by Jack Thorne
Introductory Note.
On the Cape Fear River, about thirty miles from the East coast of NorthCarolina rests the beautiful city of Wilmington.
Wilmington is the metropolis; the most important city of the old NorthState, and in fact, is one of the chief seaports of the Atlantic coast.The city lies on the East bank of the river, extending mainly Northwardand Southward. Market Street, the centre and main thoroughfare of thecity, wide and beautiful, begins at the river front and gradually climbsa hill Eastward, so persistently straight, that the first rays of aSummer's morning sun kiss the profusion of oak and cedar trees thatborder it; and the evening sun seems to linger in the Western heavens,loath to bid adieu to that foliage-covered crest.
Wilmington is the Mecca for North Carolina's interior inhabitants whoflock thither to breathe in its life-giving ocean breezes when Summer'storrid air becomes unbearable, and lazy Lawrence dances bewilderinglybefore the eyes. The Winter climate is temperate, but not congenial toNorthern tourists, who like swallows, only alight there for a briefrest, and to look around on their journeying to and from the far South:yet Wilmington is cosmopolitan; There dwells the thrifty Yankee, theprosperous Jew, the patient and docile Negro, the enterprising, cunningand scrupulous German; and among her first families are theScotch-Irish, descendants of the survivors of Culloden. Wilmingtonsuckled children who rallied under Scott in Mexico, heard thethunderings at Monterey, and the immortal Alamo. When the civil strifeof four years was nearing its close, when the enemies to the Union ofStates, sullen and vindictive, were retreating before an invading army,Wilmington, nestling behind Fort Fisher, one of the most formidablefortresses ever contrived, was shaken by some of the most terrificbombarding that ever took place on earth.
"Then thronged the citizens with terror dumb Or Whispering with white lips, 'The foe! they come! they come!'"
Wilmington, the scene of one of the last desperate stands of ademoralized army, witnessed the "memorizing of Golgotha" as her sonsdesperately struggled to resist a conquering foe. In Oak Dale Cemeteryon the Northeastern boundary of the city sleep a few of the principalactors in that tragedy. There rests noble James; there rests ColonelHall--grand old Roman! I am glad he did not live to see the 10th ofNovember, 1898, lest he should have been tempted to join that mob ofmisguided citizens whose deeds of cowardice plunged that city, noted forits equity, into an abyss of infamy. Southward from Oak Dale Cemeteryawaiting the final reveille, are calmly sleeping not a few of that GrandArmy who fell in the arms of victory at Fort Fisher.
During the slave period, North Carolina could not be classed with SouthCarolina, Georgia, and other far Southern States in cruelty andinhumanity to its slave population; and in Wilmington and vicinity, thepillage of a victorious army, and the Reconstruction period were bornewith resignation. Former master and freedman vied with each other inbringing order out of chaos, building up waste places, and recoveringlost fortunes. Up to but a few years ago, the best feeling among theraces prevailed in Wilmington; the Negro and his white brother walkedtheir beats together on the police force; white and black aldermen,white mayor and black chief of police, white and black schoolcommitteemen sat together in council; white and black mechanics workedtogether on the same buildings, and at the same bench; white and blackteachers taught in the same schools. Preachers, lawyers and physicianswere cordial in their greetings one toward the other, and generalgood-feeling prevailed. Negroes worked, saved, bought lands and builthouses. Old wooden meeting houses were torn down, and handsome brickchurches went up in their places. Let the prejudiced scoffer say what hewill, the Negro has done his full share in making the now illfated cityblossom as the rose. We who have for so many years made our abodeelsewhere, have made our boast in Wilmington as being ahead of all otherSouthern cities in the recognition of the citizenship of all of herinhabitants; unstained by such acts of violence that had disgraced othercommunities. To be laid to rest 'neath North Carolina pines has been thewish of nearly every pilgrim who has left that dear old home. All thisis changed now; That old city is no longer dear. The spoiler is amongthe works of God. Since the massacre on the 10th of November, 1898, overone thousand of Wilmington's most respected taxpaying citizens have soldand given away their belongings, and like Lot fleeing from Sodom, havehastened away. The lawyer left his client, the physician his patients,the carpenter his work-bench, the shoemaker his tools--all have fled,fled for their lives; fled to escape murder and pillage, intimidationand insult at hands of a bloodthirsty mob of ignorant descendants ofEngland's indentured slaves, fanned into frenzy by their moreintelligent leaders whose murderous schemes to obtain office workedcharmingly. Legally elected officers have been driven from the citywhich is now ruled by a banditti whose safety in office is nowthreatened by the disappointed poor whites whose aid was secured indriving out wealthy Negroes on the promise that the Negroes' propertyshould be turned over to them.
What has wrought all this havoc in the city once so peaceful? Rev. A. J.McKelway of Charlotte, Editor of the _North Carolina Presbyterian_, inan article published in the _New York Independent_ of November, 1898,explains as follows:--"In 1897 was passed at Governor Russell's wish andover the protest of the Western Republicans, a bill to amend the charterof the city. If there had been any condition of bad or inefficientgovernment, there might have been some excuse for this action; but thecity was admirably governed by those who were most interested in hergrowth and welfare. Here is the law that is responsible for thebloodshed recently in Wilmington:"
"BE IT ENACTED, That there shall be elected by the qualified voters of each ward one Alderman only, and there shall be appointed by the Governor one Alderman for each ward, and the Board of Aldermen thus constituted shall elect a Mayor according to the laws declared to be in force by this act."
"It will be readily seen that, combining with those elected from theNegro wards, it was easy for the appointees of the Governor to elect theMayor and appoint the other city officers."
"When the new Board took possession there were found to be threeAldermen, fourteen policemen, seventeen officers in the fire department,four deputy sheriffs, and forty Negro magistrates besides. It isprobable that _not one of these_ was qualified to fill his office. Thenew government soon found itself incapable of governing. It could notcontrol its own. The homes of the people were at the mercy of thieves,burglars and incendiaries, and the police were either absolutelyincapable of preventing crime, or connived at it. White women wereinsulted on the streets in broad daylight by Negro men, and on more thanone occasion slapped in the face by Negro women on no provocation. * * ** White people began to arm themselves for the protection of their livesand property. * * * * In the city of Wilmington it has been found uponinvestigation, that the Negroes own 5 per cent. of the property, and pay5 per cent. of the taxes. * * *
"The Negro editor publicly charged to the white women of the South equalblame for the unspeakable crime, etc."
The Rev. Mr. McKelway has worded his defense well; but in giving aplausible excuse for the crime of Nov. 10th, he makes a dismal failure.A mob headed by a minister of the gospel, and a hoary-headed deacon,after cutting off every avenue of escape and defense, and after thegovernment had been surrendered to them as a peace offering, wantonlykills and butchers their brethren, is without parallel in a Christiancommunity, and the more Mr. McKelway seeks to excuse such a deed, theblacker it appears.
The Hon. Judson Lyon, Register of the United States Treasury, in hisreply to Senator McLaurin in the _New York Herald_, says truthfully: "InWilmington, N. C., albeit the Executive as a leader of his party hadbacked down and surrendered everything as a peace offering, and thedemocracy, if that is what they call themselves, had carried the day,still the main thoroughfares of that city were choked with armed men.They destroyed personal property, they burned houses, they wantonly tookmore than a dozen lives, they drove thousands to the woods where nearlya dozen infants were born and died in many instances, with their mothersthe victims of exposure as the result of the crue
lty of people who callthemselves democrats and patriots. Weyler in his maddest moments washardly more barbarous."
In the city of Wilmington, where so much innocent blood had been spilledand so many valuable lives had been taken by that furious mob, see whatare the facts:
There were ten members of the Board of Aldermen, seven of these whiteand three colored; there were twenty-six policemen, sixteen white andten colored, the chief being white and a native of the State, cityAttorney a white Republican, city clerk and treasurer, white, withcolored clerk. Turnkeys and janitors white Republicans with coloredassistants, Superintendent of Streets a white man, Superintendent ofgarbage carts a white man, Clerk of Front Street Market, a white man,Clerk of Fourth Street Market, a white man, Superintendent of Health, awhite Democrat, two lot inspectors, colored men, Chief of FireDepartment and Assistant chief, both white Democrats. There are threewhite fire companies and two colored. Superintendent of City Hospital isa white Democrat with white nurses for white wards, and colored nursesfor colored wards. The school committees have always had two whitemembers and one colored. Superintendent of Public Schools is a whiteDemocrat.
Now, will somebody point out where that awful thing that is iterated andreiterated so much, to wit, NEGRO DOMINATION existed under this showingin the communicipality of Wilmington.
The men who were driven from the city by the mob, with but fewexceptions, had no political following, nor political aspirations.
It has always been the rule with mobs to villify their victims, assailtheir characters in the most shameful manner in justification of theirmurder. But an attack upon the character and integrity of the Negroes ofWilmington, in order to justify the massacre of Nov. 10th, shall not gounchallenged. If what I write should raise a howl of protest and callanother ex-Governor Northern to Boston to brand it as a lie, it isnevertheless a truthful statement of the causes that led up to thedoings of the 10th of November, and although I shall fictitiously namesome of the star actors in this tragedy and the shifters of the scenes,I can call them all by their names and point them out. It will be proventhat the massacre of Nov. 10th, 1898, had been carefully planned by theleading wealthy citizens of Wilmington, and that over thirty thousanddollars was subscribed to buy arms and ammunition to equip every man andboy of the white race, rich and poor; that secret dispatches were sentto sympathizers in adjoining States and communities to come in andassist in making the 10th of November, 1898, a second Bartholemew's evein the history of the world, by the wholesale killing of black citizensafter every means of defense had been cut off; that black men and womenfor banishment and slaughter had been carefully listed; that clubs andclans of assassins had been organized and drilled in signals andtactics; that the aid of the State militia and the Naval Reserves hadbeen solicited to enter Wilmington on the 10th of November to assist indisarming every Negro, and aiding in his slaughter and banishment. Thatthe intervention of Providence in the earnest and persistent entreatiesof white citizens who were too nobly bred to stoop so low, and thestrategy and cunning of the Negro himself, frustrated the carrying outto its fullest intent, one of the most infamous and cowardly deeds everplanned.
