Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-10-11
Philadelphia and the Southern Trade

The Press says &c the claims of Philadelphia to
&c the support of the merchants of the South and
sc West are being strongly and ably pressed upon
public attention by many of the Journals OF the
ssinterior.' This IS true. But 1t Is just as true
that the claims of this city to the support or the
South are daily damaged by such city Journals as
the Press and North American. These papers,
claiming to represent the mercantile interests of
this CITY, and filled with the advertisements of its
leading merchants, manufacturers and shippers,
TEEN with abuse of Southern men, and demands
for the inauguration OF policy which Will make
desert for the Southern States, and enable the
negroes to become the masters OF the SITUATION
This is the course pursued by the papers named,
and articles from the country press, no matter
how well considered and pointedly expressed,
will not bend the stream OF Southern trade IN this
direction. Ii the capitalists and merchatS, man
ufacturers and business men Of this city wish the
merchants of the South to visit our markets. they
must teach their organs to play different tune.
The Radical party and its journals running the
interests of this city. and the sooner the people
acknowledge that fact in some practical manner
the better it will be for our city and State.
Philadelphia Age.
Facts were never more forclbly stated.
The Age gives the correct version of the
preiudices existing at the South against
the city of Philadelphia. We are among
the Journals of the interior" which have
introduced to their readers the advantages
held out by that city for our trade, espe-
cially in many of the articles manufactured
there Beyond question our merchants,
in many articles which they purchase,
would find it to their advantage to procure
thc n in Philadelphia. While this is unde
niably the case, we believe we are author
lied in saying that large majority of
North Carolina merchants do not even stop
there, and many of them do not have
q business correspondent in that city.
Other reasons besides those Of interest
and facilities for safe and rapid transport
tation must account for this almost univer-
sal stunning Of the Philadelphia market
| by Southern merchants. 1t is said that
men, in business matters, viii consult their
own interest Is this to prove an eAcep-
| ton OF is it really an exception? Our
people do not believe it to be so, or beyond
question they would investigate the matter
| People whose sentiments are reflected by
such men as Judge KELLEY, and who de-
iberately insult the President of the Uni
ted States through their municipal author
tiles, because he is endeavoring to recon
struct the Government and admit the South
ern States into the Union upon terms
which will not hand over political power
and the rights of property to the ignorant
negroes, is not III q very favorable condi-
ton to present their claims for patronage
to the very people whom their policy will
humiliate and rob.
Through the enterprise of our railroads,
and by means of regular steamship line,
Wilmington has safe, expeditions and
cheap communication with Philadelphia,
and yet the trade between the cities is in
significant. It is not SO much that the
sent the mercantile interests of that city,
as the belief that the claim is we'll founded,
which has its influence here. They have
been endorsed at the ballot-box. The
ssmild confscation - doctrines of the great
Pennsylvania, which find endorsement in
Philadelphia Radical platforms, make
Southern capital rather timid in the pres
ence of the men who think it should be di-
vided among the "loyal masses rather
than be expended by its possessors in build
| ing up the trade even of Philadelphia.
There must be more community of feeling
between this section and that city before
there can be intimate business relations If
we differ politically, let these differences
be founded upon principle, and not be in
fuenced by an insane hatred of our people
which extends to their disfranchisement,
the political elevation of the negro over the
white man, and the confiscation of their
property. So long as this condition of
things lasts, our people will close their
hearts and tleir purses too against that