The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-06-26
RENTING STATE ArrAIRs TO rHEsrATEs

hEHlIIlHd 0lA4G hEE ia - -
We appreciate the earnestness with which
the Bee, in an able editorial on Its French
side. deprecates certain unwelcome conclu-
sions involved in recent remarks by the CREs-
CENT on the subject of accomplished facts,
viewed in their practical relations to conser-
yatiye interests in the South and to the creed
and policy of the Democratic party. Our con-
temporary cannot deplore more deeply than
we do state of things which present neces-
sity forces upon the acceptance of our people;
it cannot execrate more cordially than we do
the iniquitous expedients employed to pro-
duce this state of things by the central gov
eminent in the hands Of tyrannical and I'M
scrupulous faction. If there is any difference
between the Bee and the CRESCENT, they diff
fer only about the extent to which it is neces-
sary for our people to find in facts as they are
a basis on which to Improve their present
situation and to work for wholesome changes
in the future. And here we would remark
that our contemporary oyerstates our position
when it says We are not for our part, pre-
pared, as our confrere, to accept as an accom-
plished and irresistible fact, the establish
ment of the Africano-radical regime, for, if it
were, what would be the use of continuing the
contest? To wrest the offices from the
radicals would be an object of very small
value, and there might be found more
advantages in submitting to the discretion
of Grant and the carpet-baggers, who, once
in power, would be disposed to act gen.
erous part if no effort were made to dis
possess them" The CRESCENT has never ad-
yised the acceptance of negro-radical suprem-
acy in the Southern States as an irresistible
fact" On the contrary, the object of all its
inquiries and reflections regarding the actual
condition of affairs, has been to ascertain how
far existing facts, which admit at this time Of
no question or opposition, may be used by
our people, acting as citizens of their respec-
tive States, for eventually Kidding those States
of pestiferous carpet-bag usurpations, main
tanned through white disfranchisement on the
one hand, and through the votes of ignorant
and deluded negroes on the other. The Bee
is not the first Southern paper which has
threatened to resent the failure of the New
York convention to commit the Democratic
party to the policy Of undoing at once and
forcibly, by federal power, all the odious fea-
lures of the reconstruction effected at the
South by federal legislation enforced by fede-
raj bayonets. Such feeling is quite natu-
raj. 1t may well be hard for Southern
ers, chatting at the monstrous creations
which the government of the United States
has set up in the South, to renounce the
hope that the election of a Democratic
President would be the signal for the whole
| fabric of radical reconstruction TO crumble anC
| for an opposite system to rise in its stead
| The thought is almost intolerable. But if il
is inevitable, to try to blink or evade it il
worse than useless. The part of wisdom and
| of manhood is to face it, and to comprehend
| it in its utmost and bitterest significance
the sooner the better. To go to the bottom
of an unfortunate truth is the way to Obtain
firm footing for hope and consolation. Thu
threat of resenting the necessity which com
pels temporary submission to negro radica
regime, by aiding to sustain and perpetual
such a regime, is simply an extravagant gusl
| OF disappointment The sentiment is suicidal
A sensible and energetic planter on the Mis-
sissippi coast, when a crevasse occurs doe
not think of saving his family and his prop
erty from its ravages by drowning himself il
its flood.
We have heretofore indicated the reason
| which have forced us to conclude that i
would be futile to look to the Democrat
party for direct relief by federal action, if thi
party should elect the next president. w
will now merely ask, for the sake of illustra
ton, what more could be done by anothe
President, opposed by the same Congress, to
wards demolishing the work of radical recon
struction, than President johnson has BEEF
able to do towards preventing its accomplish
ment? 1t would be scarcely possible to hav
President more firmly set than the presen
one against the whole policy which has al
rived at the stage of completion in Louisian
and other States, and especially against negr
suffrage as the predominating feature of il
Only minds infatuated and desperate woul
refuse to be admonished by the futility c
President Jobnson's opposition. 1t would b
a criminal encouragement of delusion to hol
out the hope that a successor could, of hin
self, put an end to the existing order of thing
in the South.
And yet it does not follow that the Demo
cratic platform ought to indorse facts of an
sort simply because they are accomplished
or that it ought to be silent on the subject {
negro suffrage. Nor does it follow that on
people would not have good grounds to hop
for wholesome change in their State affair
as a consequence of the incumbency of
Democratic President for the next four year.
The Democratic platform ought to prote!
against the imposition of negro suffrage on
State by any power except the State itself
and it ought to declare that to make, amend
or abrogate the Constitution of State is th
indefeasible right of its own people, and
them alone. Let us suppose that Presiden
committed to these principles is electe,