The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-10-02

Strangely enough, the CRESCENT pays
the poor comy Iment to itself OF
finding In this sentence something
exceedingly Notwithstanding, indeed,
which jars on its super. sensitive nerves. To-
stead of satisfying public curiosity as to the
manner in which the Radical Republican Is
permitted to carry off the lions share OF pro-
fits, arising from municipal printing as an as
sociate official journal, it wishes to know
whether u is meant when we say that whis-
pers are abroad of corrupt arrangements be-
tween Radical and Democratic partisans. Is
| il as Radical or Democratic partisan, or the
champion of either, that it thus persistently
interyenes in matter which affects only the
corrupt of these respective classes? 1t has
the facts before it if it condemns itself, it is
not the fault either of the public or the
Times.
The public know that by corrupt Radical
| legiaation the city is saddled with the sup
port of two official journals when 1t should
| have but one; that the city ofhcials-a ma
| jority of whom claim to be Democrats-have
permitted this enormous imposition without
| a protest, and-strangest of all-that neither
| of the papers which profit by the city patron
age, has undertaken to vindicate its own ex-
| elusive privilege, or to defend the taxpayers
| from so gross an imposition.
Under these circumstances the public have
an undoubted right not only to whisper as
they please, but to draw their own differences,
and the Times as their organ, will sustain
them. Neither the supreme dignity OF the
aristarch nor the bullying Of the bravado Will
In the least affect its course. The people are
1 tired of that oficious punctilio which won Id
attempt to stifie discussion on public ques-
TONS.
A few days ago the Times, under pretence
of drawing attention to public abuse, took
occasion to allude to the CRESCENT in such
manner as to leave the impression, on the
mind of any reasoning person, that certain
"curious whispers of arrangements between
Radical and Democratic partisans" alleged
by the Times to be in circulation, had refer
ence to the CRESCENT as party to such
arrangements. The Times declared that
these "curious whispers" required explana-
tion-a declaration which naturally seemed to
point to the CRESCENT. Before attempting,
however, to crafty the curiosity thus mani
tested, it was necessary that more explicit
statement should be made, and we therefore
requested the Times to state whether or not
it referred to this journal in its limitations of
corrupt arrangements between Radical and
| Democratic partisans. Instead of answering
this question the Times attempted to evade
the point, while at the same time
affecting an incapacity to comprehend
why the CRESCENT had deemed it
necessary to intervene in the matter
This might originally have been an in
genious device, but it has been practiced so
often that it is no longer regarded as anything
1 else than the favorite subterfuge of those who
lack the maniness to strike whilst they have
all the disposition to wound. Willing, how
ever, to give the Times an opportunity to es-
cape from the humiliation which attaches to
prevarication SO evident, we reiterated our
/ demand Tor a precise vApiivrV svavolIlo.Iv
of the meaning involved in the original para
graph. To this demand the Times replies in
ing 1t still declines to answer our reason
able question-it still prevaricates, it still
shuffies, it still equivocates. But we do not
intend to accept any such answer. Innuendo
and insinuation may be the chosen weapons
of the Times, but they are not available
in this instance. We intend that the
Times shall either answer our question or
accept all the responsibilities which attach
| to the utterance of baseless ISLANDERS and
malicious libels. If the CRESCENT were dis
| posed to follow the example of the Times, it
might refer to "curious whispers circulat-
ing in the community, of the history of a
prominent journal which had illustrated a
venal existence by changing its politics to
suit the variations of public opinion which
was alternately Radical and Conservative,
Republican and Democratic, according to the
exigencies of the moment which one day
ridiculed and denounced the worn and tattered
gray of the returning Confederate soldiers,
and the next assumed to be the representative
of ex-Confederate opinion and which was
intimately associated with the most corrupt
and infamous regime that has ever disgraced
Louisiana-the putative government invented
and established by Banks, and which even
Radicals like Durant refused to recognize
We could say these things without incurring
the guilt of libel except SO far as the magni-
tude of the libel is measured by the extent of
the truth. But, if we should say them-as
We do say them-we should declare that we
r'"anf-as we do mean-simply the New
| Orleans Times.
Democrats, register at once. Lose no time
We can and ought to register twenty-five
thousand Democratic voters in this city, if
sufficient facilities are afforded for the work.
The military aufhorities are dasarvadi, sovo..