Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-01-31

| lies, desolated our hearths took everything
they thought was worth anything to them
and left us as badly abused as it wonld
seem possible for us to bear up under Onr
negroes gone, our horses gone, provis-
ions carried off, property DESTROYED in
every direction, and misery to be seen
in every shape, and last, but not least
came on the worst enemies of the country
who ought to be our best friends, and
might be if they would, people of ourselves.
of whom it might be said, are bone of our
bone and flesh of our flesh, who take the
most tragic part of the drama, and are
about to close the scene by DESTROYING the
| last hope we have, thereby acting worse
towards us than those who fought against
us, even to the bummers. They molested
us in and during the battles of the country.
but now for party of creatures, laying no
claim to humanity, to start up to destroy
the last thing they can find, and whom we
thought were friends, truly may we ex-
claim. as did poor Caesar when Brutus
stabbed him, "H to Brute" And truly
may we also exclaim, o, we men of the
South, cease your depredations, let your
poor bleeding country recover from her
wounds, let the cries of the widow and the
orphan reach your ear, let humanity en-
| ter your hearts, remember what our Saviour
has told to the world, blessed are the
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy"
You may not have long to live, you do not
know how soon you may have to appear
before that tribunal, of which mention is
made by st. Paul, where the God of mercy
holds q court of eternal duration, wherein
you will experience according to the same
divine writer, that it is fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. You
had better pause before you push these
,5ab4c ar, fi,a ooupfrv of ey1ob TINA nc
Be assured no good can come of it. Gem
promise or cancel, one or the other, Accord
ing to the exigencies of the case Remem-
Der you are aiding and assisting in the
general destruction, and are contributing
your might with a vengeance, and no
doubt, if you persist, you will see what it
will come to. You have done great deal
of harm now, and for what I know, will do
more, but recolect you do it in the face of
consequences of the worst kind.
Before concluding this subject it is right
to observe that these remarks only apply, to
the sordid and selfish classes, men who
would ride over the ruin of their fellow
creatures without pity or remorse; men
who have rarely felt noble impulse men
who were never actuated by philanthropy
or patriotism, but feeling miserable, heart
less, and wretched themselves, disregard
what is due to others, and that golden rule
which tells us to do unto others as we
would have others do unto u.s. But thanks
to God, we have some men of lofty souls
amongst us, who never contemplated such
an idea as that of adding to the horrors of
horrible war men who never lodged the
battle or the bullet !; men who can feel for
the soldier or the citizen, and are ready to
sympathize for the misfortunes of either
as they come in their way men at this
time who would rather die than urge the
collection of debts, which they consider
died with the Confederacy, and which never
can be paid in such times as these. Prop
erty may and will change hands, men will
be run into bankruptcy, but will still owe
these debts, and very many OF them will be
entirely lost to the creditor, that might be
paid to the last dollar by honorable men,
if allowed to recuperate and get well started
in their various avocaions. Yes, these
heightened classes of men alluded to are
those who alone can give character to
country they are patriots, and in many
instances christians, and will be honored
to the end of time.
Very many of them hold the largest
amount of old claims against the people,
and, seeing they are unable to pay, have
not asked for dollar, and are now ready to
come forward and destroy their old debts
thereby showing noble examples to all who
might be induced to follow them, and if
ever the country gets under way in making
money these men ought, and will be, the
first to be inquired after, and no doubt viii
receive the highest consideration, and, in
many instances, the payment of the. last
cent, for it is a rule of action with all hon
orable men to pay to the last cent, the last
dollar they owe, if they can.
Now is the time to compromise; now or
never; little is better than none; little
and blessing is worth more than great
deal with a curse. Co-existent with the in
stitution of slavery were to be found barns
full of corn, smoke-houses well filed, and,
gen orally speaking, plenty of all the ne
cessaries Of life in all directions. Besides
these blessings our opportunities for'ralslnG
money were, in fact, too good. We had
banking facilities to al extraordinary de-
gree, we could make drafts predicated on
produce to be delivered within ninety days,
we could obtain money from private indi-
viduals, and from sources too numerous to
mention. 1t is readily seen that the mate
rial of the debts then made is nearly all
destroyed, and as a matter of course the
debts are destroyed, or, in other words, 80
! nearly SO that the wreck of what remains
is not worth much, and unlike the
loaves and fishes that fed the
multitude of people, leaving twelve baskets
1u1 u Gu6y Will uO well IL luCg
can feed the Lawyers, Sheritfs, Clerks and
pay courtcosts, and when they will havedone
that much, it will be matter of surprise
if there will be the first fragment left, ex-
cept in very few instances. And why p
Because every part of their fabric is de-
stroyed and the property upon which they
were based is nowhere to be found. Just
as well might we say, we can breathe or
live without air, which is the most essen
tial principle of life, as that these debts
can exist without living principle to sus-
tain them. When the country was con-
quered, our money, bonds and notes, were
all killed, and another currency establish
ed, and all our notes gave way to green
backs. The Government did not recognize
them as being worth anything, if so, they
would have taxed them, in fact they be-
came nuisance, and very properly are
called old debts, and SO they are. They
are SO very old they are on the verge of
the grave and in all probability will soon
be dead and buried I would recommend