The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-04-14
A RADICALS VIEW OF LOUISIANA.

lately in Louisiana-perhaps is still In the
State Mr.. Medill's paper is intensely radical
on all points except the tariff, and MIR. Medili
is Radical, and, naturally takes the Radical
view of society and politics in the South. In
q recent number Of the Tribune he gives ex-
preston TO this opinion, ostensibly formed
after what he supposes to be accurate obser-
walton, and mature reflection, but really based
on that intense antagonism to the South
which influences the whole tone of Radical
thought, and which has constituted the sup
port of Radical policy during the last five
years. If Mr.. Medill had found the Southern
people to be really anxious for reconstruc-
ton of the federal Union, on fair terms; If he
had discovered them to be sincerely DESTROYS
of resuscitating their industry, and only te-
nacious of what they know to be their rights
as citizens of country which boasts of q
constitutional government, he would have
been compelled to give testimony against his
own party, and to accuse the policy which he
has so strongly supported. 1t was, there
fore, his duty to find that the
people of the South are "rebels, not
only in the partisan sense of the term,
but in thought, and feeling and intention.
1t was necessary for him to assume the Radi-
col .arannieas Sl.st-aif pUurneru men VINO
oppose the Radical party are necessarily fla
grant traitors and contumacious conspirators,
and thence to argue that the Republican
policy of coercion and repression is necessary
for the maintenance of peace and order. All
this was to be expected, simply because to
expect anything else would be to anticipate
that Radical editor would change his poll
tics to suit the testimony of facts which were
at all times before his eyes but which it had
always suited him to deny or to interpret in
Specification entirely different from their real
meaning. 1t is not surprising, therefore, that
he should reassert the absurd statement that,
at the close of the war, the Southern people
were willing to admit the justice of any sort of
treatment that the dominant party might
choose 70 inhict upon them; and that they
we're encouraged by President Johnson's
policy to hope for a re-establishment of
slavery or for compensation for their lost
property. The truth is that the Southern
people expected harsh treatment at the
hands of the Radicals, and harsh treat
ment was precisely what they received.
They never dreamed of resisting, because
resistance was demonstrated impossibility.
All that they could hope for was to maintain
portion of their rights as citizens by the aid
of the Democratic party, and by such assis-
lance as the unexpected Intervention of Presi-
dent johnson might offer to them. To say
that they ever admitted the justice of confsca-
ton laws, or of Acknowledgement, or of any
sort of punishment, is to assert that they must
have become insensible to their rights as citi-
zens and their dignity as men. Mr.. Medill
declares that the programme of the Republi-
can party inspired the Southern people with
bate and bitterness towards any Northern
man who did not unreservedly chime in with
them" Suppose, Mr.. Medill, that the case
had been reversed that your section had been
conquered; that the South had obtained con-
troll of the 90 Vernment; that she had denied
your people representation in Congress: that
she had claimed the right to confscate your
property; that she had directed military des-
potisms within your States; that she had dis
franchised your citizens in order to
give an opportunity to strangers and
Adventures, in alliance with ignorant
negroes, to take possession of all your
local offices, and to exercise all local authority
in defiance of the wishes of your people ;
would you have felt kindly toward the party,
and the men of the party who had contrived
such scheme for your humiliation? That
the South felt bitter toward the Radicals is
true and it is no less true, than natural and
| inevitable. The Radical policy was avowedly
a war policy confessedly policy devised
and enforced for the purpose of depriving the
Southern people Of the privilege of conduct
ing their own domestic affairs, and Of forcing
them to experience the power of the con-
queror and the bitterness of subjugation.
Mr. Medill has too much good sense not to
know that the fruit of such policy is sure
| to ripen into animosity and resentment But
when he declares that the Louisiana Demo.
cracy had resolved, in the event of the cleo.
ton of Seymour, to murder or Danish every
Northern Republican and to confscate his
property, he merely asserts what he considers
to be the legitimate consequence of Radical
usurpation, and of the corrupt excuses Of
Southern carpet-baggery. 1t is not true that
the people of Louisiana harbored any such
intention, in case of Seymour's election. In
deed Northern Radicals were never in such
peril, and could never, otherwise, have been
in such peril, as on the day when the news Of
Grants election extinguished the hope o.
peaceful relief from the reign of the tyrants
and usurpers. But, in order that it may bt
seen in what manner respectable Northern
Republican is driven by the inexorable logic
of facts to recognize the natural antipathy o
an outraged people, against the intrusive adj
venturers who were ruling and plunderinG
them, it is only necessary to quote the follow
ing extract from Mr.. Medill's letter
In regard to negro offce-holdng, the ex rebel
are more sensitive than about negro voting still
they declare that they prefer negro creoles to hol
office rather than carpet baggers. They entertain
an irreyocable snimosity towards carpet bal
ofice.seekers, and really cannot blame them
for it is deplorable fact that very large major