New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-09-21
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The telegraph has condescended to give US
only q very brief statement of the proceed
ings at the Cleveland convention on last Mon
day; but that little is eminently satisfactory.
The tone and temper Of the soldiers assem-
bled there were such as we might have anti
cipated from brave men who, contented with
the victory they had won and the triumph Of
their cause, could see nothing of glory or of
honor IN perpetuating divisions, and in carry
ing oppression of their defeated antagonists
to the verge of vindiotiveness. There may
have been politicians at that convention
doubtless there were-but the proceedings
seem to have been guided by the men who
really done service in the field, and proved
their faith by their acts upon the "perilous
edge of battle"
If the spirit which seems to animate these
men only pervaded the public mind of the.
North, the problem of reconstruction would
be very simple. The dominant party would
find that the Southern States claim nothing.
absolutely nothing and ask only the right to
participate in the government to which they
are bound by an irreversible decree. They
have no programme, no platform, no policy.
They desire only peace and quiet; and leisure
to reorganize their industry and restore their
broken fortunes. The gallant men who fought
in the federal armies, and who assembled at
Cleveland on Monday last, appreciate these
facts; but the radicals prefer to cherish the
animosities of the past; to fan into fresh
blaze the smoldering embers of passion and
resentment; and to perpetuate, in time Of
peace, all the violent antipathies of state of
war
We do not complain Of them that they en-
terrain views Of public policy which do not
accord with our views. We do not resent
even their attempts to deprive us Of repre-
sentation in the government Questions like
these we could safely leave to the calm judg-
ment and decision of the people. But what
we have right to complain Of is that they
are not discussed with reason; but, on the
contrary, are made dependent on renewal of
hostile feelings which ought to have termina-
ted with the war. In other words, the measure
Of radical chances of success in. the elections,
is the Intensity of the bitter, unreasoning
hatred against the South which they may con
triye to stir up among the Northern people.
They speak of the Southern people as enc
mics, act towards them as enemies and treat
them as enemies Nor do we say this in any
rhetorical sense. The fundamental propo-
sition of the Republican party creed is that
the people of the South are conquered foes
conquered, it is true, but still foes
that they have no rights, H6t even the right to
life and property, which the victor does not
concede, and that their very existence de-
ponds on the sufferance of the conquering
party. This proposition was laid down with
precision and emphasis by Thaddeus Stevens
in his recent speech, and he denounced any
departure from it as a wicked doctrine.
Nevertheless, distrusting their ability to rea-
son the people Of the North into any such
monstrous belief, they Systematically misrep-
resent and vfify the Southern people stig-
matize them as arebels" and g traitors y
accuse them Of a persistent design to overturn
the Union of incurable hatred against North
ern men, and Of all crimes and outrages
against political adversaries. They represent
the South as a pandemonium of wickedness,
in which no Union man'slife is safe, and in
which the white people amuse themselves by
practicing diabolieal crualties upon the
They import the most worthless
and corrupt instruments of faction that can
be found in the South, to enact the part of
political exiles and martyrs of opinion. By
these means they expect to stimulate anew
The fires of sectional rage, to carry the cleo
ions, and to maintain their power.
The protest of the Cleveland Convention
lgainst this wicked system of nisrepresenta-
ion, and against the objects with which that
ystem is used, is a refreshing symptom Of
eaction against radical violence. It is the
1ore encouraging that it comes from men
hose garments have smoked in the fires of
he battle, and who cannot be suspected Of
elfish Or interested motives. We hope that
heir action may have a salutary effect in re-
'alling the Northern people to the domain of
eason. At all events we Of the South can
ay with General Forrest and his fellow
Confederate soldiers, that we should feel safe
n trusting our cause III the hands Of the
oldiers Of the late federal armies.