Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1866-08-01
THE NEW ORLEANS RIOT

TIE NEW ORLEANS RIOT.
Inc grave complication OF affairs at New
Orleans is but legitimate result of the course
OF congress. That course had for its aim the
entire subyersion of the rights of the States
and the Capitalization OF all power of the Gov.
eminent in the National Legislature To effect
these ends and the purposes for which they
were undertaken, Congress has treated the
Southern States and people simply as con-
quered provinces and subjects, and MANY
favoring the policy of Congress everywhere
have in their speeches and public acts followed
that example. This is especially true through
out the South, where thousands of Northern
men and women, living on the corruptions
growing out OF the current fruits o the war in
that quarter, have been doing their best to
educate the negroes up to the point Of As
thorough disloyalty to the principles of the
constitution and laws of the Tn tied States As
was ever manifested by the rebels IN the course
of the war. In Louisiana this has especially
been the case. The radical State Con yention
OF that State was nothing more than reyolu.
uonary body, composed of Northern specula.
tors on philanthropy and in thieving right
and left, OF negroes who were tools in their
hands, and OF a few Louisiana people profess
ing intense unionism for the chances of
political preferment il gave them as the
furious boiling of the pot throws to the snr
face the portion of its contents that could nev-
er otherwise find its way there. The entire
action of this Convention has been as rexoIu
tionary as that of any similar body of rebels
assembled during the war; while its language
INDUCED IN by blacks and whites-has been
quite as incendlary. Its spirit has been the
avowed purpose OF sweeping away by yio-
lence all constitution and law standing in the
of
of the South to the Northern element among
them referred to above, and the division of ALI
property there between those dIsinterested in.
diyiduals and the negroes of the State whom
they propose to enfranchise by revolutionary
means. There is no reason why the course Of
these revolutionists shall be regarded with
more favor or leniency than was that of the
rebels during the war. We condemn il as am
phatically as we condemned that, and are sure
that all rejecting people agree with us on
that point-all.
The Improvement of the negro and the
gradual adoption of the principle of intnI.
ligent suffrage, and suffragezbased on sub-
stantial interest. in the well. being of soci.
ETY., without regard to race, is as certain
to follow the end of slavery in this conn.
try, as tLat was in following the gigantic
efforts to destroy the Union. As the latter was
against the rebellion, so the former will prove
the only means Of preserving it against future
efforts to convert it into the despotic imperial.
ism to which the desperate radicaIism of the
times is so rapidly gravitating How com.
pletely Congress is responsible for the new
dangers surrounding us, is aptly illustrated nv
the manner in which the negroes Of Louisiana
and the northern philan hropists and thieyipp
spectators composing the mass OF this con-
ventIon have been initiating all the violence Of
the most radical portion of Congress- i'm their
language and propositions. As Congress pro.
claimed the war not over, so this con yenIion
does the same thing. As Congress declares
hat the existing governments Of the Southern
States are illegal and should be put down by
violence, so does this Louisiana convention.
The result-there-is, naturally, the collision
OF races which the course of Congress has
invited, and which can hardly fail TO occur
elsewhere throughout the South, unless tho
fact OF the end Of the war be accepted every
where, as President johnson so earnestly ad
vises. Massachusetts can no more peaceabIv
govern Louisiana in her local affairs than
South Carolina can so govern Ohio or ILLINOIS.
Nor is she more UNSUITABLE in attempting so to
do. than South Carolina would be in under.
taking to regulate the domestic and local mat
tiers of the Northwest, precisely as New
England is engaged at this moment in doing
throughout the South, under the PATRONAGE
and with the active though illegal assistance
of Congress. There would be worse riots in
Illinois and Ohio to- morrow, were South Gar.
DINA to essay that game there, than have inst
occurred in Louisiana.
Nevertheless, we by no means despair of the
signs Of the times. The Philadelphia Conyen.
ton, unless it becomes simply machine To
reinstate in power those at the North who
were traitors at heart during the war, and
those at the South who engineered the rebel.
heart, will prove the loyalty of the mass of
the Southern people. That is all that is wanted
to strip the radicals Of power throughout the
North the efforts of the radical leaders to sell
out the whole country TO the manufacturing
capitalists having already worked powerful
reaction against them.
Thus the question to be solved by the Phila.
delphia Convention Is a simple one 1t will
either drive all conservative Union men to
unite with any party opposed to delivering
over the Government into the hands of its no.
torious and active enemies during the war or
it will induce hundreds of thousands of honest
and patriotic men at the North, who up to this
time have suffered themselves with more or
less reluctance to be led by Messrs Sumner,
Phillips, Stevens Il Co, to abandon all politi.
cal afii liation with them and earnestly aid in
the cons ummatOn Of the Presidents policy of
Reconstruction, as the only and best possible
method OF restoring the Union in fact as well
as in name.
MILITARY ORDER In THE CAROLINAs.