The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1866-08-15
Banks on the Louisiana Martyrs.


Banks Oh the Louisiana Martyrs.
! The" martyrs of New Orleans being
the persons killed in q riot provoked BY
their revolutionary attempt to seizt
upon the control of Louisiana, have
found q fitting tnourner.
Major-General NATHANIEL P. BANKS
has published letter in regard to these
victims of their own and their fellow.
conspirators' ferocious lust of power
The ex-commander of the Department
of the Gulf, who happily combines the
rhetoric Of Pogram with the department
of Turveydrop, thus sums up the ma
jestic meanings Of the recent riot:
The unseen hand that smote DR.. Dos.
tie was that which applied the torch tt
the City of New-York, and by which
Lincoln fell. His death will be aveng.
ed and in this, as in all trials of good
men, the blood of the martyrs will be
the sustenance of the church.
AS master of turgid commonplace
General BANKS must be admitted to ri
val Secretary SEWARD; but he lacks
the Secretary's astonishing power Of
lifting himselfup by bis own waistband
Once launched upon an outburst Of
buncombe eloquence, Secretary SEWARD
has quite marvellous faculty Of per.
suading himself that he is going some
where, and that all mankind await his
coming with breathless impotence.
His own rigmarole puts him into
glow; and as he plies his indefatigable
pen he gradually rises into an ecstasy Of
self-conscious rapture which, though
utterly inane in its origin and barren Of
all result, imparts to his style a fever
ish twitter which very often passes
with the hasty observer for emotion.
Even Of this delusive species Of creative
heat, the "eurted darling" Of Massa.
ehusetts is incapable. When he would
be pathetic, he IL only prosy, when he
would be inpassioned, he 10 only red In
the face. One might have faneied, for
example, that the mere operation Of
crowding into one brief paragraph so
much deliberate calnn,ny and so many
instigations to the worst sectional pas.
sions as General BANHs has eontrived
to get into the passage we have here
quoted, would communicate a sort Of
excitement, if only an excitement Of the
basest kind, to the operators style.
But General BANKS, for the life Of him,
cannot make SANDER more lively than
a price-current, or provoke mob in ac-
cents more emphatic than those Of a
justice of the peace marrying a rustic
couple with ffty-cent currency note
in prospect as Ills fee. 1t is the more
striking that General BANKS should be
so stupid about DR.. DosTIE because he
has himself so lively apersonal interest
in getting the country to refuse to know
or hear anything about the recent his
tory Of Louisiana. All the Radicals
have obvious motives for exciting the
people about questions Of reconstruc-
ton, and for fomenting those passions
in the popular mind which make mil.
lions the tools of designing and des-
perate few. No party in any country,
for many years past has developed SO
colossal system of corruption and Pc
culation as the Republicans during Mr..
L1NcoLN's administration. No MAORI
ty in government profsssedly consti-
tutional ever robbed the public treasu-
ry SO openly, or so cynically postponed
the relief of the people from overwhelm-
ing fiscal burdens to partisan and per-
sonal schemes, as did the Republican
majority in the recent session of Con-
gress. Of course, it is the aim of all
concerned in the story Of tits party to
stave off as long as possible the great
day Of final account-the day in which
the secrets of the War Department and
the Treasury, and of the whole legisla-
tive and administrative annals Of the
party Of great moral ideas," shall be
remorselessly dragged to the light.
But no individual in the country has
80 much cause to strive for the putting
off Of that evil day as the ex-comman-
der Of the Department Of the Gulf.
Sicily had no worse stories to tell Of
VERREs than Louisiana has to tell Of
General BANKs. Ifany one thing were
much worse than another in the dark
side of the story of the recent war, it
would be that the Secretary Of War,
who prosecuted F1Tz-JoHN PORTER
with Islander and false witness out Of
the army in which lie had won every
prize Of valor and conduct, has never
dared to let it even the stained light Of
a well-combined court-martial opon the
horrible scandals Of the Red River ex-
petition, in which General BANKS sac
rifced the lives Of thousands Of brave
men and rislxad tho Gal ntv If +ho N o4io,,c