New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-02-02

enterprise which denounced their preju-
dices would pass away. Vain and un-
healthy delusion! The REPUBLICAN, that
had only secured domicile with difficulty,
moved its quarters, and camped i'll the
very heart of its enemies. The paper that
had been derided as the antagonist Of the
people throve by the liberality of the agents
of the very people whom it had defended
and relieved. Neither the malignity OF
the Democracy nor the illiberality OF its
contemporaries had been sufficient to over
throw it. And to-day it stands as monu-
ment Of the success which an independent
newspaper can achieve when it resolutely
espouses the rights Of the people against
combinations founded in self-interest, and
based upon falsehood and prejudice.
But to the moral: We have seen the
Crescent perish away from existence be-
cause the community refused to patronize
its baneful heresies. 1t was gallant news
paper, conducted by an able, fearless and
ardent Democrat, whose personal friends
abounded from one end of the South to
the other. In other days, and as an indie
pendent paper. it had made mark that
its proprietor can we'll refer to with pride
and satisfaction; but, as the organ Of pre-
JUDGE and discomfort, its fame fell into
obscurity, and it's extinction was the right
eous Judgment of the community that it
had misled.
The Commercial Bulletin, time-honored
as the organ of the business men Of New
Orleans, having tasted the poison that
vitiated all its old impartiality and indie
pendence, withered and fell before the adj
vancing revolution which the REPUBLICAN
tediously and persistently impressed upon
its customers.
And last Of all, and greatest of the
three, the Picoyme has also surrendered
up the contest and now inhabits that
narrow tenement appointed for all the
living. From the enjoyment Of a clear in
come of seventy thousand dollars per an
mum, the first fruits of its feverish life as
an organ of hate and prejudice, our VEN
cradle contemporary has been Frustrated
by the reaction even unto death. Mad
ness ever begets momentary energy, only
to leave its patient the veriest child in
in strength. 1t is true the Picayu,le, or IA
paper Of that name, is still published in
New Orleans: it is not the same journal
that Kendall and Lumsden founded, but a
new enterprise, whose faith and fame are
to be determined hereafter. The Times
and Bee alone survive to remind us of the
season when the REPUBLICAN WAS Pariah
in the midst of the men whose interests it
was defending All it's feverish contem-
poraries Of that day have faded out of
journalism, and all the issues which they
contended for SO violently, and which were
upheld by us alone, are now the accepted
dogmas Of all men.
This has indeed been a marvellous revo-
luton. It reminds us of a fact in geog-
raphy. Away up amid the mountains the
Mississippi has its source. infinitely small,
as was our beginning, but growing and
strengthening in its career until the inhos-
pitable shores of Norway are protited by
its ameliorating influence. Journalism in
New Orleans will hereafter have different
scope from that which has marred its his
tory since the advent of Slidellian De-
mocracy into the State. Partisans may
have their organs, as of old. but the peo-
pie will depend upon the great newspapers
that agitate them with the truth, and APP
peal to them with arguments founded in
reason. And as the public schools con-
vert the illiterate masses into intelligent
readers, there will arise such a spread of
knowledge and such demand for jour
nails that advertisers, instead of being the
masters, will be the friends of the fourth
estate. Then the struggles which the
REPUBLICAN underwent in the contest to
secure this altered condition Of the people
will read like an epic, and be treasured as
worthy of applause by the profession and
the people.