New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1871-05-11
Letter from Arkansas.
LITTLE Rock. April %.

LITTLE Rock, April %, 1871.
To the Editor Of the New National Era:
Although our Southern brethren and their
Northern allies have descanted eloquently and
well in regard to the corruption and extrava-
gance of the "carpet-bag and niger govern
ments' of the South yet the half has not yet
been told. While they declaim in general
terms, aud denounce in unmeasured ones yet
i cannot sec that their declarations and denun-
Citations produce any very great impression on
the public sentiment of the North. This i'll
success attribute to the fact that the items
which create the necessity for increased taxa
ton and enlarge the State debts have not been
exhibited to the view of the Northern people,
and hence they cannot have full knowledge
of their atrocity. Now, propose to show up
the Radical, carpetbag government of Arkan-
sas a little and If my facts and figures do no
convince you Northern scalawags that Dem
ocratic President ought to he elected in 1872,
you would not be convinced though one rose
from the dead. Before the war our State gov.
eminent was managed with the most admirable
economy. We started to construct railroad
from Little Rock to Memphis, and pushed il
forward with such vim and determination that
We actually completed forty five miles in twenty
years, and up till the time OF the advent of the
carpet baggers this was the only railroad in
the State. You will readily infer from the
above statement that We were too wise to allow
our State to be guilty of any such folly as
issuing bonds and taking stock in railroads
But since the carpet baggers have swarmed in
our midst they seem determined TO cut up every
plantation in the State by railroads, and are,
10 the most reckless and extravagant manner,
constructing them in every direction. Would
You believe it, sir, there is little town called
Huntsville, opposite this city, and the carpet
baggers have already got three depots there,
with trains running in on three different roads ;
and, if stop is not put to such doings before
long, there is no telling but there will be a
dozen. Then. again, these carpet-baggers,
who, as you will learn from the Tuscaloosa
Monitor and other reliable journals, are the
grandest villains that ever existed are at work
building levees, and paying for them | don t
object to the leyees being built, because they
be reclaimed and brought under cultivation ;
but why don't the unprincipled vagabonds
make the United States pay for them as we
used to do in the days of the sainted Buchanan ?
Why do they saddle the expense on us South
ern people, when they known that they have
stolen oil our niggers, and We have no niggers
to make the money for US to pay for them
withf If you had heard Squire Firstfamily
argue this matter at the last conyocation of
seonewali Jackson Post, No. 1901, of the
n. h, you would have been ready to
'sNp the hrst carpetbagger you met. But,
s.ough these things are bad enough, SO that /
can almost fancy that see your hair standing
an END at the vilainy of these rases,lv Garnet
Daggers, am not done yet
You have no idea how much monsr H.
squander on what they call their pubIc 60.
school system and they are even so s;llv .ns
wicked as TO take our taxes and souander ,ben,
in establishing schools for niggers Right here
in this city, one can scarcely walk through the