The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-04-08
HE REAL QUARREL or THE RADICAL
POLITICIANS WITH THE "Ex-RKBELs.y

One of the queerest fancies of the day is 1
the supposition by some persons that the MAJ
jority Of our white people in the South are
odious to the leading spirits of radicalism in
the North. either because Of their late unsuc-
cessful effort to throw off the yoke of the
federal government, or because Of any rebel
lious temper towards that government which
they may now feel or manifest. There is not
radical politician in the country who does
not confess in his heart that ne and his party
are vastly better off than they would have
been had the Union suffered no shock of sec
tional conflict, had no Southern State seeded,
or in any practical manner resisted federal
authority, and had no Southern community.
after subjugation by arms, incurred the sus-
picion and the fame of still cherishing, in
spite of their professed, their actual, and their
Obvious submission, contumacious and rebel
lious dispositions and desires. Phillips,
Greeley, Butler, Stevens and the rest are well
aware of the incalculable debt which the
cause of radical usurpation and revolution
owes to the South on all these accounts. But
what they hate the ex-Confederates for, what
they can never forgive them for, is that these
so-called "rebels" obstinately refuse to shape
their general behavior in such way as to
justify this appellation and to sustain the radi-
cal theory OF the actual situation. In other
words, they persistently evince, in respect to
the federal government, no other sentiments
than those of insepafable adhesion to the
Union and of implicit submission to the cen
trail authority. Such conduct, in the eyes of
the radical leaders, is perfectly hateful, ex-
tIemely alarming, and altogether insufferable.
1t is in scandalous contradiction to the
whole argument OF their reconstruction
policy, it imperils the basis of fiction on
which they have managed to secure temporary
ascendancy, and it threatens to knock the very
bottom out of their party organization. The
amount of hard lying which the perseverance
of these Southerners in lawful and peaceful
behavior imposes on radical editors aud radical
orators, is grievous and appalling Their
work is like that of Sisyphus. Their lies are
always rolling back; and they are compelled
to hoist two OF three others in place of every
one that won't stick. OF course such a pro-
cess is self-limiting. These Sisyphean falsi-
fers are, after all, merely human; they must
at length fail in their painful labor from sheer
exhaustion, and be crushed by the recoil of
their latest mendacities. Nothing at this mo
ment saves them from political disgrace and
ruin, and their party from dissolution, but
tue credulity with which the Northern mind
still receives their systematic misrepresenta-
tons of the South. This credulity declines
apace. But the New York Times. putting
the matter, supposes that there will be enough
deception left among the Northern people
with regard to political sentiments and ten
denotes at the South to secure the election
of General Grant to the presidency. That
journal, for example, says in a recent edito-
NAL
Gen. Grants election to the presidency will
begin new era in the post bettun administrs-
| ion Of our government. 1t will signalize q
marked change n The public temper. Hitherto
the dominant ieeIing Of the North has been that
| The late rebels would obtain political control in
| the South. deny the blacks all practical enjoy
ment Of their newly acquired rights aud infuse
| the ideas and aims for which they fought into the
| general conduct Of the government. This sppre-
henson will disappear with Gen. Grants election.
The Republican party. relieved Of this fear will
lose much OF its restless bitterness Feeling secure
ia the triumph OF its leading principles. 1t will be
| disposed 10 deal generously with the people Of
The Southern States, and the Southern people
themselves finding their last hope Of areactonary
| victory gone in the defeat Of the Democratic
party, will acquiesce in the nal results OF The war
| they be gan, and abandon the struggle they have
maintained so vaiDly and 80 long.
When the Times says, This apprehension
viii disappear with General Grants election"
it means that the radical role Of Justification
against the South will be played out, and that
Northern delusion regarding the South will
be dispelled. But why should it be impossi-
bic to dispel this delusion before the presi-
Dental election? Why should it be impossi-
BILE for the Republican party to deal kindly
and confdingly with the people of the South
ern States, before that event? Unquestiona-
bly,, both of these things are possible, but
neither would be expedient from the radical
standpoint. The disillusion of the Northern
mind would be fatal to Grants chances for
the presidency as the radical candidate, and
the elimination of suspicion and animos-
ity towards the South from among the
mass of Republicans would leave the radi-
cal leaders without the ghost of
basis for their party organization.
There is but one day more in which to reg
lister, and every one should avail himself of the
earliest opportunity to do 80, and not put it
off till the last moment as the Black Crook