The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-07-25
FURNISHING ARMS TO THE REBELS. )"

There are no criticisms on radical policy
more telling and unanswerable than those
which proceed from radicals. No sooner is it
announced that the reconstruction acts have
been executed to completion in six States,
than the authors of these acts are heard to
declare that the real work of reconstruction is
essentially unfinished. No sooner is it pro-
claimed by district commanders, in pursuance
of the radical legislation of Congress, that
military rule has ceased, and that civil law is
supreme, than the men who were foremost in
adopting that legislation are seen to be intent
on undoing these results by subjecting the
people to the despotism of the bayonet and
putting civil government, such as it is,
under military guardianship. Thus strange
concurrence of oppositions is witnessed.
Democrats denounce the reconstruction acts
as null and void, because they are unconstitu-
tional and revolutionary. Radicals are eager
to nullify the announced completion of the
work required to be done by those acts, be-
cause this work has not quite fulfilled the
revolutionary aims of radical policy. Among
the measures which contemplate such nulli-
fcation is the military bill, about which, ac-
cording to the telegraph, Congress is just
now intensely excited. This bill proposes TO
supply the "loyal" militia in the South with
arms from the federal arsenal, at the
rate, we believe, of a thousand En-
field rifles and battery of artillery to
each congressional district. 1t appears
that Mr.. Washburn, the reputed organ
of General Grant in Congress, created
a considerable sensation by opposing the
measure "on the ground that within ten
days these arms would be in the hands of
the rebels" 1t is needless to ask in this re-
lation, who are "rebels," and who are
"loyal men. 1t is needless to remind radi-
cal Legislators that, in law, all citizens are
loyal unless judlcially convicted of treason; or
to remind them that no peaceable citizen of
the United States can be properly regarded as
"rebel;" but on the contrary, that every
such citizen is entitled to perfect equality
under the law, even by the terms of the radi-
cal fourteenth amendment, which declares
that mo State shall make or enforce any law
which shall abridge the privileges or immuni-
ties of citizens of the United States, and
that "all persons born or naturalized in the
United States, and subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the United States and
of the States wherein they reside" All this
goes for nothing with the radicals They
are as ready, upon occasion, to repudiate con-
stitutional provisions of their own making as
they have been to trample on the Constitu-
ton as the founders made it. What Mr.
Washburn means by "rebels is all people
at the South, whether white or black, who
are opposed to the usurpations prescriptions,
expressions and spoliations of radical govern
ments which have been set up, through
fraud and violence, in Southern States. In
the eyes of the same congressman, the
"loyal" militia, among whom it is proposed
to distribute federal arms, consist almost ex-
clusively of negroes who have heretofore
voted the radical ticket, and are expected
to vote in the same way hereafter
Why he has confidence in them
as radical voters, but is unwilling to confide
in them as "loyal" recipients of federal
arms, he does not say. But his distrust in
the latter regard is, perhaps, well founded
more well founded, perhaps, than his con-
uutuC6 Ou inc bCOi6 VI NOblu5s 1udL Ieu6Idl
rifles, delivered into the hands of negroes
scattered through the State, would find their
way into the hands of "rebels within SO
short period as ten days, is doubtless an
argumentative exaggeration on the part of
Gen. Grants congressional organ. But there
can be no question that large numbers of
them would eventually go in that direction.
In the agricultural districts of this State, for
example, the masses Of the negroes feel no
need of arming for their own protection
They feel assured now of the maintenance of
their status, and, left to themselves, they
take little or no interest in politics. Soon
after the war, it is true, there was Juror
among them for the possession of fire arms
They regarded it as one of the appurtenances
of freedom. And fire arms being extremely
cheap, this fancy was INDUCED to the top of
its bent. In due time the novelty of the
thing wore off Fire arms are not in special de-
mand at this moment, among the negroes in
the country parishes. Mr.. Washburn may,
therefore, well apprehend that if, under the
proposed legislation, federal arms are put in
their possession, they will not stay ''put,"
but soon make room for articles in greater
demand, and which the possessors, with good
reason, will esteem as more desirable in point
Of utility, or ornament, or decency and re-
speciality.
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