Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-05-22
Our True Policy.

Our True Policy.
Our future fate and history are at the mercy OF
! the dominant people of the United States. We
are all agreed that our only hope for a change Is
IN the success of the Democratic and Conservative
masses of the North, acting together under TIE or
qaaizQti0n Of the Democratic party Of The United
States If that organization shall fail to carry the
! elections i'll November next, then We apprehend
the policy of the Radical party will be the policy
| of the country for years to come.
If this be 80, where Is the utility or proprlety or
State organizations in the South making plat
forms? When the National Radical Convention
meets at Chicago, and the National Democratic
Convention meets at New York, both will make
platforms. They will be National platforms. 1t
will be then time enough for the Southern people
| to range themselves under and adopt those plat
forms for the coming test. Until then, we can
see no good in State platforms Of any kind.
Raleigh Sentinel.
In the above extract we have indeed the
true policy for present Southern political
action. So far as State politics are con-
cerned, we have no local issues. The evils
we suffer have national and not State
| paternity, and we must look to the same
source for relief. No one supposes for an
instant that the defeat Of tie Constitution
in the late election would have prevented
the admission of North Carolina into the
Union under its provisions or others
equally Objectionable. We have only to
| look to the case of Alabama to dlsabuse our
minds of any such thoughts. That State
rejected its Constitution under the very
enactments which Congress had proposed,
yet it is included in the Omnibus Bill, 4"
which admits the other Southern States.
And we see that where the Constitutions
ratified by that portion Of tie people they had
designated as loyal, did not suit them, as in
the case of Georgia, it was changed at the
mere pleasure of Congress. All we could
have hoped by defeat of our Constitu-
ton was to save our honor untarnished-
to have refused the degrading terms Of
; fercd for our acceptance-to have delayed
the evil day until relief should come from
the people of tho whole country through
the ballot-b box.
We have never been in condition since
the war to propose any means for our re-
lief. Congress has merely permitted an
useless choice, making it's independent
exercise a potent weapon against u.s.
Every submission to its unjust demands
has only been met by other and harsher
| terms, and every refusal to accept its de-
grading offers has been the occasion of
bitter denunciation and the excuse for
further punishments and proscriptions-
We have long been convinced that beyond
a salutary delay we had nothing to hope
except from the people at the North.
With this view of the case it is worse
than idle for the Southern States to be
tying themselves up by party platforms
declaring for or against certain measures,
which will either remain as they are now
decided for US, or be overturned by those
who have yet the power to uphold the
fundamental law of the land
One of these issues is that of qualified
negro suffrage. SO far as this question de-
ponds upon ourselves, it has already been
swallowed up by the adoption of universal
negro suffrage. And SO long as the solid
line Of seventy thousand negro votes is re-
inforced by few thousand whites, we are
powerless to modify this decision. And
they will continue to receive this support
just SO long as ambitious and bad men are
willing to sacrifice their manhood and char
acter to reap the rewards of their base
apostacy. To those of us who do not re-
gard these reconstruction acts and the cleo
lions which have followed them as a final
ity, but hope to see it all reversed at no
distant day, by that tribunal from which
there is no appeal-the people-can have
no platforms to make, and no pledges
to give. The Convention which meets in
New York in July will establish the one
and make the other, and by these condi-
lions We must abide or accept those already
fastened upon us by the illegal legislation
of Congress. And Judging from the plat
forms and the decisions of all the Northern
States in which elections have lately
been held, there can be no doubt what the
position of the party will be upon these
questions at least, and if we should differ
from it, our DETECTION will do no good, and
may result in much evil.
If the people of the United States con-
tinue to sustain the Radical policy of Re-
construction, the Southern States can do