The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-10-23
NONSENSE.


A heap of nonsensical twaddle has been
uttered recently by some OF our contempora-
ries about the supposed damage to the Demo-
cratic cause resulting from the hasty and rash
expressions or actions of few individuals.
here and there in the South. tits atthe same
time admitted that such persons are not typi-
cal and representative, but exceptional and
eccentric; that they speak for themselves
only that nobody in his senses will hold the
Democratic party, or the Southern people,
responsible for what they do or say. Never
theless, it is gravely insisted that their ran
dom and unauthorized language and conduct
are the direful source from which spring
woful misapprehensions ia the Northern
mind with regard to the temper of the South
ern people, the meaning of the Democratic
platform, and the purpose and tendency OF
the Democratic party.
The argument, when summed up, defeats
itself To state ii plainly is to refute it.
Rational men do not make exceptions and
eccentricities the basis of universal judgments.
They do not infer, if they happen to see
white crow or black swan, that all crows are
white or that all swans are black. So, no one
who is capable of reasoning will think OF
holding the Southern people, or the Demo-
cratic party, responsible for the mad ntem-
perance, in words or deeds, Of individuals
who are not manifestly opponents of either.
Yet city contemporary has permittt d itself
r.. r,c-sradAd- to the contrary as 10
Democratic party fail in the coming eiecrIou,
l. ;,,ko
dividuals, for which the whole South will be
made responsible"
This whole theory of our relations to the
pending campaign, and of the prerequisites to
victory, is, not to mince phrases, unmitigated
and impertinent bosh. People who are not
themselves demented can always distinguish
between lunacy and nationality, between drum
kenness and sobriety. The Northern masses
are not idiots. Even the Northern readers
end disciples of the Radical press are not SO
6epraved in intellect, by cultivating preju-
dice and debauching in SANDER, as to con-
found the "intemperate madness" of few
individuals in the South with the general and
normal spirit and behavior of all Southerners
who prefer Democracy to Radcalism, and
who fail to see the beauty and righteousness
of carpet-baggery and scalawaggery. They
accept the mendacity and fallacy of their
papers about the South because they like that
sort of mental provender because they hate
the South; because they cannot forgive us
for the injury which they have already
helped to infict upon us, and therefore
want decent pretext for continuing to aid in
the perpetuation of policy whose obvious
design and tendency are to push us to the
bitterest extremity of wretchedness. But
even suppose that the Northern masses are
idiotic, or SO nearly idiotic, and so deeply
stepped in credulous animosity to the South,
as to lend instant, perfect, and unsuitable
belief to wholesale charges against us by
Radical journals, based on the exceptional
conduct or language of a few individ-
uals for whom we are not responsible.
And suppose further, as it is assumed by
the theory in question, that our success and
safety depend upon placating the insensate
dupes who believe those charges by removing
evarv-xesti0e of the facts which ara NADIA the
irrational basis of the whole accusation.
What would then be our case? Why CON-
pletely hopeless. For we never can get rid
of individual exceptions, of anomalous ex-
cesses, of eccentric impulses and extrsva-
gancies. Such things will inevitably crop
out, somehow and somewhere, "let Hercules
himself do what be may" They are incident
to all communicable human nature in all
its situations and relations And We of the
South-the strong and the weak, the sober
minded and the Incorporate, are simply
human. Let us have no more prating about
impossible conditions of success and safety.
Our salvation and triumph will come at
length, as surely as the Northern people,
under the wise and generous inculcations of
Democratic craftsmanship, will at length be
prepared to judge us with reason Invested
of evil predisposition and enlightened by
candor and magnanimity.