New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-04-03
GENERAL LEES TESTIMONY.

JSonstIuCuon Gommlttee' Will pc read Win mtel
est by the whole country and will carry conyictio
). to the mind of every thoughtful and impartlf
: man. The object of the committee is to secure
mass of evidence in regard to the condition @
public opinion in the South which may palliate,
not Justify, the course which the majority of Cor
gress have resolved to pursue towards the Soutf
ern States. The design is to show that the peopl
!; of the late Confederate States influenced b
so much of resentment and vindictiveness agains
. the Federal government and the Northern peopl
as to be dangerous partners in the Union, if nc
actually unfit to exercise the ordinary rights {
local selfgovernment. For nearly year, or eve
since the close of the war, this object has bee
stndiously pursued. Every device suggested b
partizan malignity and hatred has been used to il
flame the Northern mind against the South, t
stimulate sectional ambition and animosity, an
to prevent the subsistence of the violent passion
ana antagonists engendered by the war. For thi
purpose, itinerant correspondents have been hire
| 70 perambulate the South and to write slanderou
| letters to Northern newspapers. Emissaries hav
been sent into the Southern States to act tn
spy upon the people, to distort their natura
regrets into hostile intentions, to pervert the
words, and to misrepresent, in every conceivable
way, their opinions and their actions.
/ The Chicago Times very aptly and very forcibly
describes this system of falsehood and detraction,
and shows how very little weight ought to be at
tached to the statements thus plainly concocted
with the object of arousng to still more vigorous
action the resentments and the animosties which
the return of peace ought to have stiRed, at least
| for brief season. The New York Tribune, for
instance finds case in which some anonymous
white man has had row with some suppositious
negro and that phianthropical and liberal journal
| forthwith calculates, g How long, oh Lord how
long, are we to endure these terrible outrages?
"Bfl Jones, Of Florida, has cuffed loyal cuffee
Is it not plain that the Southern States are unfit to
| be represented in the American Congress?' ' A
Presbyterian minister of unknown name and &C.
cult residence, has recently prayed for our late
bondnaen, born in our houses, or bought with our
money! lis it not clear that the South is ready
to revolt again?" elm jacksonville" continues
the amiable Tribune, :" a colored man the other
day, for asking for his wages, was deliberately
shot down by his master. Is it not absolutely
proven that the Southern people settle their little
bills with the revolver, and that they have there
fore, no right to representation in the Federal
legislature 2n
Another case, remarks the Times, adduced to
provetha the Southernpeope should be subjected
to the irresponsible operations of despotic freed
mems bureau, and placed under the control of ne.
gro ballots and bayonets quite as forcbe as the
foregoing. An anonymous informant says to the
editor of the Tribune, friend told me of an out
rage in which one of the parties told him of a case
in which colored woman, for disrespectful an
swer, was pulled out Of bed by a son of her en-
ployer, and almost used up with broomstick."
In other words, some nameless negro told some
nameless white Of something asserted to have oc-
CURED in some nameless locality in the South and
the parties to which something are ali equally
IS anonymous. The nameless white man tells it |
10 Mr.. Greeley, and the philosophic soul of that
gentleman is Immediately fired with holy indie-
lation He lays the whole matter before his read
RS, and shows them how such things prove that
he South is more arrogant and dictatorial than
yer; that the rebels Z are preparing for another
var, that everything will so to rack and ruin gen
'raliy unless the Southern States are kept out of
he Union, and the ascendency of the Republican
party thereby assured.
In this field of labor the Tribune and its col |
leagues OF the radical press have had number of |
Energetic colaborers in the members of the So |
Jailed Reconstruction Committee. Those gentle |
men have been trying for weeks to get into an off
nal and seemingly authentic shape the tales of |
southern barbarity, and " disloyalty'' with which
ne columns of the radical press have for months
zen burthened. But, after all, they have OBJ
aimed nothing but the opinions bipartisan military
Ulcers, that the Southern white people ought to 4
Q disfranchised, and that the negroes ought to be
ermitted or forced to vote. Of course if the Re
instruction Committee are willing to take General
lxton's word for it that the negroes in the South
9 extremely well instructed in political affairs,
d General Grierson's word that the white people
e busy planning revolutions instead of planting
ton we cannot deprive them Of their right to {
7 upon authority SO very exalted and indisputa F
.. On the other hand, we should be perfectly
Hing TO rest our case, if we admitted the right Of
On tribunal as the committee to decide the
'ints at issue, on the clear unequivocal and truth
7 sessimony 81 General Lee. Nothing could be
ore ingenious, more dignifed, more convincing :
AN the manner in which he defended himself, his
ction and his people against the covert and ma
snant assaults OF his questioners. The practised
oliticians and lawyers of the committee failed to
lsnare MN IN any of the traps which they laid p
7 him. They failed equally in forcing him to e
axe any concessions or confessions humiliating u
his pride Or his dignity as Virginan and a free r
siNSh ~ wv oHlteu StdIeS. we DO not think Il
ct the opinions, the feelings, or the desires of Q
Southern people could have been more genu- ?
ely, or more accurately represented, than they =
In his testimony before the Reconstruction s.
,mmittee. s I m IL
PORTRAIT OF GEN. LEE.-We have been pre-. d
nted with an artistic and admirable portrait Of 81
Is great man, encased in an oval frame beauti.l !
~ ornamented with gold leaf, and pronounced &
competent judges to be an excellent and life. Of
g counterfeit presentment Of the old hero. Sc
This work is designed specially for the parlor,
Is SO true to nature and SO cheap that no ),
nily should bewitlout it. Robert e. Lee is one m
the purest, ablest and most unseltsh men that III
sr exalted human nature, and his features, as :,
~ as his virtues, should be commemorated to 81
9 latest posterity. d.
Dr Shane, agent has these portraits for sale at 3
asonable prices, OF No. los Charities street, and
vites the public of New Orleans to visit his pr
ndio. n On
COMMENCEMENT OF THE Law DEPARTMENT OF pa
y UNIvERslTy.-The exercises at Lyceum Hall
HtardaV tn cn1nhrnta fho n,,,,,n1 !,