The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-10-30
THE CRISIS.

For man to give himself up 10 unscrupu-
lous Radicalism is, according TO radical
ethics, virtue enough. Nay, he is held to
abound in a virtuous supererogation sufficient
to acquit him of every crime and every wee
in the calendar which do not trench upon the
supreme obligation of loyalty TO Radicalism.
Of course it is not supposable that the same
person will at once pursue the course OF
whole. souled Radical and pay the slightest
resnect to the virtue of consistency. And, OF
course. it is perfectly natural to see the New
York Tribune and other Radical journals
bowling, in the same breath, that recent dis
turbances of the peace in the South have been
caused by the apprehension, amounting
almost to conviction, of the election of Grant,
and that the actual election of Grant will be
the signal for the complete and permanent
subsistence of ALI such disturbances. Now,
one or the other of these effects is manifestly
impossible. If the election of Grant, as q
wildly apprehended fact, could preclpitate
the popular troubles and the social conflicts
which have been recently witnessed, it is most
obvious that, for stronger reason, the ac-
complishment of the fact could do mo less
than confirm and intensity those evils. If,
on the other hand, the certainty of Grants
election would have the pacifyiug effect which
is claimed for it, the anticipation OF it as an
artrAmAly rrnhahla event would assuredly
produce decided tendency in the same
direction.
But the truth is, laying aside the discrep-
ancy Of the Radical premises, that the present
complication and Crisis in Louisiana have no
necessary connection with the issue OF the
presidential campaign They are logical incl
dents of the precarious posture in which civil
affairs were placed by the violent and spuri-
GUS reorganization of the State under the re-
construction acts. They simply testify that
the civil government thus foisted over an I'M
consenting people was essentially an abortion,
an organic impotency and predestined failure.
Destitute of the requisite resources for self.
maintenance, in palpable antagonism to pub
lie opinion, and existing unless propped by
Federal bayonets, by the sheer sufferance of a
people anxious to be lid of its presence, it
has been all along inevitable that sooner or
later if left to ITSELF it must either undergo an
extraordinary political transmutation or sink
and pass away under popular pressure. Such
| q deadlock and interregnum as the past few
days have Witnessed, were at any time liable to
occur heretofore, and would have been at any
time liable to occur hereafter, whatever the re-
suit of the presidential election. Nevertheless,
the complexion of that result will have much
to do in determining, if not finally, at least
for an indefinite period, the shape in which
this critical completely will unfold itself.
And hence, whatever measures may be taken
in respect to the actual exigency, can only be
provisional and temporary in their nature
and any person would be gravely in fault
| who should throw distractions in the way Of
expedients calculated to meet the demands Of
the case as it now stands, for no other reason
than that they did not satisfy some abstract
punctilio and comprise an exhaustive and
final solution of the problem. Our people
can not afford to be impracticably fastidious
They have too many hostages in the hands O.
| fortune to think OF spurp1ng the least of hel
favors which they can honorably accept
They are prepared to be, we doubt not, tena
cious of right and of principle, when these
are vitality at stake, to the utmost edge o
doom. But they are not, we also feel assured
so frivolous in temper and so falling to theI
responsibilities, as to be disposed to trif'
with opportunity in the gravest of emergen
cies, or to Justify such conduct on the part o
agents and representatives.