The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-09-06
TIE DEMAG0GUE.

the honest multitude OF the poor, not be
cause they are poor, but because they are de
!. frauded and despoiled to labor to lift up an
render strong, dignifed, virtuous and prospe
: rous depressed and wretched population, b.
: firing them with a sense of their wrongs, b,
awakening them to a consciousness of thei
: power, and by showing them how to maxi
this power effective in their own behalf-thii
is mission than which there is no purer anC
loftier in the whole sphere of secular ambi
ton, and effort, and struggle. And such was
the demagoguery of the two Grachi, OF
Hampden and Milton, and of the nobleI
spirits of the first French revolution In the
United States jefferson and Jackson were
demagogues in a worthy and estimable sense;
and there are at this day not a few uen who
are demagoguesin reality, and are only not so
in common repute because the name is now
generally employed to stigmatize a class of
political agitators who endeavor to play upon
the passions of the most ignorant and vicious
classes Of the people, from vile motives and
for pernicious purposes
This country was never so much in need of
honest, earnest, manly, brave, and we may
almost say reckless and fanatical, demagogues,
as 1t is now. Few of the leaders in the anti
Radical movement at the North have yet gone
to the height or the depth of their great argu-
ment. They have, in too many instances,
halted, hesitated, and minced phrases. when
their indictments against the Radical faction
should have been as bold as the whirlwind
as hot as the thunderbolt, and as compre-
hensive as the whole horizon They have
struck here and struck there, at this and at
that iniquity or blunder of Radical policy
and they have done so with unquestionable
dexterty and force But they have not set
before The popular mind with sufficient plain
ness and vividness the one central and mo-
mentous fact, that Radicalism has been, from
the beginning, an atrocious conspiracy against
constitutional government against the liber-
ties Of the people, and even against their
enjoyment of the meIest necessaries of animal
comfort and well-being. Their fastidious
dread of mourning the reputation of dema-
gogical agitators has, beyond doubt, much
detracted from the vehsInenoe and afsaotira-
ness of their attacks.
Meanwhile, however, there was in the
Northern press one writer who was evidently
resolved to meet the devices of Radical dem
agoguery with the weapons of stronger and
profounder demagoguery, and to oppose, if
need be, to passions stirred up by Radical
oratory and journalism other passions, more
wholesome in their tendency indeed, but even
more ferocious, unsparing and inappeasable.
This was Mark NJ. Pomeroy, of the La
Crosse, (Wis.) Democrat The immense cir
culation which he quickly obtained for his |
paper In spite of its publication in a remote |
Western town, while it was an event unpre-
eedented in journalistic history, was also a |
political sign. His establishment in New
York city of journal of like political tone.
with a prospect of corresponding success.
marks, it may be, the Inauguration of new
political epoch-an epoch in which, perhaps.
a terrible crisis, brought on and complicated
by Radical lusts and fanaticisms. will
have terrible solution under the aveneinp
strokes of popular frenzy.
The advent to New York of "Brick" Pome-
roy, as he has been Familiarity called in the
West, at the head of a metropolitan organ of
what may be distinguished as the positive
md aggressive Democracy, produced sensa-
lion which is not likely to subside as long as
present political issues are pending. His new
paper, the New York Democrat, is already a |
recognized politicalpower; but precisely what
tort OF power it seems greatly to puzzle the
politicians of both sides to make out. There
something now and then in his phraseology
hat is more American than English. and | ,
more Western than nice. Some readers are
lkely to be revolted by what they may regard
S the eoarseness of his style; others by the
reedom with which he attacks public men ,
nd public measures. But take away. if Won {
lease, the rough husk from his style. and '
on VIII lind remaining pith and pointenough a
equip half-a-dozen journalists of the hum !
rum order. And his personal denunciation c
OF no ordinary character. He is not a L
inter to pile up abusive epithets after +
be frivolous manner of Horace Gresley L
no is ready to call political opponent s
he has called Horatio Seymour" liar" 8
scoundrel," "rascal deserving the cow I,
de, simply for holding, with regard to the il
nbhc debt, to stubborn arithmetical notions o
hich Mr.. Greeley cannot argue down. When b
assails his political enemies, he makes il B
'vious that his thoughts are as hard and as fc
tier as his words. If his words scorch. It is W
cause his thoughts burn. He hates the foe Il
Ith deadly hatred, and his deadly aim is IL
cause the foe to be hated and pursued bv b,
e people with all the ferocity of revolution in
y vengeance. in
The New York Sun compares Pomeroy to h,
'eeley, saying: "Brick, like Greeley. has at
e great advantage of being in earnest He dc
derstands his own ideas. He believes in ne
EN-. Indeed, he loves them with passion. OF
MS is what he means by being red-hot. 1t es
es him great hold upon those who SYM ca
thize with him." ad
Laying aside the question of earnestness, tel
difference between the two journalists is ha
measurable. They are as rapart as man. tin
cd is from grannyhood-as the most vitu- su