Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-09-25

that is not truthful either In representa-
tions or in promises. The long future,
which is sure. is not to be forgotten or ne
elected under the pressure and ex1gcncles
of the brief present. In our jealous eff
forts for the present and the approximate
future, we must not damage the hopes OF
that long future which is to follow to-mor-
row and the days and months and years
that are to come after.
In political affairs as well as in the higher
purposes of life, the anxieties and strug-
giles of the present must not betray us from
the contemplation of the future life of our
State and our nation. It will teach us
above all things, to stand steadfast by
principles and to practice justice and truth
to all persons. This is especially due from
us to the colored people, because they are
weak and for the most part uneducated.
We are strong and have all the advantage
which education gives. We are their natu
raj friends, bound to them by the strong
bonds of habit and self-interest. We are
not to be separated from them unless they
do it. That credulity which naturally fol-
lows ignorance and want of education sub
jeots them to be imposed upon and led
estray by the designing men who are using
them to their ultimate ruin. They are told
that we would return them to slavery-to
unequal laws-unequal legal rights-and
all the hardships and wrongs that unequal
laws might infict upon them.
From the days when lying demagogues
Taught the people whom God had delivered
from the Egyptians to discard Him and
set up craven images and a golden calf,
and to accept themselves in the place of
their faithful friends, there never has been
a more abominable falsehood taught to the
cra5u1ons and IGNORANT
[ would have this proved to the
colored people. This can be safely
done, because it can be proved that
we were willing and necessary party
to making them free. The Radicals and
their Congress have declared that the
abolition of slavery was illegally DONE
They insist upon it. We deny it. We
say it was lawfully done, and the great
issue now before the country is whether
the Southern Legislatures which made the
colored man free were lawful or unlawful
bodies. They say these Legislatures were
unlawful, and alleging this they have
failed to provide for the emancipation of
the colored man by those Legislatures
him this, and that we, and not the Radi-
Gals, are irrevocably bound in honor, by
law and by our own unchanging inclina-
ton, to assure him perpetual freedom, per-
petaal enjoyment of equal laws, equal legal
rights, equal and impartial administration
of law and justice, and all the blessings Of
liberty, property and prosperity, which
these can secure, just in the same way and
just as fully as they can be secured to the
white man. But would tell him-calmly
and kindly, but without the least reserve
or equivocation--tha he cannot and will
not have durable political and government
tai supremacy. He cannot govern this
country. He cannot make its Presidents,
or, through his Senators, as they have
threatened, unmake President. It is our
country, not his. The supreme judicial
department of the government has once
said so. It was about to say so again
when its voice was stifed by corrupt
Congress.
If we discharge our duties to him and
he still pursues the way Of ruin it will be
his great irrevocable misfortune and not
our fault. The future will be safe to us,
ruinous to him but it will be to US with
ont reproacn and without shame or guilt
for his misfOrtunes