New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-08-29
IMPROVED GOVERNMENT.

desire to promote harmony amongst others.
4 It is with this view that we feel compelled to
demonstrate kindly with ,,severalof our contem-
noraries on the severity of some of their criti-
cisms on certain of our new military rulers.
/ We do not set ourself up as the special cham
pion of the magnates, for, like woman, they
can "speak for themselves" and they take
frequent occasion to show most
/ Prosperous art
When they will play with reason and DISCOURSE
Besides, we have not been called upon as their
advocate, for the reason, perhaps, that even
without any particular Communications from
us, their E desert speaks loud" Notwithstand-
ing this fact however, we cannot withhold our
expressions of admiration when in the pre-
sence of such transcendent merit.
eve should wrong it,
| To lock it in the wards of covert bosom,
When it deserves with characters of brass
| A forted residence gainst the tooth Of time
And razure of oblivion
We therefore deprecate the action Of some
of our contemporaries of the press, and would
ask them to reconsider the grounds on which
they base their too severe animadversions on
some of our most distinguished rulers. 1t is,
perhaps, not altogether unnatural that the
press should give utterance to such senti-
ments as they have occasionally expressed !;
for the press is to some extent the reflex of
public sentiment, and would therefore be
likely to partake OF the errors of the distinct
communities whose views they are understood
to promulgate. Our people, like those of
every other country, are to some extent the
creatures of education, and adhere with some
tenacity to the principles of the school in
which they have been taught We have no
doubt that intelligent strangers who come
amongst us may regard US as most obstinate
in our prejudices; and their patience must
often be tried at our happiness to be readily
converted to views which seem to us novel,
and opposed to all our preconceived notions
of what is right and proper. We can form
some conception Of their impotence with us
when we conceive, for moment what would
be our own impressions Of disgust if. on visit
ing more barbarous regions than our6wn, we
| should find the wild natives of New Zealand
tenacious Of indulging in those g harmless
pleasantries" Of eating grasshoppers and
broiled babies, in spite of our enlightened
remonstranees.
Notices. shocking to the sensibilities of
modern New Highlander must be the rude |
notions Of government still entertained by
the people of the South. Educated in the an
tiquatedschoo Of Washington, Patrick Henry,
Rutledge, Jefferson, Madison, John Marshall, |
Calhoun, Randolph, Clay, and other forgotten
statesmen, the Southern people still adhere
to those strange prepossessions for republican |
institutions, and to that unaccountable regard |
for the obsolete Constitution which must ever |
remain blot upon the memory of those other
wise reputable men. Imagining that because |
the government which these so-called states
men established was successful, and confer |
red an unprecedented amount Of happiness
on its citizens as long as the principles on I
which it was founded were followed out our
people have fallen into the grievous error Of
supposing that the eccentric views which were
entertained by those singular men were based
upon sound and judicious public policy
and that a return to those neglected princi-
pies, as now advocated by President johnson,
would be to restore harmony and prosperity
to the country!
In reaching this erroneous conclusion, our
people have lost sight of the important fact
of the immense strides of improvement in
the art Of governing the world Steamboats,
railroads and telegraphs have been in
vented. OF these useful appliances Of
government, such men as Washington
and Jefferson and Adams were ignorant.
With what contempt, therefore, must their
principles be viewed, by such statesmen as
Banks and Butler and Conway, who have
ridden on steamboats, and railroad cars, and {
have actually heard the mysterious ticking of !
the telegraph instrument; and may even |
have beheld the great organ in Bostonl We
think therefore that our contemporaries, in
stead Of encouraging our people in their
strange prejudices in favor of constitutional /
law, should endeayor to teach them a be- i
coming reverence for those Enerati from the '
North who have acquired rail- a
road and lightning views of government, who
come amongst our people with the benefcent
object of converting them to the newly !
invented and improved policyof martial law,
md who desire to teach us BETTING sense
# gratitude to those philanthropists who $
would SO kindly relieve us Of the troubles
of self-government under the 5
ntiquated system of George Washington and :
hamilton. BAN .
1t is true that this new system Of martial y
aw may he attended with some few inconve-
liences. 1t may involve the establishment Of
'astiles. It may interfere materially with
commerce. The head Of the military form of g
government may be sometimes a little yacilla- ! !
ing in his will He may regard that as an il
9ifense to-day, which he viewed as "a harm
less pleasantly yesterday. An attack Of dys- y
1epsia might occasion the hanging Of an IN b
1oeent person to-day, while fine bottle of u
your good sherris-sack, especially if it h
we're donation, might occasion such q glow s.
II genial nature as to open the fountains Of n
mercy to the most hardened of criminals. '
These perhaps might be regarded by some 2
persons as amongst the inconvenience of the /
oure military rule. 1t possibly might be the 3
occasion Of a little annoyance to the subject !
If martial law; but as it would not cause the :
highest inconvenience to him who admins {
ers it, the law-abiding, more appropri- I
ltely, the Withholding people. should not com y
plain. They should be taught by the press 4
Il IL, ~.