Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-03-08
In What Repects the Situation has
Changed.


We copy from the New York Void of the
Goth inst, the following extract of an edi,
torial article, which appears to suit our stu
alton at the present time:
"We suppose that such Southerners as
can sufficiently control their honest 1ndlg'
nation to make an estimate OF the sit
situation, will perceive that the onl y choice
which remains open to them lies between a
logged, sullen submission, and reorganiza-
ton under the new gospel of negro suffrage.
In such pitable choice of alternatives, we
do not offer advice; but we can perhaps ex-
plain the actual situation more dispassion-
ately than those who are stung into justifa-
BILE rage by this fresh aggression.
eve advised and Improved OF the rejection
by the South of the Constitutional amend
ment If we hesitate, as yet, to give SINH
lar advice respecting the reorganization
proposed by Sherman's bill, it is because
circumstances have, in essential respects,
so totally changed, that new and compre-
hensive survey of the situation is a neces-
sary prerequisite to intelligent action. The
two chief features of Sherman's bill are
outrages which baff1ed political foresight, be-
cause it is not supposed or supposable that
such stretch of perfdy and inconsis-
tency could be ventured upon. Sher-
mans bill provides for the overthrow of the
Southern State Governments, and for put
ting the whole section under the rigors of
martial law. We had what seemed to be
solid reasons for supposing that neither of
these outrages would be perpetrated. In
relation to the State governments, we sup
posed that the Republican party would be
bound by it's own recognition of those gov
ernments. The importance which they at
tached to the Emancipation Amendment,
and the fact that they recognized the South
ern notifications of it as valid, precluded
them, in logic and consistency, from after
wards calling in question the competency
of the ratifying State governments. Con-
gross has acknowledged the validity of the
Southern notifications of that amendment,
in dozen different ways. It has repeat
edly made it the basis of legislation, and
even in proposing the amendment now
pending, it recognized its validity by num-
bering the proposed amendment as the
fourteenth, which it could not be unless
there was a TIL tee7ath, and the thirteenth is
precisely the Emancipation Amendment
1t seemed against all antecedent probability
that Republican Congress would dispiace
this amendment from the Constitution, by
declaring that the ratifying States which
tent to act upon it. Even the pending
amendment was submitted to the Southern
States and their ratification asked. Was it
to be expected that Congress would SO stul-
tify itself as to declare illegal the very gov
ernments it had thus recognized
C Putting the South under martial law
WIS as little to have been expected, In any
reasonable calculation. Martial law, by its
very nature and definition, is a suspension
Of the habedS corpus; and the Constitution
declares with as much emphasis as it says
anything, that the habeaS corpus shall not
be suspended except in times of rebellion,
it was not to have been expected that the
South would be again put under martial
law.
eff these two outrageous and unexpected
measures had not been resorted to, the
South would stand on strong vantage
ground for battling the Radicals. The
worst that could be done was to exclude the
might be borne with composure SO long as
the South held control of it's internal affairs
through State governments, freely chosen
by its white citizens. The extent of the
evil was payment of Federal taxes without
Federal representation. But with the State
governments abolished, or existing on mere
sutferance, and the whole people subject to
martial law, the situation is changed, and
the consequences of resistance so stupen-
dously magnitied, that it is important to
take new observations and bearings before
deciding on the future direction of the
voyage.
eve suppose it will be found, when the
South can abate its just indignation srffi-
GENTLY for careful survey, that it posses
ses no machinery or resources, either politi-
cal or military, for Tending off this atrocious
oppression. IF no such machinery or re-
sources shall be discoverable, the practical
question will then be, whether the South
snail accept the situation under protest, or
disdainfully submit to it. Were it not for
the negro element of the problem, the lat
ter would undoubtedly be the true course,
as alike consistent with safety and self-re-
spect- But the negro element complexities
the question, and renders the solution more
difficult. It is possible that the Republi-
cans may, through government patronage
and appeals to ambition, bride and demon
alize the Southern whites enough to make,
with the negroes, d ma ority of the inhabi-
tants. If they can succeed in this, they
will reorganize and admit the States, and
the South will thereafter be under negro
rule, and will become intolerable as the res
idence of white men. Admitting lat least
by hypothesis that this danger is rot fan
ciful, the question arises land very grave
one it isl whether it is not letter to eight
the devil with fire, by accepting the negro
suffrage which is inevitable, and controlling
the negro vote, instead of allowing it to be
alienated to the Republicans, as it would
pretty certainly be by resistance. Wheth-
er the negro vote could be managed by the
planters, and whether whites enough could
be seduced to make the Radical plan work,
are questions that cannot be answered with
out more local knowledge than we possess;
but we suppose all intelligent Southerners
must allow that these questions ought to
be well considered before taking an ire
versible resolution)'
Supreme Cuurt-Opfnfons.
By PEARSON, c.. in Blossom VS.. Van
s,.s:.>=.- NJ.