Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1872-04-12

plating the highest and permanent good OF
our common country, there would to-day
be no such sickening picture possible in
the South as even Republican Journals,
like the Nation, are compelled to draw.
The moment that the restraints of law
are taken away, and the passions OF men
in authority are given full sway, it is not
difficult to prophesy what the end must be.
Nor has it been difficult to foretell what
the South was coming to under the unwise,
disteGpered, and lawless policy pursued by
the dominant party since the close Of the
war. 1t has been one unbroken and unre-
lieved system of wrong and rapine. The
Southern people were called rebels, and
that was pleaded as justification for every
atrocity. The carpet-baggers-the South
ern flank of the Radical party-were let
loose upon them to devour their substance.
The Nation asks, "What services have these
persons 1.-THE carpet-baggersl rendered the
country, that We should grant them the
monopoly of robbing rebels ?' This is well
enough, but it comes late. Fad the Nation
and other Republican journals now ex-
pressing amaZement at the crimes OF their
party asked this question years ago, when
Democratic Journals were endeavOring to
prevent those abuses Of power by which
these robberies and wrongs Were made
possible, hey might have done the coun-
try some real service. Nevertheless, we
are glad to see them coming forward, even
at this late day, with tardy testimony to
the wisdom and patriotism of Democratic
journals, and to their own shortcomings.
! They might have used an influence for
good with their party, and done much to
stay the tide that was washing away every
constitutional barrier, and have counselled
calmness, conciliation, temperatures, pa
triotism, reason, justice, and the recOgni-
ton of the limitations of law but they
went headlong with the rest. Had they
done their duty i'll time, with or without
the consent of their party, the hundreds Of
millions which have gone g to feed the
vulgar and rapacious rogues who rob and
! rule people helpless and utterly exhaust
ed as the Nation admits, would have
/ been saved to the Southern people, and
have done much TO relieve their wretched
I lot, though nothing could fully relieve it so
long as those rights and privileges are with
held from them which are enjoyed, with
out question, by the people of all other
sections of the Union.
There is nothing good that can reason
! ably be looked for from bad government,
|
any civilized land on the face of the earth
than is universal in the South wherever the
Radical party have sway. Thele is only
one way of remedying this, and that is to
break up the system, and drive out the
thieves. The government of the Southern
States must be remanded TO the people of
the Southern States, and not left i'll the
hands of pilaging pimps of power from the
North, whose chief purpose and employ
ment is to possess themselves of what they
them; otherwise bad government must
continue. 1t seems to us that the Ameri-
can people must now realize this truth
fully.
To reverse the real state Of facts in re-
gard to the South for moment: Suppose
that instead of any two Southern States, il
was, for example, the two Northern States,
New York and Pennsylvania, the control
of whose State governments was taken out
of the hands Of their people respectively,
and put into the hands of Adventures from
the South, as the Southern States have
been put into the hands of adventures
from the North, how would the people OF
New York and Pennsylvania conduct
themselves under the intliction of such a
wrong? How would they endure ito
be first disfranchiSed, bound, and robbed
of everything that they have, and be trod-
den under the foot of ignorance, rapacity
and vice? 1t is pretty safe to assert that
they would not bear it patiently or bear ii
long. No; there is but one remedy for the
appalling evils that affiict the South. and
that is to restore 10 it the right of self-aov.
eminent. There is no order possible, nol
peace, nor prosperity, until this is DONE
AS it is now, the people of the South are
held as subject race, and governed from
without. What governing from without
can do and has done, we see from the pre-
, sent condition of the Southern States, a.
portrayed even by the friends of the party
in power.