New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-08-20
AN ANCIENT ORACLE DIsooURsEs.

Jacob Thompson, who will be remem-
bered by the students of history as Secre-
tary of the Interior under Buchanan, Is
now at White Sulphur Springs, Virginia,
or was there the other day, and fell into
the hands of a reporter. He was as
modest as ever, and insisted that he was
so much out of politics that it strained
him to talk about a subject that was so
snear and yet so far" And yet the good
old Jacob consented to make special ap-
pointment with the reporter to have
good talk, and when the hour of his tryst-
ing arrived, he was as punctual as lover
and as talkative as q hbertine. Mr..
Thompson does not know anything about
the Ku-Klux in Mississippi, which is proof
positive, if it is reliable, that he is out of
politics, and is the unfttest man in the
country to be made Secretary of the In
terror for another term. He confesses,
however, to some innocent knowledge
about vigilant committees, and that they
worked in the night, which is very good
circumstantial evidence as against the Ku-
Klux, for this is the character of that in
famous association. These vigilance COM
mittees only prosecuted bad men, says the
retired Secretary, they being the judges
and jurors as to who the bad men were,
and what constituted the vices that were
punishable with death and confagration.
Jacob never played at any of these
games himself, nor denounced them be-
cause they were reformatory processes, as
if secret trials and midnight assassina-
tons can ever be accepted by any COM
munity as promotive of justice or morality.
No, Mr.. Jacob Thompson, the state of So
ciety which allows such lessons as these
to go before the youth Of the country as
proper is not far removed from Ku-Klux
organization, even though you defend
them.
Then the venerable secretary launched
into politics, and said that Grant was sure
to be elected, because he had the game in
his own hands, which is reflection on
the American people in general. He
thought that Hoffman would make a good
run in the South, which suggests that the
Democracy of Mississippi is either indif-
ferent to the question of an honest
administration of the government, or
it is ignorant concerning the glar-
ing corruption which Hoffman and
his friends have instituted in New
York, plundering not only the treasury,
but legislating private property into the
hands of such men as Jim Fisk.
: Mr.. Thompson says he is in favor of the
new departure, not because he detests the
constitutional amendments less, but that
he loves the hopes of victory more. He
thinks the South will have nothing to say
in making the next nomination, but that
she will leave the selection of the candi-
date and the making of the platform en-
tirely to the Northern Democracy, which
is putting quite as poor an estimate upon
the Democracy of his own State as any
Republican ever did, for it quietly accuses
them of being too weak to know how to
control themselves.
Taken for all in all, then, Mr. Jacob
Thompson was neither averse to talking
politics, nor did he consider himself at
all as ignorant as he made out He keeps
pretty well posted, and he is as artful as
ever in excusing what is bad and in pipe
laying for what is worse.