The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-10-01
BELIEVE 1T NOT.

without nealtn all pnyslcai enJoyments are
null, and without peace every interest is in
peril, every right is insecure.
Peace is the most comprehensive, and there
fore the most inestimable of earthly boons 1t
will justify any sacrifice short of humanity
abasement and moral suicide. Indeed that
is not, and cannot be, peace which requires
such sacrifice. The only true peace is that
which manhood can accept without shame,
which the public conscience can approve, and
which proclaims its presence in obvious and
substantial blessings attending it.
1t is not strange that at this moment, in the
North and in the South alike, the desire for
peace is paramount feeling with good citi-
zens, no matter what may be their abstract po-
htical persuasions. 1t is not strange that
they look favorably on whatever seems to
renee on whatever seems to make against
peace. Nor it would not be strange if, in q
time like the present, there were some minds
in which this sentiment should be INDUCED
so blindly as to become weak jnfatuation.
And here it is that the Radical leaders
pew tASh NAAOA AOPC VI SuCCCSo 4ACJ
have calculated on perverting the popular
predisposition for peace. With endless itera-
ton, they exclaim that Grants election
would mean peace, and that Seymour's cleo
ton would mean revolutionary violence and
instability. By dint of sheer persistency in
this elamor, they hope to impress many thou
sand voters, whose instincts are conservative
but whose judgments are weak, with the
belief that, somehow, under Grant as Presi-
dent, affairs would settle down to assured,
and permanent, and satisfactory conditions of
peace; but that, somehow, if Seymour be
made President, affairs will be more unset
tied than ever, that the country will heave,
and reel, and stagger as though tossed on the
pillows of an earthquake, and that, in short,
chaos will come again.
No delusion could be more terrible than
the idea that the mere accession to the presi-
dency of such a mah as Gen Grant-a man
totally without political experience, man
confessedly ignorant of the principles, the
exIedients and the modes Oh peaceful states
panshif-a man with nothing whatever to
commend him to public consideration but his
military prestige-would resolve the difficult
ties and perplexities of the existing situation,
and dissipate.the cloud of perils that darkens
the impending future.
1t is the very snare of Satan to entrap
timid hearts and confused intellects, so that
these weak natures may be used as deadly
tools in completing the ruin of the country.
We must presume that, as President,
Grant would conform to the logic of his Radi-
cal nomination and election. We must pre-
sumo that dealing, as President with affairs
in the South he would be consistent with the
attitude which he held as general-in-chief,
authorized by the reconstruction laws to
supervise the conduct of the district COM
manders.
Under the first presumption, what could he
be expected to do for the cause of peace in
the next four years, when the past four years
of Radical rule, the continuance of which
would be embodied in his presidency, have
,-~rs si-~ vvuIIvIy Ia "A aise.~~sis.-
ferment which would have resulted in the
widest sort of civil conflict and anarchy had
not the victims of Radical despotism been
beyond example with patience and
And under the second presumption, what
expedients of pacifcatory nature could
we look for from a President who had, as
general-in-chief, petted Sheridan on the back
when the latter planted his little battle
flag in Louisiana; who approved the most
outrageous acts of Sheridan, and quarreled
with President Johnson for dismissing him;
who put indignities upon the statesmanlike
and magnanimous Hancock which drove him
from the command of the fifth district; who
Sickness resistance to the writs of
the United States Judicial authority; aud who
connived with Meade in torturing witnesses
with sweat boxes and other contrivances of a
barbarous age for the purpose of extorting
testimony for partisan capital?
1t is impossible that such President, if
true to his immediate antecedents, could
establish peace for any people in whom a
Eestge of manhood and patriotism was left
His rule would be war.
Voters who relieve themselves from disa