New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-05-29

Those two Republican organs the N. Y Evening
Post and the N. y, Tribune, do not see everything
in the same light, The Post, for instance, does
not perceive in the Memphis riots any reason for
DISTINGUISHING the Southern whites. It likens that
deplorable affair to the New York riots of 1858, in
which much the same sort ef spirit was displayed
by the excitable and unreasoning populace TO-
wards the objects of their prejudice and hatred
1t is unfair, the Post thinks, to speak OF 1t as
proof of the unitness of the Southern people TO
take part in the government and of their iuvete-
rate hatred te Justice, liberty and union" This
kind of argument the Post says, is of piece with
the petty spirit which finds fault with Southern
men for honoring their dead. What would the
| Tribune have ~ asks the Post Does it expect
Richmond to curse OF despise Stonewall Jackson?
or the Vrginians to dshonor their own dead, their
relatives and friendsF
The Tribune does not submit very quietly to this
lecture ftom its Republican contemporary but in
an article entitled the Moral of Murder, it takes
the Post to task in its turn It's first objection is
that the Southern whites should be spoken of as
the people of the South.n The Tribune is
shocked that the Southern negroes should not be
regarded as having right to mingle their voices
with the uoD popali Of these States They are
three millions;'' says the Tribune, they hated
and resisted the rebellion why then are they not
the people or a part of the people OF the South
| If right to be included in this term is derived
from hatred of the rebellion, and resistance to
it, the Tribune certainly fails to make out its case
There is no proof, there is no testimony even, on
| its side.
Where is the evidence that the negroes Of the
South hated and resisted the ''rebellion?" Nowhere
| exceptin the fancy of the editor of the Tribune,
who insists that their conduct must have con
formed to his views and speculations. The negroes
ought to have hated andressted the rebellion
ergo they did hate and resist the rebellion" But
no fact ofthe war was more conspicuous than the
uuiescent indifference of the negroes within the
Confederate lines, during the whole course Of the
contest. Under all the circumstances their
abstinence from amy manifestation of discomfort,
their thorough subordinaton, and their continued
industry, amounted to what would, by other PEG
pie, be called fidelity. The facts show that the
Southern negroes did not hate and resist the ire
bellion y consequently according to the Tri-
bunetian logic, they ought not to have hated and
resisted the rebellion" It is certainly ga poor
rule that won't work both ways.n
But the Tribune knows very well that when the
peopletof the South are spoken of only the white
people are meant because it is only among the
white people that we find the electoral and gov
erning class. We are not SO illogical as to say
that this proves the discrimination to be just and
proper, Wesay simply that it is a fact just as it
is fact that when the people of New York are
spoken Of as political community, the expression
does not include the whole body of unnaturalized
State. The fact is that this first premise of the
Tribune's is a begging Of the whole question,
which is whether the negroes ought to be elevated
to the ranks Of the people Of the State using the
word people in its political sense.
| The Tribune then goes on to say:
We entirely agree with the Post that the spirit
which impelled the late butchery of blacks and
burning Of their Churches sGhool-houses and homes
! in Memphis is precisely that which burned the
| Golored Orphan Asylum and hunted negroes to
death to deaths door in our city. We have no
doubt that the better portion of even the late
rebels of the South condemn and reprobate its
grosser manifestations as heartily as the better
class of Democrats have condemned the draft riots
of July 1868. And now the Post must agree with
US that this tepid depreciation whether in New
York or in Memphis affords insecurity or protec-
ton to the blacks, and can hardly be expected to
satisfy those who must live in constant dread of
being bounded from their homes for the crime of
being Of such color as it pleased God to give them
The good rebels may be very sorry for the out
RACES on negroes which are constantly occurring
around them-but their sorrow does not take a
positive shape and is of very little practical ac-
count,
Admitting this to be all true-in the sense in
which it is intended by the Tribune, and to how
much does it all amount and to what differences
does it lead2 It amounts to precisely this-that
there are people in the South just as there are in
the North, who do not understand their oblga-
tlonsNto society, and who are apt to give way to
unreasoning passion, and to commit outrages and
violence 1t is Of just such people that all mobs
are composed. But the Tribune has never pro-
posed to dishanchise the white people of New
York, in order to guard against such outbreaks.
It was not suggested in England, after the Catho
lie riots, that the Protestants ought to be dsfran
chised in order protect the Catholics from mobs
It was not proposed in Massachusetts, after the
burning of the Charlestown convent that the en-
lightened people of New England ought to be
excluded from participation in governmental af-
fairs in order to save other converts from oonfa-
grafton. Nobody minated, after the terrible
Native American riots in Philadelphia, that the
Pennsylyanians ought to be prevented from voting
in order that aliens might be guarded against VIC
lence. And yet it is gFaVely urged now that the
Southern people are unfit to participate in Federal
elections because there have been mobs and riots
in one or two Southern cities and acts Of violence
perpetrated which are far more sincerely depre
Gated here than among even the philanthropical
people Of New England