Item: editorials and advertisements, The Daily Journal (Wilmington, N. C.), 18 May 1863, page 2, columns 1 and 2.
Notes: 1) The Siege of Vicksburg began on 18 May 1863. 2) Colonel Thomas Purdie, of the 18th North Carolina Regiment, is the officer who led the charge that fatally wounded Stonewall Jackson. Purdie died instantly from a gunshot wound the following day, 3 May 1863, at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
Selected Transcriptions:
THE DAILY JOURNAL.
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA.
WILMINGTON, N. C., MONDAY, MAY 18, 1863.
The news received to-day by telegraph is less discouraging than any we have had for some days past. At last we get something from Jackson and the West. As we knew, Jackson was entered last week by the Federals. It would seem that they must have been checked in their advance, as they are retreating, after having done much damage. It is to be hoped that they will be made to regret their sudden advance into the interior. Vicksburg and Port Hudson still stand and the enemy’s base and communications are threatened. We shall look for further news from that quarter with much interest.
It will be seen that Mr. VALLANDIGHAN has been sentenced for two years to the Dry Tortugas. These are a group of Islands or Keys at the entrance of the Gulf of Mexico, about 120 miles W. S. W. of the extreme point of the mainland of Florida. Like Key West they belong to the jurisdiction of the State of Florida, and formed the exreme out-post of the U.S. in the Gulf, being about as far rom Key West as Key West is from the mainland. Formerly the only establishment was a light house with its keeper on Garden Key. More recently a formidable fortification has been constructed there. It is latitude 24 deg. 37 min.
There is some question as to whether he will be sent there. We think he will. The LINCOLN military despotism having gone so far as to arrest and try and sentence him by mere military process, and in defiance of the Constitution and the civil authority, and this sentence having been made public, will hardly dare now to shrink from its enforcement. A failure to carry it out now would be and acknowledgment of weakness which would encourage further opposition.
[It will be seen by telegraph received this morning that VALLANDIGHAM is to be sent South.]
The New York Herald thinks that the premature disclosure of this sentence will insure the election of VALLANDIGHAM as Governor of Ohio. This is possible, yet we can see little good likely to result from this. In the complete prostration of the civil authority the voice of the unarmed people through the ballot-box will be unheard or unattended to. Of course the Governor elect provided VALLANDIGHAM should be that man, could not take his seat, and, as things are now carried on at the North, the election would be declared invalid, and a creature of LINCOLN’S foisted upon the State in his place. They understand that thing North. How long that sort of game can be carried on we cannot pretend to say. We confess that we can see no change of its early stoppage.
Whether, if LINCOLN were overthrown, the thing would be any better for us, or the war nearer a close upon the only terms admissable by the South may fairly be doubted. No parties or persons at the North has yet dared to avow themselves prepared for peace upon the basis of seperation. Still the experiment could do no harm and we would like to see it tried.
Arrived.
The steamer Eugenie arrived her yesterday from England via Bermuda, laded on Government account. She is a handsome vessel.
Also the steamer Emma, from Nassau got in night before last, with an assorted cargo on private account.
By the Eugenie we have English papers—to wit : The London Times of the 14th ult., the London Morning Post of the 11th, the London News of the 9th and of the 14th, the London Times of the 9th and the Plymouth Mercury of the 16th.
All of these papers contain some editorial reference to American affairs. The Times comments at some length upon the operations of Federal spies and secret agents in England, dogging the footsteps of all parties, native or foreign, supposed to sympathise with the Confederacy. It is shown that these spies were instructed to “watch and find out” the persons with whom Lieutenant MAURY corresponded. The Federal agents were ordered to “out-buy any agents of the South,” especially in the purchase of ships under 1,000 tons register. The people of Lancashire are to be excitd in favour of the North by speeches, pamphlets, and even by sermons. The masses are to be moved by the process of “wire-pulling,” and individuals are to be kept under surveillance by an extensive employment of detectives. One letter to these agents, dated Washington, expressly says:__”If possible, get the parties who supply the Alabama. Bribe right and left.” The Times only wonders that the North has not half a score of Alabamas on the seas instead of being terrified by one. It regards the outcry of the North about the construction of the Alabama as ridiculous, as there is a heavy balance of advantages of the same kind on the Federal side.
The New York correspondent of the Times, under date of March 27th, says the Union Leagues at the North are Republican clubs, organized to keep the Republicans in power and the Democrats out. They are of the same breed as the “Wide Awakes.”
The Confederate loan had recovered and was at a slight premium.
The London Post has an article commenting upon the inactivity of the Federal armies during the winter and Spring, and asserting the principle that if the North does not, or cannot carry on active measures to restore the authority of the Federal government, other nations are not bound to the policy of non-interference. It says :—”The ground upon which the non-interference of neutrals in the quarrels of belligerents is based by international law, is, that war shall be carried on with such activity as may tend to the speedy restoration of peace. On any other assumption it would be monstrous to expect that neutrals would submit to all the inconveniences entailed upon them by the wars of other nations.” The Post compares the relative positions of the North and the South to those of besiegers and besieged. The former cannot take the place now or hereafter—the latter cannot raise the siege. Will other nations submit to an indeflnlte continuance of a resultless contest which entails upon themselves serious losses and inconveniences? The Post is said to be the leading Palmerston organ.
The Daily News is the Abolition organ and has a pretty long editorial devoted to the negroes, praising the negroes for their good conduct and soldierly qualities.
The Plymouth paper, the Western Daily Mercury is a large and handsome sheet, in this respect equal to its metropolitan cotemporaries. It has immediately under its editorial head some items of news from America, but subjoins no comment.
It is pleasing to notice that some of the Northern papers in one instance at least are capable of something like decency and magnanimity in their references to a fallen foeman, as they have shown themselves in the case of STONEWALL JACKSON. It is not that their praise or blame, their good word or their bad word, can matter ought to the departed hero. He minded it not in life. Still less can he regard it in death. Neither can his friends regard it either on his account, but for the sake of our common humanity it is pleasing to see that even with the most envenomed and least scrupulous members of the human family there is still some remains of decency and propriety left—some virtue that even they respect, some magnanimity that even they can exercise. Who can say that even the worst are all bad?
The Late Col. Purdie.
A soldier and gentleman, “sans peur et sans reproche.”
Such was he whose name heads this article. Those who knew him, are not surprised that he fell, nor that be fell at the head of his regiment, doing his duty bravely and well. They knew that be never shrank from the full discharge of his duty, and that his brave heart would prompt him to the station of honor and of peril. At that station he fell, and with him fell high hopes which failed of their “promised
largeness” only by untimely death.
Col. Purdie was indeed “without fear and without reproach,” every inch a soldier and every thought a gentleman. All his qualities were good without adulteration.— Nature designed and finished him a man, a true man in every lofty sense of the term.
When such an one falls, particularly in times like these, there is more sorrow than that which broodeth around the hearth-stone at home. Who is there now to fill his place! What form so manly, what arm so strong, what heart so brave and fearless is there to lead those who loved to follow where he led, and feared not when his cool and steady step was onward to the foe! Let the gallant 18th avenge the death of their loved Commander, whose blood crieth to them from the ground, while his memory, bright, and spotless, and unsullied as the banner which they bear, stirs, them, as his voice was wont to do, to brighter deeds of arms. R.
THE EDUCATIONAL CONVENTION—LETTER FROM PRESIDENT DAVIS.—The following letter from President Davis was read at the Educational Convention recently held in Columbia, S. C.
EXECUTIVE OFFICE,
Richmond, Va., April 22 ,1863.
Messrs. G. H. Wiley, J. D. Campbell and W. J. Palmer, Raleigh, N. C.
GENTLEMEN:—I have the honor to acknowledge your invitation to attend a meeting to be held in Columbia, S. C., to deliberate upon the best method of supplying text books for schools and colleges, and promoting the progress of education in the Confederate States. The object commands my fullest sympathy, and has for many years attracted my earnest consideration.
It would be difficult to over-estimate the influence of primary books in the promotion of character, and the development of mind. Our form of Government is only adapted to a virtuous and intelligent people, and there can be no more imperative duty of the generation which is passing away, than that of providing for the moral, intellectual and religious culture of those who are to succeed them. As a general proposition, it may, I think, be safely asserted that all true greatness rests upon virtue, and that religion is in a people the source and support of virtue. The first impressions on the youthful mind are to its subsequent current of thought what the springs are to the river they form, and I rejoice to know that the task of preserving these educational springs in purity has been devolved upon men so
qualified to secure the desired result. I have only to regret my inability to meet you, because it deprives me of the pleasure your Association would give.
With my best wishes, I am very respectfully. your fellow citizen,
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
ARRIVAL OF CONFEDERATE PRISONERS AT WASHINGTON.—The Baltimore American, on the 7th inst., contains the announcement of the arrival of eight hundred Confederate prisoners, including one entire Regiment, the Twenty-third Georgia. They were marched down Pennslyvania Avenue to the old Capitol. Their healthy, robust appearance was the subject of universal comment. Not one looked as though he had not had enough to eat. The American says :
”Two officers, Maj. Gen. Evans, of South Carolina, and a Brigadier General whose name was not learned, were prominent in the number, both being very tall, fine looking men.
They were in light grey uniforms, with three gold stars on the collar of the Major General and two on
that of the Brigadier. They were permitted to go about the streets, accompanied by an unarmed corporal, and made several purchases in the stores on the avenue.
Maj. Gen. Evans was the rebel General commanding at Leesburg during the Ball’s Bluff battle.
A son of ex-Senator A. G. Brown, of Mississippi, is among the prisoners.
HOME INDUSTRY.—The Greensboro’ (Miss.,) Motive, says we can scarcely pass a house when travelling but that we hear the hum of a wheel and the noise of a loom, worked by some fair hand which is busily engaged in making clothes for some dear ones in the army. Go to church and there you can tell where home industry is—see the fair ones with bright eyes and glowing cheeks, dressed in their beautiful homespun, lt is not with them who can sport the finest silks, but who can make the prettiest homespun. How beautiful and comely they look in these dressed! God bless these fair ladies who are doing such a noble part by our soldiers.—Can such a people be subjugaten?
FOR CONGRESS.
CAPTAIN WM. J. HOUSTON requests us to say, in reply to the numerous applications, both in and out of the army, received by him to become a candidate to represent the people of the 3rd Congressional District of North Carolina in the next Congress of the Confederate States, that
if selected for that responsible position by the people, he will endeavor to discharge its duties with fidelity, and with the view to promote the independence, success and prosperity of the Confederate States. He avails himself of this means of communication, because the rapid movement of our armies and the consequent interrupted mail facilities render it difficult for him to answer his friends in a different manner.
May 6th, 1863
Citation: The Daily Journal (Wilmington, N. C.), 18 May 1863, page 2, columns 1 and 2. North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; call number C071 Z.
