The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-10-21
TOO MUCH OF THIS.
yention.

Ihe New fork world, speaking OF the iate
speech of John Quincy Adams at Columbia,
S. c., says in conclusion ave await, with
no small solicitude, the comments of the
Southern press upon this remarkable speech.
If it shall be accepted in the friendly and
courageous spirit in which it was offered,
great deal will have been done to remove
from the Northern mind those chronic mis-
understandings which are the chief obstacle
to cordial restoration of the Union"
| Is it not about time that this tone of pa
tronizing pity, of sugar-coated reproach, and
of covert menace should cease? The North
ern writers and speakers who are given to
addressing counsel and suggestion to our
people, are no doubt eminently wsll-meaning
in what they say.
So, apparently, were Jobs comforters. And
| in like manner were they prominently wise
and prominently righteous in their own con-
ceits. And in like manner did they assume
that their afflicted neighbor was somehow, ac-
countable for his extreme accumulation of
1nisfortunes and sufferings. But Job knew
better; and, patient as he was, he Indignantly
rejected coincidence which was made the
cloak of gratuitous aud unworthy imputa-
tions. Enormous havo boon the drafts
heretofore drawn upon Southern patience,
and as regularly paid, we of the South do not
pretend to have larger fund Of that virtue
than was possessed by the man of Uz.
| Nevertheless, we freely allow that these
Northern friends in question are great givers of
advice; and we courteously acknowledge the
copious stream of this sort of bounty which
flows through the speech of Mr.. Adams. But,
at the same time, we submit, with all defer
ence to this distinguished gentleman, and to
the World which awaits with SO much solicit
tude thereception which the Southern press
will give his speech, that advice at this mo-
ment is about the last thing which our case
calls for. We have been deluged with advice.
Clouds of counselors for nearly four years
have darkened our horizon and eclipsed our
skies; but all the advice which they have
rained upon us could not contribute one drop
to replenish our poverty. In saddest truth,
and without arrogance be it spoken, we needed
not advice from any Northern source to warn
us against our deficiencies and failings what
ever these were, We knew them well enough.
We needed it not to urge US and guide US in
the course of peace, and safety. and prosperity;
for no eyes looked more keenly and yearningly
than ours, for every avenue leading in
that direction. All that we needed, all
that we asked, from that source, was the
frank extension of a friendly hand, in token
of generous confidence in the sincerity of
the efforts which we were making to help
ourselves, without prejudice to the interests
of any, but with advantage to the welfare of
the whole country.
But the friendly hand was not thus ex-
tended, and the chief purpose of Mr.. Adams's
speech, as it would seem, was to tell US that
confidence has not yet taken the place
of suspicion in the Northern heart that, a
plant of slow growth everywhere, it is
especially SO in that brackish soil, amidst an
atmosphere replete with hostile elements;
that, whether we have deserved it or not, it
remains yet for us to gain it; and that we
must not abandon our efforts to win that coy
and reconcile prize, since to despair of it
would be simply suicidal
Well, there is nothing particularly striking
or novel in all this; and, while we agree with
the World that it becomes us to accept it
" in the friendly and courageous spirit in
which it was offered, we fail to see what pro-
gress we shall make, by so doing, in remov-
ing Z" from the Northern mind those chronic
misunderstanding which are the chief OBJ
stacle to a cordial restoration of the Union"
Bitter experience is forcing us to the con-
clusion that such "chronic misunderstand-
ings" as exist in the Northern mind keep
their place there because they are assiduously
cherished, and that they are likely to stick
there, let us say or do what we will, until
they die out of their own accord, or until
thunder blights them or earthquake dislodges
them.
And this brings US back to the protest
against the tone in which the speech of Mr..
Adams is pressed upon our consideration.
We are to accept it sin friendly and courage
Gus spirit" under penalty. If we fail to do
so, we will promote certain chronic mis-
understandings which have done us vast
evil and kept the Union disrupted. What
an example of "friendly and courageous
spirit would be an acceptance extorted by
such an argument
There has been too much of this. 1t has
done anything but tend to frank and full
understanding between the Northern people
and the Southern people. 1t is time that
journalists and orators of the North should
stop talking to us, or about us, as if we were
set of hayward children put upon their good
behavior, and required to mollify. by looking
prim and demure, some sour and crusty STEP
mother to the point of giving few cakes or
sugar-plums.
We do not pretend to be impeccable or in
fallible. If We have committed grave faults |
and mistakes, we know it as well as you do |
We only ask that you will not place us either |
below or above the plane of ordinary hu- |
manity-that you will not make US exceptions |
to the rules of common sense and to the re-
cognized maxims of craftsmanship. We only |
claim to be dealt with as men-as men who |
are your equals in all the elements of the |
highest type of manhood, in all the attributes