Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1872-01-06
REFORM.
"Too org you've let occasions pass
Which might vour State improve"

La. Democrats Carriers New Years
Address for the year 1872, furnishes
us with very appropriate text for the
further remarks npon reform, which
we make this week according to prom
Use, and whether the poet means tire
state of individuals, OF of the people of
the South at large, his words contain
in this instance certainly as mnch ifnOt
more truth than poetry. In looking
back at the course which has been
pursued, by the majority of the people
Of the South since the surrender, I'M
der Democratic promptings and policy
one is utterly amazed at the faulty
and presumption. that has been dis
played, in almost every location and
in almost every situation and occasion.
Even admitting that the South was
right, which we do not by any manner
of means, she was evidently and adj
mittedly completely subdued, and en-
tirely at the mercy of the conqueror.
What was then the policy which not
only prudence but actual necessity
dictatedi Was it not a maEful and
honest submission to the condition
which our own rashness had brought
upon us If we could under any plea
at all, claim any participation in the
government of the country, should we
not have selected as our representa-
tiyes to the State and National Legis-
latures, men who were originally OPP
posed to the policy which had ruined
us, even though irresistible circum-
stances had drawn them afterwards
into the malstroom of secessioni But
was this the general policy OF the
South after the surrender ! Was not
directly opposite one pursued on the
contrary, in the first elections that
came off, even before it was known
what course Congress would take, re.
garding reconstruction of Southern
States, or. re admission of Southern
Senators and Representatives to seats
in that bodyi Hardly a man was
elected by southern constituencies,
who had not been a Confederate Gen
eral, or Colonel, or Orator, or States
man, advocating secession.
What wonder was it then that union
men became alarmed, and said to them
selves, and each other, these people
are not conquered, only subdued for
the present, and if we admit them at
once to all their former rights and
privileges, we shall have this war to
fight over again. In excuse for the
irreparahle distress and ruin, which
their wicked ambition has brought
upon the South, Davis his Cabinet and
advisers, urged, that they never dream
ed of the magnitude the war would
assume; thus at once forcibly illnstrat-
ing their utter nncapability for the
high and responsible position which
they usnrped-for there is most likely
no neighborhood in the South which
do not produce dozens of men who
predicted all that has occurred.
We remember one such particularly,
who in answer to the boast made by
one of the party present, that one
Southerner could whip six Yankees
replied; that even if that acds so, OF
that the number was increased to six
ty instead of six, it would be the same
thing in the end, for Unnecessary, the
Union could bring their armies to tina
overwhelming preponderacy. and i
was the conviction of the suffering ant
modification that was in store for MS
as well as other reasons, which made
so many Southerners ourself in thu
number, so bitterly though unavaiIing
| " opposed to secession. True to TIN
prophecy ofthese few far seeing becaus'
cool-headed and reasoning men, al
the horrible caIamities of war in trutl
overwhelmed US.
" Rash fIuitless war for more ambition wag
ed"
And when all was lost but the hop
| that time would heal her wounds
when the occasion came when tina
healing process might have commene
ed, the sons of southern soil0 apps
Irophized in the address we have quo
ted from, not only let that occasion
4 pass them, but have since persistentl
neglecting all endeavors to heal til
wounds of war, and have omitted n
opportunity of tearing them Ope