The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-05-13
A CHARACTERISTIC LIBEL.


quiet which prevailed at the recent election.
ma e bad piece Of news for the New York Tri- |
hume and the like sheets. They ton9ed 10 hear Of
he cOId-bOoded massacre of hundreds Of c0ored
Uoters by The Ku Klux Khan, and 10 receive such |
accounts of the situation Of the trcOy loF whites
as would make IL evident that without carpet bag
domination sustained by federal bsyonets, those
heroic creatures Wc1d have no other alternative
than to take the first northwsrd train or send al
once for the undertaken" Tie Tribune begs 10
as sure the courteous editor of the CRESCENT that
he is quite mistaken. We do not long TO hear oil
ld-blOOded massacre, nor any other sort OF mas
saere in the South, or any here else and 10 the
matter of military government, our New Orleans
contemporary surely cannot he ignorant OF tue
fact that we have urged time and again such &C.
ton as would soonest admit OF the Withdrawal OF
every soldier now in the Southern States. But
ought the troops to be Withdrawn while widely
Influential journals boast that on such Withdrawal
whole classes of people, guilty OF no conceivable
Cffense, would be driven from the country, or
murdered il they refused TO go?
The CRESCENT has argued, with reference
to the Tribones aptitudes and hkings in the
matter of news from the South, as a person
would judge of the kind of enterprise most
congenial and most cultivated by a merchant
or farmer. If one product is seen, season
after season, monopolizing the care and the
labor of the farmer, it it is perfectly reason
able to infer that this product is his specially;
and reason compels like inference with
respect to a commodity which, year after
year, chiefly engages the capital and the
attention of the merchant. We have not
judged the Tribune dogmatically, and by no
other light than the dark lantern of a fixed
preconception, though this would have only
been retorting upon that paper its own
method of Judging the South. We saw what
went into its shop and what came out of it, and
after carefully noting the quality that pre-
vailed in these, we concluded, by fair Undue
ton, that the Tribune, in the character of
an organ of the radical reconstruction
policy, delighted to receive from the South
"sueh accounts of the situation of the trooly
loil whites as would make it evident that
without carpet-bag domination sustained by
federal bayonets, those heroic creatures would
have no other alternative than to take the
first northward train or send at once for the
undertaken" No one can read three conse-
cutive numbers of the Tribune without per-
ceiving that the whole tenor of its news and
its editorials relative TO affairs in the South,
is to create the impression that no safety ex-
lists there of either person or property for
any Northern man, unless he makes common
cause with "rebels," whoever these are, or
for any loyal man, Northern or Southern, I'M
less protected by the visible presence of fed
eral power. 1t has not been unfrequent, in
deed, to see that journal, in a gush of candor,
confessing its grateful appreciation of the par
tisan benefits resulting from this vile work of
misrepresentation carried on by itself and
other radical sheets. 1t has acknowledged,
for example, that the successes of the Republi-
can party in 1866, were mainly due to the
mastery versions, the INSCRIPTIONS and men,
dacious accounts, that is to say, given by the
Tribune and the radical press in general, of
the New Orleans July riot of that year.
Why, in the very article above quoted, and
almost in the same breath in which it denies
our assertion that it took delight in hearing
of turbulence and turbulence on the part of
Southern whites and in representing that
loyal persons are not safe among them, it
CALCULATES gross libel upon the CRESCENT
and other Southern journals, that could only
be engendered by the spirit and the policy to
which we ascribed its previous habits of cul-
mination. These are the words of this LIBEL
But ought the troops to be withdrawn while
widely influential journals boast that on such
withdrawal whole classes of people, guilty of
no conceivable offense, would be driven from
the country, or murdered, if they refused to
go" When, where, has any widely inhu-
entail journal" in the South boosted that the
withdrawal of the federal troops would be the
signal for the expulsion or murder of whole
classes of perfectly inofensiye people? Of
course this is as preposterous as it is calum-
NOUS, and as insulting to the inteli-
gence of those whom the Tribune pre-
tends to instruct as it is atrocious
towards the fame of those whom the
same paper Systematically misrepresents
This sort of calumny, however, has become
part of the stock in trade of radical journal
ism. The Tribune deems it necessary to the
success of its party that the Northern people
in general should believe the majority of
Southern whites to be incorrigible rebels and
cut threats, who must be overawed or put
under duress to give safety to peaceable and
innocent persons among them. 1t has sup
ported all the frauds and iniquities of recon-
struction on the plea of security and justice
for Union men in the South, and it has clam
ored for the conviction of the impeached
president on the ground that, should he be
acquitted, Union men would find it impossi-
bic to remain in that section. Yet every
body who wants to learn the truth regarding
the present situation here must know that
there is not in the whole countrya more law
abiding, peaceable, and forbearing people
than the Southern whites at this moment.
They never were less disposed than now to
object to the politics or the section of par
ticular individuals or of whole classes of men
living among them. When they invite immi-
grafton without respect to opinions, nativity,
or previous associations, they mean what they
say. 1t would be egregious folly for them not
to mean it. They have been unfortunate in