Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-11-22
be charitable and liberal in the final distri-
button of the natural nenalties

+ button of the natural penalties.
If slavery then was the zeal cause of OH
} civil war, or even the pretext for it, and i
the children must inherit The sins of thei
fathers, even in the third and fourth gen
Grafton, then none Of who trace 0rl
origin back to the earlier days of this Re
pablo can escape this mathematical anG
philosophical conclusion or, in the Ian
guage of DR.. Draper:
Guilty, then, both of Us, in the sight Of
God let us not vex each other with mutua
elimination, but bear our punishment with
humility"
How has this punishment been parti-
toned by the result Of the war? We OF
the North have to mourn the loss Of fathers,
brothers, sons, and friends, and are bur
dened with vast national debt, binding
Oh us in fact, in law and IL honor, never, /
hope, to be questioned by any honorable
man in America till every cent is paid.
Look to the South, and you who went
with me through that land can best say if
they, too, have not been fearfully punished.
Mourning III every household, dasolation
written in broad characters across the whole
face of their country; cities III ashes, and
! fields laid waste their commerce gone,
their system of labor annihilated and de-
stroyed. Ruin, poverty, and distress every
where, and now pestilence adding the very
cap-sheaf to their stack of misery her
proud men begging for pardon, and ap-
| pealing for permission to raise food for
| their children her five millions of slaves
free, and their value lost to their former
masters forever How any Southern gem
tleman, with these facts, plain and palpa-
bic, everywhere staring him III the face,
and recorded forever in the book of history,
can still boast of his Lost Cause" or
speak of it in language other than of shame
and sorrow, passes my understanding, and
instead of being revived, [ know that their
lost cause will sink deeper aid deeper into
lnfamy as time more keeniy probes it's
hidden mysteries, and reveals them to the
light of day.
Now that slavery is gone, and gone tur
ever, with its unhappy wrecks left behind,
and all danger is passed, if any set of men
again appeal to war when they have courts
to secure their rights and redress their
wrongs, [ would trust our national destiny
again to those grand old national laws
which raised our country through the long,
tedious vassalage OF colonization ; which
carried us safely through the ordeal of our
Revolutionary war, made our flag famous
on the high seas in 1912 led our conquer
ing armies TO the gates of Mexico in 1o47,
and has borne US gloriously through four
y
hood Of any people.
Let US renew, as far as lies in our indi-
vidual person, that system which Bancroft
tells us guided cur fathers before the Rev
olution !; the system which has been re-
vealed in India the system which COM
Dimes and perfects the symbolic wisdom of
the Orient and the reflective genius of
Greece the system conforming to reason,
yet kindling with enthusiasm, always has
tening reform, yet always conservative
absolute equality among men,
yet not suddenly abOlisEing the unequal
institutions OF society guarantee absolute |
freedom, yet involving memorable restric-
tons OF duty ; in the highest degree theo-
retical, yet in the highest degree practical
awakening the inner man to conscious
ness Of hi, destiny, and yet adapted with
exact harmony to the outward world ; at |
once divine and human. This system was
professed in every part of our widely ex-
nded country, and graded our freedom.
With such a spirit pervadiDg all our
country once more with our population
thIrty-three per cent every ten
years ; with our IlatlOnai wealth developing |
in even a greater ratio with our frontiers |
pushing back in every direction !; with |
farms and villages and cities rapidly cover
ing our vast national domain with mines |
of gold, and silver, and iron, and coal
pouring out wealth faster than ever did 5he |
fields of the South with forty thou
sand miles of finished railroads, and other
thousands III progress, can any one doubt
our present strength, or calculate our fu-
ture destiny
If our friends at the South will heartily
and cheerfully join with US in this future
course, [. for one, would welcome them
back, our equals-but net our superiors-l
and lend them a helping hand. But, if |
like spoiled children, they will cling to the
dead past, and shut their eyes to the COM
ing future, would only call their attention
to the wave of emigration that has swept
over our land from the Atlantic to the Pa
citic, and must soon turn back and flow
South. They may oppose, but their oppo-
sition will be as vain as it was for them to |
try and stop the Army of the Tennessee, |
which swept the length and breadth of
their land. The next war of Northern in
vasion will not desolate their land, but will |
frrctify and regenerate it.