New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-08-22
THE RIGHT TO MIGRATE.

osopher Of Chappaqua is the least bit IN
clined to garrulity. While he was editor
of the Tribune it did not matter much
| whether he dinned into the ears OF all
able-bodied young men the imperative
duty of going West or stigmatized them
as carpet-baggers after they had fallen
into the trap. But when lac stands up be-
fore an American audience as the candl-
date for the Presidency and denies to the
American people the right to remove from
one State into any other, as their interests
or inclinations may lead them, he strikes
a blow at one of the most highly priced
. Liberties of this nation. Such speeches as
! he made at Portland on the fifteenth do
no honor to his understanding, his pa
tfiotism or his honesty. For some reason
or another, or possibly for no good reason
at all, Mr.. Greeley has bestrode the car
pet-bag hobby. He has on several occa-
sions constituted himself the judge, jury
! prosecuting attorney and witness in con-
demning what he calls "thieying carpet
baggers, without probably having very
clear perception or understanding Of the
subject that agitated him.
Mr.. Greeley should know, if he does
not, that those whom he has heard stig-
matized as carpet-baggers, are American
citizens, who are as free to leave Maine
for the purpose Of lettering their fortunes
as he is to 90 down.there and abuse them
for it. He himself, forty years ago, left
the sterile hills of New Hampshire, with
nothing but such as a cotton handkerchief
could contain, and tramped on foot through
Pennsylvania, working at his trade, and
carefully saving his earnings to carry him
out Of the country This is what is now
called carpet-baggery, According to the
theory Of those who have inspired him
with prejudice against young men who
every day follow his own example he should
have spent his weekly earnings in the vii
lage beer houses and taken nothing away.
To leave a Pennsylvania town with his
gains was, in modern parlance, to "prey
upon the vitals of the community and
suck the life blood of the people" Be
sides, his industry and close attention to
business, added to his willingness to do
his work well at low wages, naturally
threw "some native Of the soil out Of
work for the time being, who had to take
back seat, while this eminent carpet
Dagger was achieving his triumph.
The carpet-bagger is always a competi-
tor against the native in the great struggle
of life. Being without friends or family
influence, ne is compelled to be energetic
and faithful to his employer. The old cit
liens or the sons Of old citizens are apt to
depend too much upon their natural adj
yantages and too little upon personal exer-
tons; and when they fail they take it out
in grumbling at the new conner, who, they
find, has outstripped them. Were all the
young men whom Mr.. Greeley has sent
West to be disfranchised, sent out of the
several States in which they have made or
are making themselves homes and made,
as he puts it, to fold their tents and 81
lently steal away, such great and prosper
Gus commonwealths as Kansas, Iowa, Wis
consin, Illinois and Missouri would be
nearly depopulated. The brains and en-
terprise of the West as well as those of the
South have been furnished for years by
carpet-baggers. And if Mr.. Greeley had,
in the days Of his more sensible life,
asked, now and then, some Of these adven-
turous spirits to go South we would have
more occasion to be grateful to him, and
less reason to be jealous of the West, that
reaped all the advantages of the philoso-
piers good advice to young men.
But, perhaps we may be told that those
who go to settle permanently, and make
homes for themselves and children, are
not to be classed as carpet-baggers. To
which we reply that every man has the
legal and moral right to regulate such
matters according to his own fancy and
taste. If there We're no migration, or if
when q man once moved and settled, he
were compelled to remain, our whole land
would soon be cursed with commercial
and social stangation, decay and death
from dry rot. The carpet-bagger, whether
from Europe, Asia or Africa, from Port
land where Mr. Greeley made his silly
speech, New Hampshire, has own State
New Jersey, Virginia or elsewhere, is the
very life of the community in which he
appears, and the society that can not
struggle against his advantages is the very
one that most needs him. We want one
hundred thousand of them in Louisiana
to-day, and would not object to them if
they all came from New Hampshire,
especially if they could guarantee us that
they would prove to be as industrious and
thrifty as Mr.. Greeley has been for forty
years. And there would be- no objection nor
taunts, if any or all Of them got quite rich
and moved back home with all their money.
We need carpet-5aggers here to build up
this State. And we want our candidate
for the Presidency to recognize the right
Of every American citizen to claim as his
home every foot of soil over which the old
flag floats.