Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-01-10
decentralization Facts.


In order to prove that the Radical party
at the South is not ne gro party, the New
York Tribune asks why the majority for Re-
construction under the acts of Congress is
far heavier in Virginia, North Carolina
and Georgia than in South Carolina, Mis-
sissippi, Louisiana and Florida, where the
registered blacks are much more numerous?
So far as Georgia is concerned, the result
of the election answers the interrogatory,
for the majority for Convention was not SO
large as in some of the States enumerated
as executions. But for the gerrymander-
ing of General POPE, who, by extending
the time of voting to nearly week,
permitted negroes to be brought in from
South Carolina and Alabama, and moved
from one county to another, the call OF
Convention would have been defeated.
In Virginia and North Carolina, the only
two States in which there was good
chance of defeating the call of Conven-
ton, unless, und er the just administration
ofGeneral HANCOCK, Texas be an exception,
the Conservative party and press were dl-
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most influential leaders and the press open,
" advocated Convention, and the result
was, that many thousands of the whites
voted for the call. Yet, Notwithstanding
this fact, the Convention did not receive
enough votes to secure its call, but the I'm
derwood-Hunnicutt cabal owes its exis-
tence to those who voted against it.
Pretty much the same state of affairs
followed here. Such papers as the Raleigh
Sentinel, Charlotte Neacs, Salisbury Old
North State, and such leaders as Cover
nors BRAGG and VANCE, Judges FowLE
and OSBORNE favored the call of the Con-
vention. General CANDY would not allow
the non-acticn policy advocated by this
paper, to vote for delegates and not for or
against Convention, while the active sup
port of the call by the Conservatives If the
Middle and Western sections of the State
compelled us not to advise total aban-
donment of the polls to the negroes and
their white associates. The consequence
is, that the apparent majority of the Re
construction measures of Congress is large. |
The official figures have not yet been pub
lished, but we doubt, with all the aid the
Convention question unfortunately receiv-
ed from the Conservatives, if it receives
many votes in excess of the majority of
those registered. We arc satisfied now, as
we were previous to the election, that non
action upon the part of the Conservatives
would have resulted in the defeat of the |
measure.
Soft seems that their strength, coupled with
the division in their ranks, was the cause of
Carolina, while their conscious weakness in |
South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana
and Florida, which, without any orgariza-
ton, forced them away from the polls,
came very near securing their success in
those States. Had the same course of
action been adopted here there could have
been no question of the result.
But these are matters of the past. We
hope our defeat has taught us lesson by
which we will profit in the future. The
Conservative Convention will meet in
Raleigh early in February, and with the
organization of the party and the adoption
of platform, We trust We shall hear moth
ing more of policy but all of principle. We
must take position in favor of what we adj
vocate, and pronounce against that which
we oppose. We lost the last election by
unmanly fear of the wrath of Congress,
and if we continue to act from policy |
and not from principle, we will lose the
next, and may lose the State andcountry.