The Opelousas courier., 1871-05-13
Republican Tyranny.

From the Montreal News, hlafch 81.
It is sad commentary on Gen.
Grants Administration, that after hold
ing office as President for nearly three
years, he can find no better mode of
governing one-thild of the United States
than brute force Poland under the
Cars has now fit counterpart on this
continent; but the Poles were never
doomed to the hideous tyranny of being
placed under the hoof of freshly cman-
cipate.l negro, and all remonstrance 81
lelced by the bayonet. We had hoped
that Gen. Grant would hav. seen the
imperious necessity of healing civil dis
cord in the land, so that the. United
States could present an unbroken front
to the foe. The moral blindness of the
Radical Republicans who bounded him
on is inexplicable. Can they not read
his proclamation in the light that it will
be understood in Europe! 1t is not an
official confession that those who attack
the United States can count on active
allies throughout the United States,
endurance, will borrow the first weapon
to free themselves from oppression =?
What burlesque on principle, what
statire on the staggering pretent:ons of
Cuban liberators, and the calculated
ovations to Fenians, this murdcrous
ga ME of quartering Federal troops i'll
Southern States! There is not an edu-
Gated man in the United States who will
honestly declare that til. whites can he
held in suhiection to the blacks. We
have no prejudice against the negro: but
we must forget al that we have been
| taught, reject the evidence Of our senses,
and treat history AS a myth and a juggle.
before we can admit that under any pos
sible conditions the white race will bow
down before the negro and call him
master. Yet this is tho pith of Gen.
Grants proclamation when Invested of
official verbiage. The blood hounds of
the press are eager for the hunt: Genu-
inc aMwworms, with peace on their lips
pride in their hearts, and the lust of
power and pelf, they implore Congress
to supplement Gen. Grants decree by
legislation which can torture where the
bayonets cannot strike. We may be
asked what concern is it of ours whether
| the iron hand of despotism falls on the
South. We answer: Because it is an
outrage against civilization to degrade
free born Americans below the level of
ignorant emancipatcd serfs. Because it
| is abh0rrent to the conscience and i'll tia
grant violation of the lesson which histo-
ry teaches. How came it to pass that at
| West Point Academy the untamcable
autagonism of color cropped up, and
Gen. Grants son was foremost in assert
ing the dominance of the race! Have
the Northerns obliterated the distinction
| Hisfo a.
sociatons with the negro, while at the
South he was caressed and treated as u
petted child. The Northern would shrink
from personal contact with the negro
while at the South he belonged to the
family, and went on terms of familiarity
with the household. Southern gentlemen
greeted the negro with friendly courtesy.
There are brutes in all communities.
There may have been brutes. Wife
beaters are not extinct among the eman-
cipationists, but as q general rule, the
feelings of the nego at the South were
not wounded by an avowed repugnance
on account of color. The insedlous pol
|icy of the Radical Republicans has been
Ito build wall of blood between whites
and blacks at the South, and incite the
Halter to distrust, suspect and hate the
|Iformer. The vilest motives inspired
this policy. Radicals dreaded the influ-
|ence of old associations. They feared
that the negroes, whom they needed ~
their servile tool, would return to their
old allegiance, hence the execrable con-
Itrivance of clothing the negro with the
franchise and clothing the Senate and
Congress on the most illustrious names
lin tho South. For these reasons we de-
Eneunce Gen. Grants manifesto as an in
suit to the age and q disgrace to civili
cation. Instead of appealing to bayo'
tnets he ought to have ruled eonstitu
tionally, and proclaimed an amnesty
He oug to have restored to Southern
| whites those rights of which they have
been 60 long and so manifestly deprived
and not create an American Poland.