The New York herald., 1868-03-22
General Hancock on Reconstruction and
the Carpet Bnggers.

General Hancock sis of opinion that the
people of Louisiana are as law-abiding and as
we'll disposed towards the Union and the con-
stitution as the people of any other State"
and believes that 'sif carpet baggers from the
North would only stay at home there would be
aquiet and unobstructed process of reconstruc-
tion." Here is testimony as to the real condi-
tion Of an unrepresented State and the spirit
of its people. Can any one impeach this wit
ness or cast o doubt on either his probity or
his knowledge9 1t is not cheap partisan
prattler whose words we quote. This sentence
is no part of harangue pumped up by some
windy orator to excite or inflame These are
the calmly uttered words of a distinguished
soldier, whose record is one of the most salts
factory and glorious in the whole history Of
the war, and whose acts in battle did more
toward saving the country than was done by
all the orators and spouters together that
now trouble the land; and this gallant, sincere
and earnest soldier was recently the Military
Governor of the State in question. He has
been on the spot many months, has observed
carefully, as was his duty, the expression and
tendency of public sentiment, and gives 1t as
his final opinion that the real trouble in the
settlement of the South lies in the conduct of
adventurers from the North, and not in the
obstinacy, cOntumacy or rebellious spirit of the
Southern people. Can all the fimsy and pre-
JUDGED party defamation Of radicals in Con-
gress weigh before the people with this single
opinion of a man the country knows?
The ''carpet baggers" are the real formida-
BILE evil. We said this as long ago as the
time when Mr.. Henry Wilson, of Massa-
chusetts, made his carpet bag campaign into
the State of Virginia, and when our cores
pondents there pointed ont the effects of that
pilgrimage, how it disorganized labor, excited
false hopes in the mind of the negro and use
lessly irritated the white man. Mr.. Wilson
was not the first, nor the worst, of the car
pet baggers; but since his campaign radical
politicians have organized regular relays of
these political missionaries and encouraged the
activity of sort of political privateering.
Regularly paid orators go from point to point
exciting the negroes to those extravagant
CiaAinc iOr SoClai cquaLty euuI aIc co uiSSuSt-
ing in all aspects. Other carpet baggers have
gone on mere fortune hunting expeditions.
Rushing down from some Northern home with
no other capital but unblushing impudence-
all their worldly wealth in carpet bag-these
fellows stop at hotel in Southern city, and
on three hours residence announce themselves
as candidates for the convention and are
elected on negro votes. 1t is of such material
in great part that the conventions are made up.
These are the men who wage war against the
resident people, and from the struggle be-
tween these bodies comes all the noise. OPP
position on the part of the Southern people
themselves is not opposition to any feasible
plan of reconstruction, nor to the will of the
Southern people; but only to those self-consti-
tuted ma gnates, the 'carpet baggers."