Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1873-03-14
SILENCE AND THE SOUTH.


over. to make an extended tour through
the Southern States. 1t was to be an
errand of good feeling and beneficence.
Instantly the echo came, that the
South, of all classes, not only the vaga-
bond immigrants who infest it, and
the negro incapables, but the intelll-
gent and well educated classes OF that
afflicted region, would give him hearty
welcome. The rumor, however, did
not float long. AS the leader OF a tn
unlphant and not wholly discredlted
party, the President felt at liberty to
travel abroad, and go where he pleased.
Suddenly the cloud of scandal de-
veloped itself and spread over Con-
gress, darkening everything. Inc
President found himself surrounded
by his wounded friends and, though
in his military function not much adj
dicted to sympathy and soIicitude for
the manned, as politician he had to
be q little demonstrative. Half
dozen of his thick and thin supporters
fell. knocked down and spraying,
under the shock-his companion on
the ticket in 1868 utterly blasted IN
reputation, his associate in the canvass
of 1872 held up to scorn by Repub-
lican soldier of unblemished name,
and adjudged guilty of mendacious
fraud by Republican committee OF
the Senate. Suspicion, too, was doing
its work. It was hardly possible that
a sllrewd operator like Mr.. Cakes Ames
should not desire aid and comfort
from those nearer the Executive
than Representatives and Sena-
tors, and naturally enough it
was thought reasonable that in
vestiaation, pushed a little fur
Their, might show who his White House
friends were. This certainly was not
the time for distant journeyings, and
these may have been some Of the
cumulative circumstances which in
dqced the President to give up his
Southern trip. We need not be at a
loss to find Others. That wretched
manifestation of the inner taan-the
! inaugural-in our view, throws Il very
ugly light on this change OF plan.
! After such & speech, what would be
/ the welcome which the intelligence of
| the South would accord him whom, a
| fortnight before; patriotic Southern
| me,i would have been SO glad TO have
amongst then, The silence OF the
! inaugural on the subject OF the South
! IS simply reyoIting. With the ezcep-
! ton Of feeble platitude about ga
! res,ora.i5r Of good feeling" sand
! wiclled between Hspacle payments
! and "cheap transit, there is ,t0t a
SYLLABLE Of generous kindness to that
vast region from the Potomac to the
confines Of Mexico, which the sword of
! Grant is supposed to have conaue red,
| and which we have the word of Grant,
uttered before he turned politician,
! tnnt in being conquered it became
loyal ana submissive. There is enor-
mons twaddle about the :tE9iyersal
language" and. we presume, the reha-
/. biEtation Of the tower of Babel.
! There is obsolete Santo Domingo.
| There is . long and, as far as feeble
! rhetoric permits, strong passage
about the negroes, which, perhaps,
! common gratitude called iar, about
putting them on an equality with
whites in schools, and cars, and thea
tres, though he demurs, probably
under feminine and miEar influences,
to social feveiing, The Indians, the
wild roaming savages Of the plains
Pieians, such as his dear friend
| General Sheridan massacred; Chey-
e.I1les, snindful of the pious Chiving-
ton; AIodocs WHO shoot down our SOL
tliers from lava pits, ana d-ealp the
wounded and the dead-they, and such
as they. nre llonored with attention at
length and i'll detail. His own mill
| tarr services are recounted, AMI his
| sgit5'arings during what, with unsoidier-
! j. vulearity, he terms the late 'Presi-
s@ptial campaign are piteously por-
'1'5c', But, as we have said, hot a
word il. the South. This and the
''->n Of the plan OF Execu-
1--WE tES.Fel coin'>e to force upon us
the CONVICTION that a,ere is to be. if
not new crusade, no cn.-,ca IF oa,,-
eral policy. The so..i!l. pnd 70 Demo-
cratic friends never hoped a., ~.
wished active Federal interpositionfo.
any object iii the reconstructed States
| just indeed the reverse. But there il
| an iildireet interposition which Fedora
power can exercise, which gould be a,
once beneficent and inoffcneive. IF,
instead Of telegraphing to PincLback
I to hold on till, rs las come to pass,
| blood flows, and a militia general with
| Executive approval shoots down. for
t augh5 he Knows or cares, loyal citi-
/ zeIl5-lf instead Of sending word to
respectable and distinguished men
that they need not come to Washing
ton, for they would not be listened to-
II, instead Of this, words of concilia-
ton TO all sides had gone to Louisiana.
tho South and the country soIlld have
been soothed and grateful. Weshould
then hare had some hopes Of peace
and reconciliation. Il is well that the
salute of the Annapolis cadets, IS we
are told, drowned the grim words of
the Inaugural; and it is sad coinci-
dence that the echo of that salute is
the sound of General Badgers guns
sweeping, with shot and shell, the
streets CT New Orleans.
srsszsszsa-ss,sy----.z-.-..E.
IN estimate made by ihe i,ostlnaster-
General shows that during the year
there were sent through the mails
eight hundred millions os copies of