Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-09-25
From the Raleigh Sentinel.
The Congo War Dance.

We stated on yesterday, that we would
have been glad if every white man in West
ern North Carolina, and, if possible, every
white man North of the Potomac, could
have been in this city on Tuesday and
Wednesday, to have seen the material of
which the Radical Mass Meeting was COM
posed and the disgusting scenes which
transpired. We have estimated the num-
Der of negroes present at 5000, and the
number of scalawags and carpet-baggers
at between eeventy-five and one hundred
We are certain that this estimate is, if
anything, an exaggeration with regard to
the number of blacks. Four thousand
would probably bo nearer the proper
figure.
While we are disposed to give the mob
which was here all due credit for abstain
ing from actual demonstrations of disorder
| or violence, Ia fact attributable mainly to
| the circumstance that white people kept
within doors and allowed the negroes to
have the streets to themselves the hideous
imprecations, oaths and drunken yells with
which they rent the air, day and night, re-
sembled more the orgies of Pandemonium
than anything else of which we can con-
ceive. Our ladies and children were kept
in continual state Of apprehension by the
horrid noises on the streets, and it was, to
all law-abiding and peaceably disposed
men, fearful reflection, that this mass of
| ignorant and semi barbarian negroes had
been filled with the most incendiary hate
of the white people of the South by un-
principled adventurers and degraded ma
tive renegades.
The scenes at the Capitol, on Wednesday
night, beggar all description, in their COM
bination of the humorous and the eludicrous.
A mass of yelling, cursing negroes filled
the beautiful grounds, and swarmed in the
various rooms and offices of the building,
while dancing, speaking, shouting and
grotesque and Ashantee performances ran
riot. Up stairs an antiquated darkey was
making stump speech" standing in the
Chair of the Speaker of the House of Rep
resentatives, while below, another, dressed
in a garb of motley rags, was preaching q
sermon to the great edifcation of a sur
rounding audience, who shouted and
groaned alternately, as the Fetch per
formance progressed. AS the hour waxed
late, these poor creatures disposed them
selvesf for sleep i'll every part of the Capitol.
The Senate Chamber was filled with negro
women lying on the floor Or reclining in
the chairs-a negro, with q bludgeOn, act
ing as sentinel at the door, to keep off
amorous colored swains-while the steps
leading from the first floor, and the first
floor itself, we're literally filled with re-
cumbent negroes, packed like sa,diaeS.-
This is a true picture-horrible though it
may appear. And thus was the proud
Capit0L of North Carolina converted into a
VAST NEGRO DORMITORY Would,
again we say, that the white men of West
ern North Carolina could have seen all
this. Still later in the night, after the rain
set in, almost every porch and sheltered
corner in the city might have been seen
filled with negro men and women, hud-
died together asleep in heaps, to wake up
the next morning cold, shivering and hun
cry, and make their way on foot, in the
mud, homewards-and all for Radicalism,
and that a few carpet t-baggers may use
them to get Office
It is to be hoped that many of these de-
luded negroes left sadder and wiser men.
We hear of aOhile men, at all events, who
have heretofore acted with the Radical
party, who say that this dose was too much
for them. and that they are done with the
concern.
Taken all together, q more farcical failure
never took place than this negro Radical
Mass Meeting, and the several thousand
dollars Said to have been expended upon 1t
10y the spoilers might as well have been
used IN distributing Democratic campaign
documents.