The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-03-23
THE WEST AND THE EAST.


of his administration, or that, In his ignoranc
of public affairs and party management, b
has blundered on the sure way to repel sue
|; support, or to render it nugatory. Whateve
may be the moral and intellectual strength 0
New England, the material strength of til
. West is the ultimate and essential fact B
American politics. Heretofore, by skillfull
!: awaiting herself of temporary issues, Of sec
tional ambition, of partisan resentments
New England has managed to suppress thos,
differences between the East and the Yves
which, by threatening the integrity of the Re
publicanparty, have imperiled her suprema
cy. Fortunately for her the questions which
have agitated the country since the organize
ton of the Republican party have enabled bel
to command the alliance of the West for pur
poses which, had those questions been out Of
the way. would have repealed Western sup.
port Under cover of the Union, and the
'old flag" she has been enabled to impose
| upon the country financial and commercial
| policy quite as sectional in their character as
the sectionalism of the questions growing out
of the differences between the North and the
South. And, after all, there is something
admirable in the intellectual energy and inge-
nuity which New England has manifested in
thus guiding and controlling. for her own
benefit, all the political forces of the country,
| and in binding to her intarests the more
numerically powerful, but less Intellectually
energetic, communities of the West. 1t is
impossible, however, that this process can
continue for an indefinite time. The natu-
raj repulsions between the free trade interests
of the West and the protectionist interests of
the East must become conspicuous just in
proportion as the intensity of agitation on
other questions is RENTED or modified. The
issues growing out of the war are necessarily
transient and ephemeral. One way or another
they must finally be settled /; and whether set
tied or not they must cease to operate pre-
dominantly on the public mind, as soon as
the passions and resentments which stimulate
them yield to the softening influences of
time. 1t is the policy of New England to
keep them alive; to supplement one set of sec
tional questions by another set of sectional
questions, as fast as permanent settlement
seems to come in view, in order to divert the
attention Of the country from those questions
which are really of the greatest Importance
to New England, but which the necessities of
the situation compel her to keep out of sight
Thus the fourteenth amendment was sue
ceeded by the reconstruction acts the recon-
struction acts by the candidacy of Grant the
candidacy of Grant by the fifteenth amend
ment and the attempt to reverse the SEEM
ingly completed work of reconstruction in
Georgiaand Louisiana. Unluckily, however,
for the accomplishment of New England
purposes the construction of Grants cabinet
is such as to arouse alarm throughout the
West. Grant himself is a Western man, but
he appears to have no sympathy with Western
interests or Western aspirations. If there
was any consolation in his chronic taciturnity,
and his proclaimed intention to depart from
the customs of his predecessors, it was to
be found in the hope that this change of
personal policy, on the part of the executive,
indicated a determination to emancipate
himself, and, consequently, to deliver the
party from the rule of New England poll
ticians and the control of New England ideas.
The first rough draft of the new cabinet
family outlined this hypothesis. Mr.. Stew
art, although an Eastern man, was known
to be a free-trader and Mr.. Washburne,
although deficient in mental requirements,
and reach of craftsmanship, was, at least, a
Western man. But this dim negative
of a Western policy faded away before
a positive reproduction of it could be
made; and nothing came, at last of
Grants sagacious taciturnity and Wanted |
originality, but a hasty and indecorous
surrender to the very politicians of |
whom the West is most jealous. Thus the |
shadow of New England ideas and New |
England policy is again projected far toward |
the West. In what manner the more intelli- |
gent Westerners regard this eclipse of West
srn interests is evident from the tone of the
ablest of the Western papers. The WASH
ngton correspondent of the Cincinnati Com
for instance, writes the following
lines:
With Boutwell, in the Treasury, and the House
organized by Mr.. Blaine In the interest of the New
England monopolies and Pennsy lvanis pig iron,
We of the agricultural interests of the West may
hang our barps upon the willows, and suffer out
age and wrong for the next four years. The
Vsst power of the general government will be
1fiven with merciless vigor over our PROSTATE
rsde, to enncb the already wealthy monopolists
IF New EuglaRd and Pennsylvania. Our grain
nay rot in our barns, and our sheep be killed to
ave the tallow and pelt, while our party has
Yearly two.thrds of a majority in Congress. The
ich grow richer and the poor poorer. l can tell
ny political friends at the West that the day is not
stant, when all the glories OF the late war, and
II the noble impulses IN behalf Of colored human
ly will not save us. sckened and Disguised
eople will be sorely tempted to hand the govern
lent over to the hated copperhesds.
Thus the opening of Grant administration
signalized by symptoms of revolt which
e will find the more difficult of suppression,
lasmuch as it is a revolt which threatens to
nbrace by far the stronger portion of that :
lliance which has governed the country for ..
10 last eight years. That Grant possesses
he ingenuity and the skill to deal with such !
sues no one can now pretend-that he even ..
Understands them is doubtful, since he has
aaped his course with so little regard