New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-09-26
SOUTHERN CORRESPONDENTS.

1 - = @-As 49,
/ We doubt if there has existed in any coun-
try or in any age class of persons so entirely
peculiar as the professional Southern cores
pendent of theradical press of the North. He is
acreature of a new genus. Begotten of fanati-
eism and borne Of imposture he combines in
his person show ofsincerity with genius
for Misrepresentation unequaled anywhere
under the sun. There have been, at various
periods Of time. earnest fanatics to whose
diseased imaginations the most harmless facts
would convey an idea of wrong. There have
also been untruthful men, who3to secure some
personal aim, would coin from their own evil
minds, the most extravagant fictions. And in
the declining days of Imperial Rome there
was class of base s'delators" who, to win the
favor of the sovereignof the hour, would point
out to the vengeance of power the innocent
victims whom they desired to immediate.
But never before in any age, have political
conyulsions thrown to the surface a
class of men, who like most of
the correspondents Of the radical press,
combine SO many evil qualities with SO
little to redeem their faults. We can hardly
call them designedly vicious; for most of them
do not appear to possess any real principle
They are employed to misrepresent, and they
appear to execute the task as a mere matter
of business Like the adyenturers who sought
| the new-found riches of the fallen Timon,
" they are not thieves, but men who much do
want" and they prey greedily for reward
upon the good reputation of whole people.
| They seem, too, like the gentry to whom we
have referred, indisposed to '.giYe over their
trade, and to have resolved continuance of
their peryersions of fact, inasmuch as "there
is no time SO miserable, but man may be
true!n -
But having fulfilled to order the task Of
Misrepresentation they were sent, to perform,
they are equally willing, for a 'considera-
ton, torefute themselFes-not through the
columns of the paper which employs them, it
is true but through some other channel.
With shameless efrontery, i which is a
marked element Of their character thew will
usually confess that they We're not employed
to write truth or tocollect facts for their iour-
mails, but to write or to fabricate what would
Be be agreeable to their employers and would
advance the interests Of the party for whose
tastes they cater. gog
The attitude taken by some of these cor
in reference to the recent riots
in New Orleans will illustrate their qualities
as q class, Such shameless perversions of
fact have seldom been uttered, as were sent
abroad to excite inthe Northern mind feel
ng Of prejudice and hatred against the South ,
ern people Unfortunately the stories gener-
lily reached ears which were but too willing :
Q credit any extrayagances. They had al /
eady been educated, by similar misrepresen- y
ations from the same class of teachers, to II
believe any enormity which might be charged ]
" the most malignant imagination r. Z.
The very fact thatsuch q class Of persons :
an exist and prosper and give certain tone
o public sentiment, is in itself ian Instructive
esson. It is but q corollary to the fact of the =
zlstence Of the radical party. Its whole +
'ol1cy is based upon a wrongful disregard oft
ne rights of other citizens; and it is only ~
trough the distorted medium of false logic. u
nd an actual peryersion Of truth, that Their r
nds car can be attained. tits not facts, there y
re- which the leaders Of that party seek. =
10 make the worse appear the better reason" !,
} distprt facts, to palm off the base metal Of Fl,
lyention for the true coin of sincerity, and
) reflect the truths they cannot wholly con- :
cal in the false lights Of deception, constitute
heir chief means Of success and these arts 4
ave been 50 successfully cultivated that the g
adieal mind seems at length to have been en- + +
owed with q quality which might not map s.
ropriately be styled genius for misrepre- e.
antation .&5 5as=4=5. Ia & II
Itis this unprincipled want Of the. radical +
arty which has called into existence a corps P
defamers who seem to respect nothing that d
sacred, who obey only the genius Of wrong, d,
nd who, like faithful missionaries of evil, are b
ally engaged in sowing the wind that our "
nhappy country may some day reap the
hiFlwind. Falsehood may for time pre- dc
Ill, but apolicy based upon wrong cannot
ndure. 1t carries with it the seeds of it's own
estruction. Under the ripening influence of u
ime they will grow, and the policy of false u
ood will perish, for "Truth is mighty and o'
i'll prevail. as