The Van Buren press., 1871-08-01
Carpet t-Baggers.
Horace Greeley Again Speaks,
from the New York Tribune. !

against " the carpet baggers their by.
pocrisy, their venality, rapacity, etc
claimed attention. No statement of the
southern problem would be complete oil
candid which ignored this complaint
Carpet bag" villainy was often urged
as the provocation and excuse OF ku kluy
atrocity. Did such villainy exist? II
SO, what was it's nature and extent?
We answered these questions frankly
and truthfully. All those stgmatized as
" carpet baggers' are not rascals; many
of them are worthy, upright men, who
are obnoxious to the old planting aristoc,
racy and its satellites only because they
are earnest, efficient republicans, Ifthey
would support and vote the democratic
ticket they would not be accounted car.
pet. baggers at all, though fresh from
New England or Ohio. But there are
" carpet baggers" who are knaves and
hypocrites-who, making loud profes-
sions of zeal for republican ascendency
and negro enfranchisement and elevation,
are mainly intent on filling their own
pockets from the spols Of an impover-
ished, unthrifty people. And this kind
of carpet baggers have been prom-
neat and powerful in the legislatures and
the administrations Of several southern
States, rs their bloated public expendi
turc, taxation, and Indebtedness abun-
dainty and deplorably attest Such is the
naked trnth, exaggerated, very naturally.
by partisan hostility and bitterness, but
had enough when reduced to its real di-
mensions. This rapacity has embttered
the ex-rebcls, who were bitter enough al
ready, and too willing to believe that ev-
cry republican was Of course O canting
knave. 1t has alieuatcd and repeled
many who would have been republicans
ere this had the new State governments
been thoroughly upright and frugal, as it
was imperative, on many accounts, that
they should have been. 1t has iinpeded
reconstruction, and in this day the chief
impedment to the triumph of republican
principles at the south. So we said in
substance in our Lincoln Hall speech,
and every intelligent person in the recon.
structcd States knows it to be substially
true.
Dlr. Greeley has been accused by jour
nails of his party Of consorting with dem
ocrats during his southern trip, and tax
ing his character Of the carpet baggers
from them But the force Of his state
ments cannot be broken by such subter-
fuge. He asserts in the following pass
age that they rest mainly upon republican
authority:
Those journals have unanimously as
sumcd that we derived our impressions
Of the thieving arpet-baggers from dem
ocratic sources, and explain them by the
alleged fact that we mainly associated
with democrats while in the south. Now
it is the simple truth that our worst i'm
pressons of that sort of "carpet bag.
gers were made by the statements not
Of democrats at all, but ofzealous repuh-
licans. One Of them Was himself a re-
cent cmigrant from Illinois, who never
voted any other than the republican tick
ct, but who went south to plant cotton,
and declared himself nearly ruined by
the heavy taxes imposed on his p!anta-
ton by the pet-baggers, " who by
the negroes, ruled and robbed
his county, continually putting up swim
ding jobs of bridge building, etc, to fll
their own pockets. Another was our
f,end Of many years who last fall head
cd the republican State ticket in louisa
ma, and was elected by an overwhelming
majority. We take the liberty Of indca-
ting him without asking leave. because
the fact that he is making q determined
fight as auditor against the robbers who
would gladly ruin the credit as they have
absorbed the funds Of the State, is so
widely known that he cannot if he would
conceal truth that he is the natural enemy
OF thieves. So in Texas, we heard more
to the prejudice Of rascally carpet-hag.
gers from republicans than democrats.
Had we heard nothing at all, the public
records and financial exhibits of several
southern States bear testimony that eau
not be misunderstood nor explained
away.
Mr.. Greeley turns upon his wincing
carpet, bag assailants with this apt anec'
dotc
The gross perversions and angry criti-
cisms Of certain southern republican
Journals reminds us Of an anecdote: The
eccentric Lorenzo Dow was once ap
preaching place where he had an ap-
pointmcnt to preach, when a stranger
complained to him that his watch had
been stolen from under his pillow the
night before. Dow assured the victim
that his watch would be returned, and,
picking up a boulder that weighed a
pound or so, hid it under his cloak and
entered the pulpit. After preaching zeal
ously for half an hour or so, he sudden
" stopped, and exclaimed, "a man s
watch was stolen in this neighborhood
last night, and the thief is now in this
house. shall hit him with this stone y
He made ieint Of throwing it, and one
of the audience ducked his head. He was
instantly seized, searched, and the stolen
watch found in one OF his pockets.
Are there not too many heads ducking
in Difference to our denunciation OF
"thieving carpet baggers "
rF Somebody in Maine has presented
- C.a,t nth pnw patpnt saw