Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1875-05-07
THE xEREL KELLER.

dA Q eAesA1 ee.AN @~OAOs
occur, acceptable. We have quite
number of soldiers shaking hands over
the bloody chasm, and General Bart
lett at Lexington, and General Evans
at Atlanta, protesting their faith III
reconciliation. It is all very well, but
the fighting men bear a small proper
ton to the talking men, and the talk
ing men are much more powerful for
mischief. Judge Kelley, of Pennsyl
vania, has made a Southern trip thus
winter, and comes back a wiser and
better man. To measure the exact ex-
tent and value of this slow repentance,
we must look into our friend, MIR.
Kelley's, antecedents. He was An old
fashioned Democrat, working man
III the actual sense of the word. He
vas sentimental, and of course Aboli-
uonlst. He held Office der old
fashioned Democratic Governors of
Pennsylvania, and was, if we mistake
not, made Judge by one OF them.
twenty odd years ago, the occasion
being a contested election case which
came before him judiciaIly. he broke
from his party moorings and hoated
into that quiet but shallow pool known
rs Philadelphia Whiggery. On the
great heaving up of everything in the
era imme diateiy preceding the war,
Judge Kelley naturally drifted into
Radical Republicanism. The very
sentimalism which, like the atmos-
phere surrounded him in his early
years in Boston, where he was born,
we believe, had it's influence in this
direction. He had just an imagina-
tive temper and imperfect education
that qualified him to be an Abolition
fanatic, and such he became. His is
the merit-and it is idle to disparage
lt-oi commanding, without any break
or ioosenjng, the confidence OF very
intelligent, and except on one subject,
enlightened constituency, as he tt lis
US. for fourteen years or seven consec-
utive Congresses.
He has been travelling South, aud as
one of the journals of the ancient Re-
publican party grimly says, I've hope
he may travel again" He comes back
10 his own Congressional district, in
the very shadow of the Union League,
where he, as "a loyal Republican and
Grant man-for Philadelphia till late
ly knew no difference-had a majority
of nearly four thousand, and boldly
tells them that he and they have been
victims of huge imposture;
that the whole Southern coun-
try, though sorely afflicted by
agri "ultural and commercial distur-
bance or depression, is socially. if not
content, honestly acquiescent; that the
agricultural negro-in fact, the negro
everywhere, except at what Mr.. Kelley
calls the political centres" where lie
is manipulated and pro .tituted by cor
rupt white agencies-is perfectly hap
py and will DO we'll Che adds with
great simplicity, "n he Gan be kept
from whiskey;;" that the outrage fiction,
past and present, is played out; thn,
his friend SCOTS huge book ON Ku-
kluxism, as the representation of the
actual state of things, Is about as valU-
able as an old almanac-hardly rs
much so, for Old almanacs do tell the
trutl that the solemn asseveration OF
poor Mr.. Henry Wilson the other day
at the Philadelphia Abolition CenteI-
NAL that a new pro-slavery crusade
| Was about to begin is all "bosh;" that
George William Curtis Lexington
phantom of a combination between the
| immigrant Celt and the emancipated
! negro by which the Intelligence of the
courtry is to be taken 10y storm, is
what phantoms usually are. In shoit
Judge Kelley's honest palinode is as
complete as possible.
But the most significant part of the
| retraction remains to be noted. It is
Judge kelley's confession, humbIlna
It may be to others, that of all the
| thousand votes he has given in fou r.
teen years. the thought of none
shames him or, to speak more correct
/ II, wounds him SO much as thai
which he cast for Grants Force bill
1t was a measure not only unneces
sary, but wrong in every sense. Now
zoe ask, and Judge Kelley ought &c
supplement what he has already said
by candor to the very end; what influ'
ence but that of the Executive, exer,
! cised in the most shameless manner
! the President himself lobbying for i,
| tempted him into the cruel mistake
and whom is he to thank for the con
| fesslou he has now to make but the
! President Of his choice and the I'M.
scrupulous men who closely surround
him and share his esoteric counsels :
! The repentant Representative OF the
Fourth Pennsylvania District, fresh as
he is from TT g people, must have vast
capacity for mercy if he can forgive
this, and we 90 not believe he will
We do not know, and do not much care
what are Judge Kelley's views of the
third term in the abstract; but we are
very confident that if he is called on,
either by his constituents or on the floor
of Congress. to say what he thinks OF
it in the concrete, that he will say with
| emphasis that President who for
merely selfish aims can thus grossly,
and to their own shame, mislead the
Legislature is no longer worthy of the
confidence of any body. We take
Judge Kelley to be now in open oppo-
| 81 ton to Grantism.
Over 800, 900 worth of dogs, prin.
cipally pointers and settlers, were
brought to this country from England
during the mast tuo voars The f,,.o.<