The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1866-03-28
The Reconstruction CommEtee and
the Loyalty Of the South.

The Reconstruction Commhtee and
the Loyalty Of the South.
The actions of the Reconstruction Com
mittee are becoming every day more and
more disnacefal. They have sent their
emissaries throughout the South for the
purpose of gathering up all the Federal Of
hcers who have been sighted by the South
ern people whom they have oppressed, and
all the sore-headed and disappointed Office
seekers, whom the Southern people have
refused to entrust with office, as willing
Witnesses before the Reconstruction San
hedrime, to prove the disloyalty OF the
Southern people and their desire still to
form another Confederacy of their own.
The testimony of these men is paraded
before the people Of the North, and is used
to inRame their passions and prejudices
against those who were recently In arms
against the Federal government, and who
have yielded to the fate Of conquered
pations.
The unfairness of such proceeding must
be obvious to any unbiased mind. If the
Reconstruction Committee calls before it
such men as General Terry, whose arbitrary
actions doubtless have led to instances OF
spirited resentment on the part of the men
over whom he has been placed, why not
also call all the other commanding officers,
whose kind and conciliatory policy towards
the Southern people, has been met by a
like spirit on their part? How difficult, for
instance, would it be for the Reconstruc-
ton Committee to prove the disloyalty Of
the people Of Rapides by the testimony Of
any officer who has been in command at
this post since the surrender; not because
the people Of Rapides are any better than
the rest of their Southern brethren, but
because the excellent disposition Of the
commanding officers towards them has
afforded them no cause to manifest any hos
tility to the government or Its officers
But the testimony of these men is not
what the Reconstruction Committee wants;
the loyalty of Louisiana must be proved,
forsooth by the testimony only of such
men as Hahn and Cutler and Yarmouth
and Haynes and others Of the scum of the
population of our State.
There is one piece of information which
the Reconstruction Committee has derived
from its accumulated testimony, which
needs a passing notice, and in which there
may be some truth. We refer to the re-
mark made by many of the witnesses that
the South was more loyal at the end of the
war, and showed better disposition to re-
turn to the Union, than she does at this
time. If such is the fact we would ask
whose fault is it? If the Southern people
were anxious to return to the Union imme-
diately after the Union men had ceased
shooting bullets at them in the field, then
these Union men must have been guilty of
some outrage upon them, greater than that
of shooting at them, if they have changed
their opinions so soon. And this we find
to be the actual fact Having been beaten
on the field, and having given over their
hopes of forming Southern Confederacy,
the people of the South were willing and
ready to return to their allegiance at the
close of the war. But, instead of meeting
them in friendly spirit, as did the late
President and his able successor, the Radi-
cal majority in Congress, backed by their
throughout the North, have
Haged 6ercer contest against them than
1t any time during the existence of the late
These things have had
tendency to disgust many Southern men,
Ind to estrange them from desire to have
to do with the Federal govern
nent. 1t is not surprising that they should
often give utterance to expressions of dis
content at such treatment, or that these
should be construed into feel
ngs ofhostility to the government.
If the people Of the North sincerely de-
sire to see the restoration of loyalty and
harmony at the South, they should deal
properly with the Southern people. Let
hem repudiate the actions of this Recon-
'truction Committee, and of their Radical
Congress. Let them elect to Congress
men with broad national views, who are
in the welfare of the whole coun.
ry, and who would be willing to see the
south restored to all its rights. If they
hould do these things there would soon
'e an end to the summoning of witnessesBto
'rove that the South is still disloyal and
another attempt to overthrow
he Federal government.
-~~>>~~~-S@e~~~~--~~
Ga. Hon. John P. Stockton, U. 8.
Senator from New Jersey, fills a seat
which was occupied by his father, Hon.
sobert F. Stockton, and his grandfather,
Ion. Richard Stockton. But seldom in
ne history of the country bavea father and
On been both members of the U. s. Senate.