The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1868-07-29
Carnet-Bag Legislators.
the National Intelligencer.l

CaIpeL-baS Legislators.
FROM the National Intelligencer.
According to the so-called reconstruction of Con
gress twenty Senators and fifty Representatives vii
be added the dominant faction, which had been pre-
viousy strengthened by the admission of States lik
Nebraska and Nevada, without ordinary population
and only for the purpose OF securing the necessar.
twohirds vote to the veto of the President
These two States literally manufactured to order
and rushed in without decency right, as is pro
posed to be done with Colorado, and without al
lowing the people pass upon the constitution. VIVA
Radicasm for State constitutions, when it tram
Piles under foot the supreme law of the land and ad
mts that all its legislation is tout side that nstru
ment?
The majority of the fabricated Senators and mem
bers from the reconstructed States represent
part of the population They adventures attached
to the army and freedmens bureau, who went to the
South to prey upon the msfortunes of that afflicted
people, and to profit by the disorder which their pres
ence helped to create. They do not represent the
poor negroes who driven to the polls like herds
of cattle and with about much appreciation of the
elective franchise the beasts of the forest They do
not even claim to speak for the white people,
whom nine out of ten of them will never dare to show
their faces again as soon as the military despotsm and
corrupt freedmen's bureau are withdrawn which are
the only props of their Infamous political existence
This is the sort of representation which has been
made up for the South To compare it with the old
rotten borough system Of England is to compare a
satyr with Hyperion With all the faults of the latter
it had one merit which is not pretended to exist in
this case The representatives at least respecta
BILE. They we're Englishmen =" to the manor born y
and not needy and seedy oiceseebers without char
acter or condition, as these carpetbaggers are who
followed the army like vultures, and who have done
nothing but victimse and fleece the communities
where they squatted for subsistence.
There is serious phase about this matter, which
may well claim the most earnest attention These
Tvs nd Itv bo have
thus been brought into Congress by fraud and force
and in defiance of the declarations of the very men
who have now I" reconstructed them will hold the
balance of power in legislation. Without any stake
themselves and with ne form of responsibility to con-
stuents, they come here with the power, not only to
legslae for great national interests, but in fact with
the control of legislation in their hands Twenty Sen
ators, chosen by the freedmens bureau and few
traps, may negative the votes of New fcrK, Pennsyl-
vania, Ohio Indiana, Illinois, New Jersey, Michigan,
Minnesota, California and Maine. They have no in
terest to protect but their own. They represent moth
ing but themselves. They are mere dregs thrown to
the surface by violent fermentation who, by nat
ural law, will settle to the bottom as soon as the dis
turbng cause disappears. The precarious tenure of
their appointments, and the certainty that they will
be revoked whenever the people speak for them
Selves render them necessarily Indifferent to oblipa
tions which would bind representative men, if they
had the other qualities which even their assurance has
not yet ventured to claim.
practical idea of the moral worth of this class of
men may be formed from the experience of the car
petbag delegates who attended the Chicago conven-
ton from the South. They offered themselves openly
for sale to the highest bidder and it is said the dele
cation from Louisiana purchased for three differ
ent candidates. It is notorious that many of them
finally sold for their hotel bills and travelling ex-
penses These facts ndisputable and are derived
from the most reliable Radical sources and most of
them have been published in leading Radical journals
IIaS1 uynrn ynpthy
Senators and mem ers who to figure here and it
is not difficult to estimate the commercial value of the
same article by the prices which recently ruled at
Chicago 1t is saddenng spectacle to see our repre-
sentative system dsfgured in the worlds estimation
and disgraced in by such perverson as this
for partisan purpose Well may men doubt about
the permanence of free institutions, when the worst
appliances of despotism and the most degraded nstru
ments OF barbarism employ to carry out the ends
ola party protesting to be republican,"
The Radicals were exclusively responsible for egis-
laon heretofore, in consequence of their overwhelm-
ing maorities, obtained by the most Ubiquitous means
Now they have assumed additional responsibility
and will be held to strict for the twenty Sena
tors and fifty Representatives whom they have intro.
duced into Congress, to Increase the burthens of the
Northern taxpayer, to vote for reputation in every
form that may be presented, and to control legislation
In the interest OF corrupt corporations and unscrupu
lous monopolies. We undertake TO say that this is
the dearest acquisition yet made and that the people
before long will cry out for the expulsion of every
carpetbag adventurer who has been brought here to
augment the power of Radcasm at the cost of every
material interest," and to put in peril the stability of
his Government Should the precedent be &C.
what security would there be left for in
tutons like ourss 1t is bad imitation of the con-
ttutonal monarchies of Europe where the sovereign
the number of peers in the Senate at WILL in
order to strengthen failing ministry against the pop
liar will. Radcaism orders representation made for
m CO tran ITO to p6c.
md the tools of this tyranny called Senators and