Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-05-15
THE WILMINGTON JOURNAL
Municipal Election.


Some of our citizens feel much interest
in the approaching municipal election In
orr CITY. We know not what the dominant
party intend to do. If the ticket selected
at a public meeting some time since Is
forced upon us, it matters but little to the
property-owners what orders nay issue
from General CANDY or how the election is
To be held. Nothing is moro certain than
that the power rests with the negroes OF
Wilmington to elect whom they please,
and if they have the will, to place the con-
troll of three millions of dollars of the old
citizens under few itenerant Adventures
they can do so and none can prevent them'
Unfortunately, the property owners are IN
a small minority, and their wishes ana In
terests, we fear. will have but little weight
with those who derive their daily bread
through tho direct and indirect influence
of this very property. Possibly repetl-
ton of the old fable of the snake, warmed
into life by the kind hearted farmer, will
yet arouse our people to sense OF their
danger.
Since the election we have seen a negro
mechanic who made himself possibly as OBJ
noxious as any person in this city, not only
bv his great efforts against the welfare of
our people, but the offensive manner IN
which they were done, upon the day sue
ceeding those of the election, in charge OF
an important work for one of our citizens,
while we know that in the same business,
white mechanics, who did all they could
to sustain the property owners of the city,
were without employment and their chill
dren, illy-clad and poorly-fed, are growing
I'D without the benefits of education, which
neither the means of their parents per-
mitted nor the liberality of the Govern
ment provided. Such things strike us not
only as wrong but criminal, and their con-
tinuance will result, and properly so, to
our jury.
Whatever the citizens of Wilmington
NAV conclude to do in regard to their
municipal elections, it is we'll to take
counsel of the information and orders re-
ceived by others within this Military Dis
trict upon this subject. We think it pretty
certain that the election for city officers
here will take place before North Carolina
is declared as entitled to representation in
Congress, and that therefore all of those
elected will, under the recent instructions
of General CANDY, be compelled to take
the iron-clad oath. If such be the case,
we hardly suppose it will be worth while
for cur people to interest themselves as
to who shall become candidates, for if the
selection were under the control of the
property-owners themselves, they could not
elect Mayor and Board of Aldermen,
thus qualified, to whom they would volun-
tarily be willing to entrust the welfare of
the city.
The letter to which we refer is addressed
to the editor of the Charleston Neocs, in
reply to an inquiry upon this very subject,
and reads as follows:
HEADQ'Rs SECOND MILITARY DISTRICT
CHARLESTON, s. c., May 8, 1863.
SIR-In reply to your letter of this date, asking
if the Mayor of Charleston, to be elected at the
coming election, must take the oath of office, 1
am instructed by the Commanding General to
say, that until the State of South Carolina is de-
clared entitled to representation in the Congress
of the United States, the oath prescribed by the
act of Congress of July 3D. 1862, must be taken
by all persons appointed or elected to Office.
Very respectfully, Fir,
Your obtdient servant,
LOUIS V. CAztARC,
A. d. G. "A A. G.
FRANCIS w DAWSON, Esq,
Editor Charleston Daily News,