced upon the people of the
Southern States, by which the maj GRITTY of
white citizens were purpoSely excluded
from the polls. If the object Of this new
civil revolution had been merely to protect
the negro in his rights us a freedman, it
would doubtless have been justified by the
approval Of the Northern people; but the
aims of the Republicans did not stop at
this point. They were not contented with
placing the negro on an equality with the
Il 4 al
to make him the ruler over a subjugated
people. The education and the intelli-
gence Of the South, which their most i'm
placable foes admit can lily be spared from
the national councils, were to be suppress
ed by martial law, and representatives
were to be drawn from race which, what
ever may be its past wrongs, is of all 9th
ers the least competent to be lntrusted at
once with the control of the machinery Of
civilized government. To the amaze
ment of the nation, the Republican party
have succeeded in accomplishing the Wild
est dreams of their leaders. The people
now find that they must reconcile them
selves to seeing negroes everywhere el1g1ble
for the chief seats Of authority, and, more
over, clad with the power to assist them
selves to these appointments. In seven
out of ten States the official returns prove
that distinct and overwhelming ajority
Of negro voters exists. by what means
the white citizens have been kept down
future history will, perhaps, reveal, and we
may we'll credit the statement of an Amer
lean writer, that if his countrymen knew
all the details, the end of the Republican
reign would be very near. But we need
not cucumber ourselves with the inferen-
ces or implications of either the winning
OF the losing side. The plain fact of the
hour is, that the mass of the Northern peO-
pie are as adverse now as they ever have
been from the dominion, in any part Of
their continent, of the negro race, and yet
they are now witnessing seven States ttb-
solutely ruled 10y negroes, and negro can
dldates for State Legislatures and Congress
rising up in every direction; while from
the newly enfranchised millions come de-
mands from gratultous appropriations Of
land, which it will be utterly impossible TO
satisfy
The Northern people, as their true repre-
sentative, men have always enphatically
testified, struck down slavery, not because
they loved the negro, but because they
were determined to preserve the Union
They have now been committed by the Re-
publican extremists to a formal acknowledge
ment of the right of the blacks to govern
a large section Of the country, although a
is that education should go before fran
chise. In this reversal Of all their former
policy they may have seen sufficient cause
to withdraw from the Radical faction. But
they have other causes of dlScOntent.-
While the country is bowed down beneath
the load of taxation, so that as an eX-mem-
Der OF Congress recently declared in Ohio,
the man in America is taxed higher per
head than in any other country in the
world" and while the people are striving
to improve the position Of the bonds in the
market, in order that the rate Of interest
may be reduced, a leading Radical, one of
the bitterest OF the party, comes forward
with IL proposal to cheat the national credi-
tors by paying the interest in currency in
stead of gold. 1t is true, indeed, and we
gladly record the fact, that the public jour
nails of the party have instantly denounced
this amazing act of folly. The Secretary
of the Treasury has fastened to reassure
the public mind, and Mr.. Butler is at pres
ent the only public advocate Of an infamous
proposition. But this man is too cunning
politician to have commit ed an obvious
mistake. He either actually is, or believes
himself to be, supported by q certain Sec
ton of his constituents. Even Butler dare
not openly hoist the standard of 'repudia-
ton" but he is preparing the way for it by
| suggesting QlSnOneSG evasion OF the ma
tional obligations. The mischief that is
done meanwhile is scarcely to be over-esti-
mated. The public confidence in United
States bonds is kept wavering, and the six
per cent. rate of interest threatens to be
perpetual. So much have the people to
thank their Radical leaders for. But even
more than this remains behind. The whole
country is agitated and disturbed by the
deplorable condition of the South. Trade
is paralyzed, credit is shaken, and the very
word Reconstruction" has become hateful
to the people. We need not accept ques-
tionable authority for these statements
They are repeated in every Republican
journal, and by almost every Republican
speaker throughout the United States. One
of the Senators of New York, elected last
year on account of his extreme Radical
opinions, is reported to have said at Re-
publican Convention in Syracuse, that 1.-The
country wants repose, wants an end of re-
construction, not only for the sake of re-
construction, but for the sake of the inter
ests which lie behind. Taxes press upon
the people, prices are oppressive" These
sentiments everywhere fill the public mind,
and far outweigh the class of iealousies and