Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-02-28
For tho Journal.
itenussiatIGla.

NeSSrS Editors ALLOW me, through your
paper, to examine the position assumed by
so. D." as thorough a repudiationist us
has vet torn away the mask which conceals
their true Intentions, and revealed in all
their naked doformity the principles by
which their party is actuated.
His postulate is that tho debts which
threaten such serious calamity to himself
i'll particular, and the country i'll general,
had their origin III the negro; that upon
the continuation Of slavery they based their
dimsy hopes of being able to cancel their
! Indebtedness, nc matter from what source
it arose and rearing these castles of air
they allowed years to fly amounted, inter
est to accumulate, the debt to increase,
until war, with its ravages, impaired their
! cOuntry's resources, swept away the un-
! tenable basis Of their hopes, and left them
a wreck upon the shoal of misfortune, to
be haunted by the spectre of their past
improvidence. Truly his lamentable con
dition stirs the sympathies of our bosoms
but when we look on him us the rcpresen-
tative of widows and orphans, as the cham
pion of our soldiers who fought our battles,
as the philanthropist that shoulders the
misfortunes of others, we confess we have
profound regard for, and due apprecia-
ton of, his many noble qualities. But
after our jealous advocate for relief has as
easily and as correctly proved, that the
negroes and old debts are one and the
same, us we by means of the Algebraic par
alogism, that one and two are in all respects
equal, he goes on to eloquently contrast
the present with that fourishing past,
when these debts We're contracted,
which now, as an incubus, weight down
our progress and blight our happiness
But after having told us of grooming grana-
ries, of smoke-houses well filled, of bank
ing facilities elsewhere unequalled, and
''of opportunities for raising money, in
fact too good, " he fOrgets to explain how
such thing as an old debt ever existed
why these opportunities were not made
available by debtors for discharging their
Indebtedness. Butt our advocates for re-
lief, by old debts, means debts contracted
during the war, we will not be uugenerous
enough to suppose that the representative
of widows and the champion of soldiers
desires AS note from B for landed property
to be repudiated, while AS deed of trans
fer to B is made valid. But happy are we
to find that the vampires, who feed upon
the blood of the oppressed debtor, are
SO few i'll number; rejoiced beyond
measure to know that if ten men would
save our State from threatened ruin,
her safety would be insured For,
under the honor-fringed flag Of relief,
we find all widows and orphans of the
| land; all soldiers who battled in their
country's cause, and all philanthropists
whose tender souls take i'll another's woes
and here, too, we find the proselytized
creditor, whose Christian qualities, no
longer permitting him to be classified with
Sherman's bummers, et1ace the stigma of
his ever having been creditor; thus leav-
! ing but a few greedy cormorants and filthy
harpies, to scream around the carcass of
cold debts" alias dead niggers." But
our complaisant G.. d., having set out with
an erroneous proposition per neceSsitoten,
draws wrong conclusion. His whole syl-
ogism is reductiO ad dbSwdena. LII his eager
haste to MAIN the helping hand of other
days, he proposes to strike O death-blow to
the commercial and agricultural interests
of the country, that he may shield himself
| from the consequences of his own extrava-
gances. He forgets the valiant soldier that
gave his heroic life for the shredded ban
ner, whose impoverished family to-day sui
fers for funds In the hands of these advO-
Gates of relief measures. He thinks not of
the widows heart, nor orphaned homo,
that would be gladdened by tho simple in
terest of that old debt" SO repugnant to
| the advocates of relief measures. He will
find that tho property upon which these
debts were based, has neither been swept
away by war, nor made secure by dishon-
est legislation. Akin to the base spirit
that trampled upon the sacred emblem of
our cause and left our country open to the
ravages of robbers, that waited her sub
stance, is the spirit that would sap the life
of public confidence and destroy the faith
of national credit. And while we are warn
ed of anarchical ruin, such as no country
has witnessed, we would point our seer to
the dangers of that legislation which fos-
tiers party interest at the expense of nation
al Justice. Rather let us avert these ca
lamities with their seas Of blood by pre-
serving immaculate that honor to which
we are indebted for our national credit,
and to which we owe our national life
Let creditor aad debtor act frankly towards
each other, and the fragments which are
to enrich lawyers, sheriffs and clerks, hus
banded by economy, increased by frugali-
ty. preserved by honesty, will remove afar
off the impending destruction. There will