The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1868-06-20
What Causes the Deprc SsEOn i'm
Business.
We copy as follows from the Lancas-
tor fDo ! Into1Ji irapoor.

: we copy as fol!oWs from the Lahcas
t. ter (Pa.) Intelligencer:
There is not an honest white man il
the United States to day who is not sui
ferlng in his business from the effect o
the policy which the Radicals in Con
! gress are pursuing. This is a broa'
assertion, but it is perfectly susceptible
ofploof Take the bondholder, who i:
a privileged character His securities
are much less valuable to-day than they
. would be il peace and harmony prevailed
in the South. The mad attempt to es-
tabli>h negro supremacy in ten States
must impair the value of every class OF
United States securities, and, if persist
ed in, will inevitab] y lead to repudiatlon
in the end. The richest agricultural
section of our country lies waste. There
business enterprise of all kinds has been
killed, not by the war, for disastrous as
the effects of that were, there would have
been speedy revival of industry if a
wise and conciliatory policy had been
adopted by US at its close. We had it
in our power to repair the savages pro-
duced by years of strife-Even the re-
gions made desolate by the march Of
invading armies would ere this have
blossomed as the rose, under the FOSTER
ing care of industry stimulated by wise
enactments.
For the purpose Of maintaining their
hold on power, and of securing an op-
portunity for perpetually plundering the
public treasury, the Radicals in Congr .ss
deliberately determined to give the
governments of the Southern States into
the hands of the negroes. Perhaps we
could not have expected them to be in
fuenced by the considerations which
lead so large a majority of the Northern
white men to vote againstnegro suffrage,
but we had right to expect them to
pause before adopting policy which
was sure to produce such Il complete
arrangement of all the business interests
of the nation
That the general and great depression
in business of every kind, which pre-
walls throughout the North, is directly
traceable to the policy which has been
pursued toward the South, is no longer
questionable is everywhere freely ad-
mitted, except by the extreme Radical
papers, which are prepared to indorse
every act of the leaders of their party.
The masses begin to understand The
matter. They are sufficiently sagacious
to see at a glance that there can be no
real prosperity in our country while the
South remains in the condition to which
1t has been reduced by the reckless ac-
ton of Congress.
1t requires no great amount of wisdom
or the people to see that every branch
If Northern industry must continue to {
suffer until the shackles are removed
rom the despoiled and desolated South
Manufacturers must languisb, and the t
operators must be deprived of employ {
nent Or compelled to work for low wages q
50 long as there is no demand or very t
United one in the best market we ever !
lad. Our crippled commerce can never a
'e what it once was. while the negroes '
If the South are employed in politics. t
instead of being engaged in the cutiva, t
ion of the great staples of cotton. rice, I
obacco and sugar, which formerly fur t
ished the bulk of our exports. There +
5 no branch Of business which is not T
uffering directly and seriously from the r
fleet of the policy which he Radicals s
re pursuing towards the South. The {
eople know that, the masses feel it, and e
hey are preparing to apply the remedy "
the coming Presidential election. Not S
My do the people feel that all the best Il
1terests of the country demand the DE- o
'at of the Radical party, but every in RI
slligent man, who is engaged in an Il
onest occupation, knows that that he G.
as direct pecuniary interest in bring II
lg it about. tt