The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-03-07
fERRoRs OF THE GRANT ADMINS
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Of opinion among the armed Confederates as
10 whether General Grant was, in himself,
formidable military antagonist. Criticism is
still divided on this subject and it must be
RENTED to impartial history to determine
whether, as soldier, his greatness was in
trinsic or adventurous, the result of genius or
Of accident But in the new part which he
his undertaken to play, as chief miniop- Of
the radical conspiracy, in administering the
affairs Of New Orleans, he leaves no room for
| doubt respecting either his capacity or his
achievements. Both friends and foes must
agree that his two recent movements against
| this city have eyinced in him the native pos
| session of equal courage and power to inAict
| swift and sweeping mischief on disarmed and
| helpless people who are obnoxious to the
cause which he serves. In this sphere he is
strong and terrible to degree that an army
! with banners could not surpass. For this
| species Of terror his genius is beyond ques-
ton, almost beyond comparison. His inter-
ference with our municipal affairs has spread
among property holders and city note hold
ers, among retail dry goods merchants
and retail groeers, among butchers, bakers,
confectioners, market women, and every
other peaceful and harmless class of our pop
ulation, a constellation such as 10 military
operation of his ever created among his armed
adyersaries. The city currency has performed
the Office of a thermometer in indicating pop
ular depression and distress under the terror
ism of this last phase of the reconstruction
Graniian dictatorship. The general distrust
of the competency and honesty of the NUM-
cipal regime foisted upon the city by a stroke
of the dictator al pen at Washington, took
effect upon the circulating obligations Of the
city, and they are descending to zero with
raj idity proportion ate to the degree in which
the community may despair of fitting reor-
| ganization of the city government, and of
wholesome reform of its financial policy. But
the sudden decline Of city notes is in no in
considerable measure attributable to sheer
panic-a blind, unrefecting impulse which
no facts can fully explain, which no argu-
ments can check, and which must run
| its allotted course, like other transitory de-
| liriums and frenzies. statistical exhibition
of the funded and floating debt of the city,
and Of its financial resources, would show it
to be, substantially in no worse condition in
those respects at this moment than it was
one, two, or three years ago. In regard to
some particulars, indeed, its position is i'm
proved. The amount of city money in circu-
lation now is considerably less than at the
time when Gen. Sheridan replaced the NUM-
cipal administration elected by the people
with officers Of his own appointment. In
| spite of stagnation of capital, encouragement
OF industry, and impoverishment in the sur
rounding country, the producing and tax
paying classes of the city have gradually en-
larged, and its total population is estimated
| to have increased from less than two hundred
thousand in 1850 to nearly three hundred
thousand in 1868. In political aspect, the
situation is not essentially changed from what
it was when Sheridan inaugurated congress
SIGNAL Reconstruction.
The recent orders Of General Grant are
logical incidents of the system then estab-
lished. Grant is simply doing from Washing
ton work in the radical carpet-bag interest,
which it was presumed that a district COM
mander, faithful to the intent, rather than to
the laws, of the congressional reconstruction
lists, would do on the spot, without suggestion
or direction from headquarters. While Sheri-
dan and Mower were commanders, such inter-
ference from partisan considerations was at
any moment liable to occur. And, if the
course of General Grant may allow little or
no hope for obtaining at present different
disposition of things by appealing to Wash
inn fc ~ hor okho
hand, that in his recent action with regard to
our municipal affairs, he has assumed respon-
sibility for the character and conduct of the
officials whom be has forced upon the city.
They constitute, so to speak, the body of an
administration of which he is the chief He
must shoulder whatever infamy it may incur
by profigacy and corruption. If it cause
taxation to grind the people, and the money
of the poor to shrivel to worthless rags in
their hands, upon his head will fall the male
dictions of the sufferers; and though his fame
were before as fair as an angels, the widows
tear and the orphans curse would stain and
blast it with the mark and the brand of indeli-
bic shame and immortal scorn and detesta-
ton. It, therefore, devolves upon General
Grant, if he sets any value upon his reputa-
ton for only its partisan uses, to see well to
the future proceedings of the administration
which he fastens upon this city.
For the rest, we advise our people in gen.
eral to do their utmost to overcome q ten
dency to panic, in themselves or others, in
respect to the city finances. Let them en-
deavor TO make the force of public opinion
power in the city government, no matter what
may be its political origin or complexion
Let them insist, manfulsy and earnestly. but
not boisterously and frantically, that the
mayor and council shall take measures at once
for funding the excess Of city circulation, and
for putting the city finances in definite, in
telligible ard satisfactory shape that would
restore confidence in city money and bring
it to par with greenbacks. This money
ought never to be under that par. 1t is on a
better basis than the greenbacks are on. The
aggregate debt Of which it is apart is in far
less rrOportion Ia the resources r,Iedoad 20 its