The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1866-10-03
The New York Herald on Resto-
ration.

tor. 1t would be almost impossible to
conceive any political question that has
not, at some time or other, been both
advocated and opposed by the corrupt
and eccentric editor of the Herald. 1t
sometimes happens that two or three
different positions on a given subject
are taken within as many weeks, and
that the same candidate is denounced
as a charlatan, and applauded as the
wisest of men, within the period OF a
single political campaign. If what is
said of the editor has any truth in it.
these idiosyncrasies are susceptible of
very easy explanation. The distin-
guished James Gordon Bennett is ac-
cused of having no political principles,
or principles of any kind. He is said
to be welded to money as his only
idol, and money he will have regard
less of every other reconsideration. Hence
he enters the market with his price,
and the first bidder that offers it, is
sure to purchase his support. And yet,
the Herald yields great influence,
and is power which NO political par
ty can afford to ignore. 1t is impossi-
BILE that paper, edited with the spirit
and ability of the Herald, circulating
among million of voters, should not
exert powerful influence in every po-
litical campaign. The people care
nothing for the character Of the author
of an article which furnishes good and
plausible reasons why certain policy
should be adopted or certain polite.
ian elevated to Office. The support OF
the Herald has, therefore, been ever
sought for by scheming politicians, and
much engineering is ever resorted to to
obtain its aid in every exciting polltl-
cal canvass. Since these facts are so
well known, it is a matter of surprise
to us that the friends of the admins
tration should have permitted the pos
sibility of such an event as the opposl-
ton Of that paper to Mr.. Johnson's
cherished plan of reconstruction for the
Southern States. 1t is true that the
Herald has been firm and consistent
supporter of that policy for many
months past, and has adduced many
able arguments in support Of its Wis
dom and justice, but that's insufficient,
as every one should know, to tie down
the eccentric editor to one single idea,
or to prevent him from giving a plausi-
BILE reason for, taking the opposite
ground. Such reason, as might have
been foreseen, has been found, and the
Herald is now hammering away and
endeavoring to demolish the structure
which it has recently been SO industri-
GUS in constructing.
The success of the Radical ticket in
Maine and Vermont, which every body
foresaw, is, in the Herald's opinion, a
sufficient reason why the Presidents
policy should be abandoned, and the
South reconstructed by means of the
easy, speedy and just plan of adopting
the Constitutional amendment proposed
at the last session of the Congress OF
the United States. The Herald mans
former mental hallucination has been
so suddenly and thoroughly cleared
away by the talismanic power of these
elections, that he has been enabled to
discover that this amendment is the
very thing to meet and mend all the
ills under which the South and the
whole country are now suffering. He
has discovered that it would be the
height of wisdom in the South to agree
to an amendment of the Constitution
which proposes to virtually disfran-
chise the great majority Of her people,
to exclude from Office the men whom
she has ever trusted in order to make
way for the promotion of those who
have been inimical to her interests, and
to diminish her representation in Con-
gress by one half as a punishment for
her refusal to enfranchise her former
slaves.
The editor of the Herald may as well
learn at once that the Southern people
do not see this matter in the same light
as himself, and that his ingenuity is in
sufficient to bring them to any such
understanding of it. His illustration
of his position by reference to the case
Of Tennessee is a very unfortunate
one. If our Tennessee neighbors at
ford a 1air. specimen of the beauties OF
reconstruction, the wisdom of the Con-
stitutional amendment, and the bless
ings of the Chest government in the
worldr we beg to be delivered from all
participation in any such benefits. If
reconstruction and readmission into the
Union promise no more than they now
enjoy, we much prefer never to be Gre
constructed" or to take our place in the
Union of the American States.
By the Gable.