The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1868-05-13


scale never before fell on any people. The
accumulated wealth of an hundred years
was swept away by single breath Of the
National Executive; and the South from
BEING land Of opulence, became the abode
But the loss of her property is the least
of the great Affections which have filed the
cup of the South to its brim. Her past
is strewn with the wrecks Of her former
greatness. Her present is fall of fearful
perils. Her future is dark with the gath
ering clouds of new and direr calamities.-
/" Hordes Of thiftless and INDECENT negroes
the fruit of the Freedmen's Bureau; pas
sionate almost to brutality, induced to vice
by idleness, melted to crime by evil coun-
sellers fed and clothed at the public ex-
pense, with great army for their protee
ton, roam over the land, on mission of
evil carrying dismay to the hearts of help.
less innocence, and shocking civilization
with the worst of nameless crimes.
But words after all are vain. Look at
the wan and wasted form OF the South, as
she sits in silence and sadness on the tomb
of her buried renown. Broken in spirit,
stripped OF fortune, wasted, ragged, wretch
ed and ruined, her situation invokes the
magnaaimity of kindred manhood and ap-
peals to the generous sympathy Of a noble
enemy
Shall the appeal Of the South be made
ia vain? Has she not suffered enough
Is,it not enough that her fruitful fields
have been trampled by the hoofs of the in
vader and made red aud slippery by the
blood of her sons? Is it not enough that
throughout her vast territory scarcely an
inland village has been spared from the
torch Of an infuriated soldiery? Is it not
enough that her seaport cities-the seats
of Southern civilization have been laid
in ashes, and her men of noble mould put
to the sword, until the very cutters OF their
streets ran foaming with blood unto the
sea? Is it not enough that tie proud old
Commonwealth of Virginia-the mother
of States and Of statesmen-the mother OF
Washington and Jefferson, OF Monroe and
Madison, of Patrick Henry and the Lees
and OF host of Others, whose fame is the
proudest Inheritance of the nation--should
be loaded with chains, turned away from
the door of the Union, her proud spirit
crushed and broken, and her very groan Of
agony stifed by strange bayoDets?
To the shame of christian civilization,
am compelled to answer that all this was
rot enough to satisfy the Radical majority
of the present Congress. What the wal
and their predecessors in Office had done
did not utterly stamp out the life of the
Southern States. The form and semblance
Iof free government still remained. The
people still had their State Governors and
State Courts to protect them. lfthe mili
tary upstart, who CHANGED to be in author
lty, became insufferably oppressive, they
had their appeal to the National Execu
tive. Hence that last act, brought for
ward by the present Congress, which
sweeps the Southern States out of exis
tence, and erects on theis ruins a colossa
military Imperium--a despotism more
thorough and unrestrained than that which
the Gar Of Russia Yields over PROSTATE
Poland; and more heartless than tha
which brushes bleeding Hungary under thu
heel Of the modern Nero Of Austria.
Protesting to be engaged in the work 0
reconstructing the Southern States, thu
Radical majority of Congress has actuall,
blotted them out of existence. Processing
to be in favor Of free speech and fire.
press, they have muzzled the press OF TIN
South. and silenced all freedom of discus
sion by the bayonet. Protesting to be tn
very champions of liberty, they have mad
the liberties Of the white race of the Soutl
the object of their special hate. Processing
to be the advocates of equal rights" t
all men, they have stricken down tel
States from their position Of equality" il
tie national family.
This crusade upon the liberties Of vas
empire of kindred freemen is, on the par
of the Radicals, no idle fancy, no passin
caprice, no gust of passion. It is elevate
to the dignity, and pursued with the cor
sistency, of principle of policy. tits sns
sained by the powerful energy of mad fs
naticism. and covered by the holy name
of God and Religion.
| While the great struggle between tn
North and tue South was pending, th
Radical leaders declared, under the author
itative sanction of an act of Congress
that the war was waged for no purpos
Of conquest or subjugation of the South,
but simply to maintain the Union, wit
all the ancient rights and dignities of TIA
States unimpaired." And now, as if j
| solemn mockery of this pledge, which form
ed indeed the very basis upon which til
South laid down her arms, these same me
have stripped those States of all their al
cient rights and dignities," and have +,
manded them as conquered and "subi,
gated provinces" to their chrysalis cond
ton of waste territories Of the Unite
States"
| You may search the records of histor,
from its earliest dawn to the present mt
ment, in Christian and in heathen land