The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-06-14
PREJUDGMENr.

than an INDECENT capricious, or malicious
fancy IN the masquerade of reason. 1t is, in
short, prejudgment, which, always wrong in
motive, is never right, except by accident, in
point of fact If the same practice were pur-
sued in courts Of law, the case would be de-
eided, the claim in dispute rejected or con-
coded, the accused convicted or acquitted,
and investigation and argument would take
| place afterwards. If the same practice were
! pursued in the conduct of public affairs, poll
| eles would be adopted and laws would be made
IN accordance with state of things arbitrarily
assumed to exist; and if the actual facts of
experience should prove to be utterly at vari-
ance with the assumption-why so much the
worse for the facts and for the country And
this is precisely what is witnessed in the
United States, under government which has
degenerated into an organized expression of
political fallacy, fanatical sentiment, and party
selfshness and rancor. Yet people can no
more afford to have a government which uni
fOrmly prejudges in its legislation, than they
could afford to have judiciary which should
uniformly PREJUDICE in its decisions. Such a
government, if not reformed, must end in an
archy as certainly as such judiciary, if not
reformed, would end in judicial nihilism.
The most signal prejudgment of modern
times was that which became the moral and
theological basis of the sectional hostility that
eliminated in the late war. Nor has blood
so far washed out its gloomy colors, OF the
tide of time and change so far dissolved its
cruel delusions, as to prevent it from forming
at this moment the fundamental standpoint
of the dominant party in the country And
OF all who assisted in imparting to it warmth,
vividness, tenacity and aggressive activity,
none contributed more than Mrs. Harriet
Beecher Stowe in her once celebrated book,
"Uncle Toms Cabin" She was not content
to let the pictures which she there drew of
life, character and incident in the South take |
their place simply as Imaginative sketches |
mongother literary fctions of the day. Had |
she done so, there would have been no more |
reason for accepting her account of Iegare |
and the "Uncle Tom" family as universally |
true Of Southern slaves and masters. than
there would have been for accepting Dickens's
account of Squeers and the boys of Dotheboys
Hall as universally true of English teachers
and pupils And though she might have
greatly exaggerated, that would have been
excusable under the literary canon
which allows the novelist such lati-
tude of exaggeration as may not
go beyond even rare and exceptional posi-
bility. But Mrs. Stowe and her friends did
their utmost to impress her descriptions in
"Uncle Toms Cabin" upon the public
fbrOr1crbout fna ur,,ll - u,
torical truth, and as exhibiting substantial
ground of appeal for political justice against
fsgrant wrong on the part of whole people
universally stepped in brutality, sensuality
and cruelty. 1t was upon this theory of the
work that she obtained the repute of a pre-
cious apostle of the Abolition propaganda,
and presented herself as a lioness before
-->''--'-o-- '.s'I1l44NAS I4tIIVI,O. 49, -
TINS theory that eredulous readers of the
book-and they were millions-came to look
upon Southerner as something more mon
strous and abhorrent than Saracen or Turk
in the dark ages to the Christians of
Western Europe. And it was upon this
theory that the "irrepressible conflict" was
organized, firstas a political, next as a bel
hgerent fact; and then spread carnage and
devastation over fourteen States, annihilatinp
the accumulated wealth OF half a century. de-
Stroylng the happiness of a generation, dislo-
catlng society, shattering the basis of consti-
iutional government, sweeping away the
and muniments of liberty.
But suppose the theory were wrong. how
great would be the responsibility of Mrs.
stowe, as the author of the book in question:
{ Is appalling to think of the magnitude. t
Ihe curse OF orphan hunger the curse of
lead mans eye; the curse of despairing pa \
notlsm the curse of parents surviving their
hlldren is disconsolate sorrow; the curse of
gnorant dupes deluded to their perdition bv
loquent knaves all these curses are coneen-
rated In the responsibility which falls, by ),
orce OF inexorable logic, upon this author
nd her conductors in propagating preiudg-
tent of the South, if that preiudgment were
misJudgment. And it would appear that 1
lrs. Stowe herself now virtually confesses in
Deaklng of her experience during her resi-
ence in Florida, the gigantic Misconceptions
eouthern society which she formerly. with -
ut any personal knowledge on the subject
leulcated IN her writings. Instead of finding P,
e people OF that State brutalized by having
zen raised and educated amidst negro
avery she found them, according to the =,
afford Times, uniformly kind, courteous,
'spitable peaee-loving, law-abiding, and as
hned In living and as we'll informed and
Itlvated in mind as circumstances would
init of their being.
As regards relations to the federal govern
Rnt' she is represented as saying "The
uthern people are no more inclined to re-
It the laws, or to foster the spirit of rebel
n, than Vermont is. They desire only
ace and the restoration of the Union" OF
urse MIR. Sumner will be as ready to call -,
is withdrawing" account, as he was to,
call a very similar report of General Grant t. o
. whlte-washing document" And no ona bot
ed envy the feelings of General Grant. who. tor
partisan bidding, has swallowed his report PA