New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-10-21
"a Plain Talk,

A AnAA u S~Ahl'
Under this title the st. Louis Democrat
has the following:
Confederate soldiers, and you who bon
estly sympathized with the "lost cause ~
hear us for moment!
You were cheated by the Northern De-
moerats into a rebellion. They promised
aid which they never gave. They predicted
a success which never came.
You were cheated by them, again and
again, into renewed efforts to prolong the
war, even after your own Judgment told
you that it was impossible long to resist
the power of the nation. They promised
political reactions and victories, and you
teught on with perseverance which
should bring the blush of shame to their
cheeks, and the chill of remorse to their
hearts, for wasting the lives of men so
brave.
You were cheated, again, into resistance
to the policy of reconstruction by amend
ment of the Constitution. Democrats
pledged themselves to sustain the Presi-
dents policy. You met at Philadelphia, in
arm-iu-arm convention, and shed many
tears, while the country laughed at the
farce of Democrats pretending to repre-
sent the North. You rejected the constitu-
tional amendment and to your dismay. the
country again buried Democracy under
overwhelming majorities. Thus two years
of time were wasted which would have
done much toward restoring the South. and
the people of the Nor:h were convinced
that no loyal reconstruction was possible
but by negro suffrage.
Once moIe you have been cheated.
Northern Democrats told you that they
coeld carry the North in opposition to the
measures of reconstruction, and that Blair's
revolutionary letter would be sustained
You went home, publicly recording your
belief that the people Of the North were
ripe for revolution. What DO you thing OF
it now?
Your mistake has been in trusting those
who have politically damned themselves at
the North, and supposing that they could
speak for the Northern people. You have
learned by bitter experience that their
pledges are worthless. You are learning
now that they are equally untruthful in
facts or predictions. You have found them
faithless friends; you now find them power
less allies and worthless prophets. Their
aid is a curse; their predictions .delusion
and snare. And yet they will beg you
~ llusl llIelu SILL lOuRSIs
Infinitely better would it have been for
the southern people, infinitely better for
you, especially. if you aad ceased to rely
upon them when they first proved faithless
Ii after the war you had followed the saga
cious and truthful advice of General
Grant, who said to Governor Orr, of South
Carolina:
Have nothing to do whatever with the
Northerners who opposed the war. They
will nevel again be intrusted with power.
The more you consort with them the more
exacting the Republicans will be and ought
to be-
Or if, having tried once more their ability
to aid you in 1866, you had then turned for
advice to those who truly represent the
Northern people, you would undoubtedly
have been spared great loss, great suffer-
ing, great humiliation and great delay and
waste of precious time. You may as well
face the fact at once, that the people of
the North are firmly resolved never again
to trust power to these Northern
Trescherous to you, they
have also been treacherous to their coun-
try. Incompetent 10 serve you as friends,
they are yet more incompetent to serve or
represent an age and civilization of which
they know nothing. They are political
Bourbons, stupid beyond conception, blind
to all the tendencies and influences of the
age and capable only of pig headed. OBJ
stinate, ill-tempered, malignant and mean
to everything that they have
not brought to pass. Like an old hound, |
baying at the moon all the night long as it
sweeps onward in its majestic path, these |
can only bark at the tenden-
cies of modern civilization, and curse the |
source Of all the Light that they enjoy. No |
doubt some of you are as obstinate as |
they, and as incapable of seeing that |
the rebellion was beaten, not by a |
party nor by section, but by |
that glorious progressive civilization Of |
which free labor is a symptom. But there |
are abler and younger men among you,
who can see It, and who ought to know bet |
ter than to waste your strength in Sighting |
against the inevitable. ...
Be cheated no longer! These Democrats |
have befooled you long enough. Often |
enough have they cursed the Southern peo- |
Pile with their fatal friendship. Abjure |
their false allegiance: turn deaf ear to |
their worthless counsels; come ont like |
men for the better and brighter eiviliza- |
tion by which this country now is ruled. |
Cast aside prejudice; admit that the North |
ern Republicans have been more truthful, |
more sincere, more clear headed and mere |
capable than these snarling Copperheads. If |
you can not yet realize that they have been |
iraer friends to the much-enduring people |
of the South, you can at least see that you |
viii have to deal henceforth with them,
and not with those political fossils, as mas |
ters of the republic. Quit resistance to |
system of settlement which the honor and
power Of the nation are pledged to main
taih. Take the'facts as they are, and make
he best of them. Stop shooting or hang
ing men for believing as the people of the
North believe. Stop trying to starve or
righten people into voting against their
Rill. Step. your mad attempt to batter
1own stone walls with your heads. Accept
he inevitable election OF Grant, and "tet
rs havs peace!!" gAsasl lRs Eaal
See that your neighbOr and your neigh |