Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1875-04-23
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WILMINGTON, N. G.
FRIDAY. APRIL %. 1875.
ADDING INSULT TO INJURY.

ADDING INSULT 10 sNJ ShA.
Senator Morton draws a vivid pic
ture of the South, and it is as wretch
ed as vivid. In the course of an in
teryiew with a correspondent of the
Cincinnati Gazette, he said, after Ieav-
ing Richmond
He did not see single farm house
one-half as pretentious as the average
farm-houses in Indiana. There were
no evidences Of taste, thrift, or pros
perity. During a ride OF 20 miles
through Mississippi, he saw only one
white man at work. Hundreds Of
thousands of negroes We're blowing,
and otherwise Ell gagged, but the white
men were not to be seen outside OF
the cities and the larger towns. Desc
lation and restitution seemed to stalk
over The land. Being accustomed to
see we'll cultivated farms, the fine farm
buildings, the upr ght fences. the
white school houses and stcepled
churches of the Nor hern States, i
was really painful for him TO look upon
such scenes as were presented to Ills
eye wherever he went or whichever
way he looked The plantations were
poorly cultivated, or not cultivated at
all Fences were dilapidated, sad the
honses for the most parts were novels.
Commenting upon this picture the
Chicago Inter- ocean adds its Insult
to the Injury inflicted by its party,
when it says that "the bane OF the
South is idleness and unthrlft, and
that "these qualities are not the legacy
of the war, but of slavery
Senator MortoE's testimony IS pro
badly true in some respects. but il
others it is uuqualifedly false, by i'm
putation, if not directly. Ii h. saw but
one white man at work in Mississippi,
it could only have been because he
sought out for observation only such
places as he knew were worked by Ee-
goes alone. More likely, however,
Senator Morton penued a deliberate
SANDER. In Mississippi, Ar ii other
Southern States, it is a well known
fact now that not only white men, but
white women often til the fields,
that in many instances would other
wise lay idle. Necessity knows no
law, and with many it is, alas, either
to work or to starve. The deEolatlon
which marked the track Of Sheridan's
barn burners in Virginia, and of oher-
mans bummers in Georgia and South
Carolina and North Carolina lett
the inhabitants to land alb
soluteiy bare of subsistence.
They not only stole the products Of
previous years of labor and thrift, but
even the very seed that had been re-
served for another harvest, and with ii
refinement of cruelty never known be-
fore in civilized warfare they stole the
very implements with which the
ground was titled, and burned the very
farm and store houses from whence
they stole the grain, and then sacked
and burned the houses that sheltered
the helpless inhabitants. Had the
Germans overrun the South as they
did France the result would have been
different, and Won Moi;ke could
tell Grant and Sherman many
a rule OF civilized warfare as
Bismarck could teach our statesmen
many pr. ciral in political economy
and diplomacy. a hundred conquests
OF France by the Germans, two nations
who have been at enmity for a thou
sand years, could hardly have left that
country more utterly destitute than
was this fair land Of ours Left by our
loving brethren of the North.
Yet it was not only the actual pos
sessions then in hand that were stolen
from us. bat the horde that syyt,t