The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-10-28
puBIIc OPINION AVID THE STATE GOVERN
NENT


Judging from principles which are among
the familiar axioms of statesmansn'P' e'ay
rational observer must have perceived a. 'ne
outset, the impossibility OF mparung Sell
sustaining vitality to q so-called State gov
eminent the notorious product OF fraud ana
force. and as such in open and irreconcilaoie
antaoonism to public opinion within the
limits of its pretended jurisdiction. bu'
What was plain to all right thinking people
from the beginning, the carpet-baggers and
scalawaps and their infatuated negro confed-
crates. all swelling with arrogance ana con-
ceit were perversely bent on refusing to learn
anywhere but in the school of q terrible and
hitter experience. One of the first exhloi-
tons on the part of the bogus assembly winch
performed an atrocious farce OF legisia1ion
in Mechanics Institute for upwards OF one
hundred and twenty days, was to hurl insult
and defiance at the commander OF the NTH
military district, just as though it could nave
boosted even the forms of Legislative existence
without the bayonets of the federal military
power. Subsequently, project after project
WAS started among the Radical majority OF
THAI body for organizing constabulary,
militia. or a qens ddrmerie, which should
serve as substitute for the duress OF a fede-
raj army enforcing the reconstruction acts.
But all their schemes were inevitably doomed
| 10 failure. Even had the most comprehensive,
rigorous and formidable one OF them been
adopted, the attempt to put it in operafion
would only have precipitated over the whole
| State such crisis as the Metropolitan police
abortion has brought upon this city. And
the EXPLANATION of the result would have been
the same. In short the rickety inability
which apes the functions of State govern
ment. and of which fanciful young gentle
man named Warmoth is the gubernatorial
figure head, quails and sickens whenever 1t
comes face to face with surrounding pubic
opinion. Its brazen gaze, though extraordi-
nary, has proved utterly unequal to the task
of staring down surrounding public opinion.
On the contrary, it is itself momentarily
crumbling before the dissolving glance OF
surrounding public opinion. And it is now
clear that the executive enginery of this in
competent usurpation must inevitably be
smashed wherever it may be thrust against
the sharp edge of surrounding public opinion
It is virtually confessed, indeed, by
Gov. Warmoth, that the government
which he represents is utterly In
capable of asserting its own existence,
of preserving peace and order among the
population of the State at large, or even OF
controlling the wild passions of the deluded
negroes whom he and the other members OF
the same government acknowledge as their
peculiar constituency, and whom, for partisan
purposes, they have wrought up to pitch OF
madness which is exploding ina war of races.
, The confession is needless, for it has been
, clear to everybody that they had no resources
of their own adequate to such an exigency as
, the present, and that in the absence of the
exterior military force to which they owed
their anomalous elevation, the civil authority
which they have arrogated would have nc
! , more of the elements of stability than the
. baseless fabric of vision. Then why, il
may be reasonably asked, do they not aban
don their miserable travesty of State gov
eminent, and do the frank thing, and thu
honest thing, for once, by Indicating and re
hitting the question of civil organization
and of peace and order, to whom it properl!
. and supremely concerns? Why, indeed, since
= though reduced to mere forms and shad
: ows for all useful and needful purposes
this same farce of civil administration whicl
they have been enacting is four-fold NOR
" costly TO the people than the most Legitimate
J. most efficient and most salutary government
IS would be? 1t is needless to defer the matte
If until the election in November. There is sti
n less occasion for putting it of until the II
e aupuration of another President next March
% Neither of these events will change the reli
Ie ton of the present civil authorities to II
h public opinion of the State. In the teeth
Is this public opinion, they cannot have MOI
is than a nominal existence. Sooner or late
ce whether Grant or Seymour is elected, Il
square issue must be met of martial law pu
N and simple, maintained by the federal mil
90 tary, or a civil government based on the pu
=. lie opinion of the State-a government of Il
a people, by the people and for the peopl
" The longer this issue is deferred, the mo
IN the troubles of the existing situation are
~ erayated. The men nominally in CT
10 authority are regarded, and justly SO,
40 Immediately responsible for the present d
90 plorable state of things, and they confess thu
IN total incompetency as civil functionarl
q. to apply remedy. Nevertheless, they can
ia something towards satisfactory result-tt
lie is, to get out of the way. Let them sta
not on the order of going, but go at once.
occartc that Our comm ar