The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-07-17
RADICAL CRY AGAINST REVOLUTION.

A profoundly satirical passage in the writ
ings of Auguste Comte is that in which he
remarks that the free thinkers cry for tolera-
ton is apt to cease the moment his own opin-
ions are in the ascendant, and that the criti-
cal intellect no sooner succeeds in destroying
existing systems than it is ready to set up one
of its own on a basis of arbitrary dogmas.
This species of contradiction is exhibited by
the radicals in degree that is as ludicrous as
it is revolving when they denounce as revolu-
tonary all attempts that may be made to de-
stroy, or to materially modify, what they have
effected by sheer dint of revolutionary au-
dacity and violence. There was nothing sa-
cred to them in the Constitution upon which,
for eight years, they have been trampling, or
in the Union which, for three years, they have
kept in organized disruption, and whose
wounds, which only constitutional remedies
can heal, they insist shall be kept open and
bleeding hereafter; but they would have the
country believe that an odor of peculiar sane
tity hangs about every vile and iniquitous ex-
pedient which they have employed in sub
verting constitutional government and pre-
venting the restoration Of the constitutional
Union. They have suddenly become, pro
tdntO, the most intense conservatives; and in
this character they are quite as mischievous
as ever. Their conservatism is only revolu-
ton transmitted from the destruction Of the
right and wholesome into the perpetuation of
the wrong and peInicious. This phase of radi-
calism proves to be very congenial to the New
York Times, which pretends to see threat of
revolution in the language recently uttered by
Gen. Frank Blair regarding the reconstruc-
ton acts 1t says that 81 in nominating Frank
Blair for the Vice Presidency, the Democratic
convention have Endorsed the revolutionary
programme which he put forth the day before
it met" The only programme Endorsed by
the convention is that set forth in its platform.
And further says the Times
The alliance of Seymour, who plotted Against
the Union, with F. p. Blair, who CALAMITY fought
TO save it, would be most ineOngruOus but for the
epistle with which the latter sought TO commend
himself TO the good graces of the convention.
Nothing more revolutionary than his proposition
has appeared 1t threatens the overthrow of re-
construction, the undOi0g OF all that has been
done, and the re-establishment ia power OF the
old disloyal whites, by sheer usurpation and force.
Considering Mr.. Blairs letter in conjunction with
Mr.. Seymour's record and both with the plat
form adopted by the Convention, we must con-
clude that the position and policy of the Demo-
crazy are hostile to the peace which above all
things the country needs.
II happens that Seymour and Blair could
have been associated on the same ticket with
perfect congruity in the absence of the letter
to which the Times refers. The Union which
Gen. Blair "gallantly fought to save" was
precisely the Union which Gov. Seymour
strove, in his way-'plotted, if the Times
prefer that expression-to have perpetuated.
And what is the nature of the Revolutionary
programme" attributed to Gen. Blair? The
sum Of it is in these words ''We must
have President who will execute the will of
the people by trampling into dust the usur-
pations of Congress known as the reconstruc-
ton acts. Now there is not q lawyer in the
country who does not know that those acts
''IO -e-r1rI7otiA-,r IN Law. ond tlarn Is not
statesman in the country who does not know
that they are pernicious usurpations in in
slant fact and in imminent consequence,
and that the good of the country de-
mands that every lawful means should
be used to arrest their operation. And are
any other than lawful means proposed by
General Blair or by the Democratic party ?
Gen. Blair speaks only Of undoing through
the action of the federal government what
has been wrongfully done through the action
Of the same government. No radical, without
stultifying himself, can call that revolution
airy proposition. Gen. Grant, both before
and after his nomination by the radicals for
President, referred to the will of the people as
the CLAW of the land" which it is the supreme
duty of every public functionary to obey and
carry into effect. He of course, could not be
expected to do otherwise than to assist, in his
military capacity, in executing the will OF the
people if that will were clearly pronounced
against the further operation of the recon-
struction acts. As for Congress, that body,
in such case, would either be in sympathy
with the will Of the people and the policy OF
their President or it would be powerless to
enforce any longer system of legislation in
open and unquestioned violation of the Con-
How, then, could the event be
by lawless and revolutionary pro-
ceedings? This could happen but in one
resistance of the radical minority to
the will of the people, and to the authority of
the federal government representing that will
Such is the rebellion which the radicals
threaten in case they should be beaten in the
the presidential election, and the party thus
coming into power, the peoples party, should |
pursue the logic of its victory.