The Portland daily press., 1868-06-09
The CRrpetbag.

One of those little Republican papers that
have sprung up all over the South, with all
their wits sharpened by constant attrition
and all their antagonism aroused by constant
attack, displays at the top of the editorial
column cut representing o carpetbag where
on is printed in bold letters the word LIBER-
TY. A more concise reply to the publication
in Democratic papers of the lists represent
ing the trivial tax paid by Republican officers
elect in South Caroline. and other States
could not have been made. 1t demolishes
by its subtle suggestiveness all that has been
said or sung of the Northern adventul ersr
who without property as basis of respecta-
bility have carried democratic institutions
Southward. 1t throws down the gauntlet in
the old fight between democracy and aristoc-
racy. 1t is mistake to suppose that
fight is over. Not long ago a Southern
paper objected to the patriot nominated at
Chicago for the Vice-Presidency because he
had in early life worked at an honest and
respectable mechanical avocation. Indeed,
the fundamental idea of the Democratic
party is as grossly and irrationally anti
democratic as any that governed his late
gracious majesty, King Theodorus of Abys-
sinia. That party, poisoned by the old leaven
of the shareholders, discrminates between
those who ought and those who ought not to
vote, by reference to standard that has no
| relation whatever to that which is essential
| to the proper exercise of the right. It is
atrocious that in our Republic there should
| exist large party that places limitations upon
the franchise that would to-day, if insisted
upon by the strongest British ministry that
could be formed, drive its supporters from
power in a fortnight, though backed by the
Queen and the House of Lords. The pres
ent Tory government of Great Britain rep
resents what is assumed to be the most big
oted and deeply-rooted aristocracy in tie
world, yet you would hardly catch Disrael
| trying the "white male" dodge in his reform
| bills, which the democrats" have almost
uniformly Incorporated into their platforms
The headquarters of this aristocratic ele-
ment in American politics is still in the
South. 1t is brainless and sightess, but vio-
lent and defiant. To the assistance of the
freedmen and the white loyalsts who oppose
it comes as reinforcement-.the carpetbag
The carpetbag is not, it may be, well filled
with this worlds goods, but it is bursting
with Northern education, Northern culture,
and Northern freedom. The "carpetbaggers''
are missionaries who in few years will have
so impressed upon Southern society their own
liberal and humane spirit that the American
people will become for the first time in a
large degree homogeneous. The adherents
ofthe old regime will become first minority,
then faction and finally disappear, so that
in the end there shall be entirely rubbed out
that imaginary Mason and Dixon's line
which has divided the United States into two
hostile countries.
The carpetbag is not welcome now in the
South. 1t is emblematic of all that a South
erner hates-a reminder of defeat and hu-
initiation. The next generation will be wis
er, and realize at last the agent of their evan
gelization. The "carpetbaggers" will be a
dfferentclass Of men, too from the pioneers
who are now overrunning the South. They
now are the church militant men of war, who
can give blows as well as suffer them: men
who are not of the class that are now partic
ularly useful in the more settled and peace
full political movements of the North.
The earpetbag is great fact for the South
and all the powers of r;dcule and violent as
sail it in vain. Schools, churches and civili-
zation spring up all along the route over
which it passes, and it will be no more than
poetic justice ii in the future, in some great
| Southern town, a statue shall be erected in a
public place, representing the Northern emil
grant and his carpetbag, the latter having en-
graved upon it in bold letters the word, LIB
ERTY.