Wilmington journal., 1876-08-25

always existed b.tween mast-r sna
slave. 1t was perhaps one of the most
CALLING AID irritating organizations
that could have been imposed upon US
in our then exasperated condition.
Aud yet, these all were quietly sub
mitted to in the hope that there would
soon be an exhibition of that fraternal
and kindly feeling towards Us which
the Herald now says was always in the
heart of tx g Northern Republicans.
II came at last and was most fully
developed in the reconstruction meas
ures passed by a Republican @ ,ngress,
the most wonderful exhibition truly of
kindness and fraternity that the world
has ever Witnessed! Civilization was
shocked at the arbitrary and cruel
burdens imposed upon France by
Prussia at the close of the
Franco German war, and though
during that war, France Was regarded
as the aggressor, yet the terms i'm
posed upon her after the surrender
were so extreme. that public opinion
| was outraged and a revulsion of feel
| ing took place in her favor. SYM
pathy supplanted censure, and her
faults were forgotten in com
miseration for her many misfortunes.
Those burdens were altogether mate
rial, and enforced by a foreign power.
They. consisted in the absorption of a
province or two, and the payment of
an immense sum, but no attempt was
made to dishonor her.
| IL marked contrast to this. is the
treatment that We have received, not
from foreign foe, but from our own
brethren, speaking the same tongue,
treading the same soil and living under
the samo government. They seem to
have been prompted by but one motive,
that has been and still is, to heap de-
| gradation upon us and to emasculate
| our very manhood. Where III the
worlds history has there been snch an
exhibition before, of an ignorant and
enslaved race elevated above their
| former masters. In our own history as
| a nation, when did President ever so
far forget the dignity of his high Office,
as publicly to to denoulce large por-
ton of his constituency in terms that
even a cross road politician would
hesitate to indulge in. What more
atrocious. proposition was ever made
| than that ecently submitted to Con-
gress by Mr.. Boutwell,, ID Senator from
Massachusetts, to remand certain
| States to territorial condition,
should acts of violence occur, and
| keep them in that condition until
the people should be educated up to
his standard of morality, morality
based upon the social equality of the
whites and blacks.
All these things have been done and
more too by the Radicals of the
North. They are not referred to with
any intention or with any wish to re
vive old animosities, or to reopen
wounds that should have long since
been healed; but this continued harp.
ing upon the fraternal affection enter
tained for us by Northern Republi
cans when the very opposite has been
their constant practice, raises lump
in our throat and we nlust speak out
or choke. IF these things are evil
| Il Of lrin al
we GIN truly say from all such speci
mems of brotherly love "good LORD
deliver us. We are willing, anxiously
willing to meet our Northern brethren
more than half way in the work of re-
conciliation, but let it be upon the
basis of mutual concession, and not the
sacrifice to us of all that makes life
desirable, our honor.