The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-11-14

icc1cS 10 cypress PAcvo~~AS ooAAs-@>>~>~s
among the commercial classes of New Eng
land, contains these noteworthy passages:
Now that Grant il elected, all the fears the
North may have entertained ria, about the south
friendly and Of an encouraging nature. The
Norib now means business South, by the infusion
Of capital and emigration. The West must divide
its claims to- surplus population Of the Atlantic
favorable TO the South. Now that the strugR'. q
for president IL over, let by-gones be by-gop as
We believe that is prominent feeling here 10
New England. We shall be disappointed very
much IL the Grant administration acts 9th erwsse
than generously towards the entire Sou'.b. We
believe that will be strong feature Ia it, and are
quite sure New England will back up tast feeling
with actions corresponding thereto.
Let us trust that the writer is not mistaken
in supposing that the election of Grant has
dissipated whatever fears may have existed
at the South, of nature prejudicial to the
interests of either section or of both. But
there has been no real foundation for such
fears at any time heretofore. They could
have been only ignorantly deduced from the
slanderous cry, SO long kept up by Radical
journalists and orators, that there is no toler-
alton ct the South for men adhering to the
Republican party, or cherishing loyal and
Union sentiment; and, that, indeed, q North
ern man going to the South is in deadly peril
from the simple fact of being Northern
man. 1t is certainly to be hoped that those
who were so assiduous in disseminating this
nefarious falsehood as an electioneering ex-
pedient in the late campaign, viii now not
only drop it, but take some pains to repre-
sent the true state of feeling at the South
in relation to Northern visitors and set
tiers. They could do SO with perfect consis-
tency; it would be q logical sequence to one
of their favorite arguments for the election
of Grant, namely: that this event would be
the signal for peace and order everywhere,
and the announcement that Northern man,
whatever his political opinions, would be as
secure in person and property, as free in
speech and action, in Louisiana or Texas, in
Mississippi or Georgia, as in Massachusetts
or New York, in Ohio or Indiana. But exper-
fence has taught us that we might as well
look for decency in the hut of a Hottentot, or
for Christian charity and humility in the
pulpit of the Reverend Beecher or the paper
of the Reverend Newman, as to look for con-
sistency and logic among Radical journalists
and orators. They have had so much success
heretofore in playing upon credulous ignor-
ance with the cheap instrument of calumny,
that they will be as ready as ever to serve the
Radical cause by classifying the condition of
things at the South, even though they should
have to belle their own predictions as to the
magical effects to be wrought among the
Southern people by the election of Grant.
Nevertheless, the letter from the Boston
merchant above quoted would seem to indi-
cate that the election of Grant has in some
degree opened many thousand minds in the
North, heretofore darkened by prejudice and
suspicion, to a more trustful and cheerful
view of the position and estimation of North
ern men in the South. Let us then, by all
proper means take advantage of this hopeful
change. There can hardly be question that
Northern opinion in general possesses now
more receptivity to truth about the South
than it possessed during the heat of the presi-
dental contest. The time is propitious for
the work of extricating all minds at the North,
not wilfully blind, from the confusion which
the Radical press has labored to create with
regard to the Northern resident in the
South and the carpet-bag vagrant. There is
no more reason for identifying the two than
for regarding every commercial traveller as a
scoundrel because some travellers are fugitive
criminals, or for denying the chastity of every
woman because some women are open prosti-
tutes. The carpet-bagger, it is quite true, is
hated at the South with religious hatred. |
Even the negroes whom he has pretended to
befriend while deluding them to destruction,
are participating more and more in this SEN
iment.
To suppose that so profound an adherence
would be felt for man merely because he
came from the North, or from any foreign
country, to reside in the South, is simply pre-
posterous. Such thing is morally impossi-
Bile. The carpet-bagger is hated and abhor-
red because he is looked upon as q rascal, as
\ being who embodies the sum of all those
'ascalities which, in a disjointed time, are
Eager to play the part of unloosed demons in
license and plumber, in profigacy and out
age, without limit or remorse The scoun-
lrelism of the carpet-bagger is the peculiar
'roduct of no one climate or country 1t is
me of the curses OF heaven upon the human
ace. Every land is liable to the shame of
living it birth. That in this instance it visits
q In the form of flaccid carpet-bag contain
ng one paper collar and a score of incendiary
peeches, and halls for the most part from the
forth, is simply because circumstances hap
ened to favor its apparition in that shape
nd from that quarter. The devil does not
IKE the trouble to fly through the window
hen he finds the door wide open. The
outhern door, after the war, looking north
ard, was opened at a critical moment in
ighly infelicitous manner, and carpet-baggery
ltered. We know the rest But it may be
ell to mention here, as one consequence
this sinister intrusion, that the door has
nee been almost constantly closed against
e entrance of honest thrift or OF substantial
lterprise in the way of Northern immigra-
On or of Northern capital.
But all this we are told by the Boston mer- c
liant, before referred to, is to be changed, I
now that Grant is elected" nThe North" '