Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-10-26
MIR. GREELEY ANn Ft8h OARPEF.
BAGGEskk.

In 1871 Mr.. Greeley visited the South,
taking in his route portions of Mississippi,
Louisiana and Texas, and saw for himself
how affairs had been managed by the car
pet-baggers in those States-and they were
a criterion by which to judge other States
and on his rsturn to New York be was
honored. with a grand reception, at which
he made speech, from a report of which
the following graphic and truthful picture
Of the rulers of the South is extracted:
"Well, gentlemen, the thievlng carpet
baggers are a mournful fact; they do exist
there, and | haze seen them. They are
fellows who ,crawled down South in the
track Of our armies, generally at a very safe
distance in the rear; some of them on suit
lers' wagons; some bearing cotton permits;
some Of them looAing sharply TO see what
might turn up; aud they remain there.
They at once iEgratiated themselves with
the blacks, simple, creduloUs, ignorant men,
very glad to welcome and to follow any
whites who professed to be the champions
Of their rights. Some of them got elected
Senators, others Representatives, some
sherifIs, some judges, and so on And
there they stand, in the public eye, steal
ing and plundering, many of them with
both arms around negroes, and their
hands in their pockets, seeing if they can
not pick paltry dollar out of them; and
the public looks at them, does not regard
the honest northern men, but calls every
'carpet-bagger' thief, which is not the
truth by a good deal, Butthese fellows
many of them long.faced, and with eyes
m, IN F1a.
ucation of the blacks, and for the salvation
oftheir souls. [G1eaJ laughter Let US
pray they say; but they spell pray with an
'e,' and, thus spelled, they obey the apos-
tOlic injunction to pray without ceasing.' .
"FeilOw citizens, tn time has been, and
still is, when it was psri.ous to be known
as a Republican or an A5Olitionist in the
South; but it never called the blush Of
shame to any mans cheek to be so called
until these tlIiering carpet baggers went
there-reFeI! CAPplause.l They got into
the Legislatures; tLey went TO issuing
State bones; they pretended 10 use them in
aid Of railroads and other improvements.
But the Improvements were not made, and
the bonds stuck ia the issuers' pockets.
That is the pity Of it.
"'Wen,' some say, you have just such
thieves at the Norh.' Yes, we have-too
many Of them. CApplause. But the
South was already mpoverished-was
bankTupt-githout money, without thrift,
almost without food; and these fellows went
there rObbigg and swiudling when there
was very little 10 steal, and taking the last
ten-cent shin-plaster Off of dead mems
eyes. They were recognized by the late
aristocracy not merely as thieves, but as
enemies. Says Byron's Greek minstrel,
'''A tyraut-but our masters then
Were still at leastour cOuntTymen.'
"Thus we regard the men who annually
rob us at Albany, at Trenton, and at Har-
risburg. They DO not carry their plumber
out of the State, when they get any. These
fellows do! The South was not merely
beaten in the late contest; she was pro
foundly asbonished by the result. Her peo-
pie have not fairly got over their smazement
at their defeat; and what they see of us are
these thieves, who represent the North to
their jAuGdiced vision, and, representing it,
they disgrace it, - H.s