New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-02-18
REVILING THE PEOPLE.

The Times continues to assert that the
"REpUBLIcAN has reviled and slandered
the people of the State" The defense
against this charge might be divided into
two parts, the first of which would dis
prove the calumny by demonstrating that
the Times does not mean what it says, and
the second of which would prove that the
Times can not uphold its assertion even in
regard to what it does mean, because it
confounds the censure Of evil practices
with the abuse of the people who COM
nit such evil practices.
First, then, the REPUBLICAN can not be
truthfully said to have slandered the peo-
pie of the State, since it has never said
aught in derogation Of the negroes, who
constitute ive-eighths Of the population.
This proposition, which even the Times
will admit to be correct, negatives the as
sertion that we have ''reviled the people, ]"
and we might content ourselves with al
lowing it to suffice for an answer to the
entire calumny if We did not feel disposed
to enter into more specific defense against
the concealed Islander which the Times
takes frequent opportunity to discharge III
the name of ''the people"
When the Times charges us with
sslandering and reviling the people Of the
State, it either ignorantly or maliciously
misapplies terms and abuses honest crit
icism in a way that sense and justice
should both condemn. What it means
and what it says are SO manifestly at
variance that We can not decide whether
its suggestion emanates from wickedness
or stupidity; but we rather incline to the
belief that SANDER may be charged to the
account of malice, from the fact that it is
generally accompanied by some grovelling
allusion to private business matters that
have no connection with the subject mat
ter of it's reflections.
The REPUBLICAN has never slandered
nor reviled the people of the State. 1t
has often accused certain class Of peo-
pie in the State of having certain faults
which they should correct; of entertain
ing certain prejudices which they should
eradicate, and Of following certain follies
which they should resist as their worst
enemies. When we said to the white
people three years ago that their preju-
dice against extending the right of
suffrage to the negroes was q great error
and manifest evil, was that an abuse of
them in their individual capacity, or was
it sound corrective of profound mis-
take? When We told them that their re-
sistance to the reconstruction laws would
result disastrously to their own interests,
was that slandering and reviling them, or
was it a sound political conclusion which it
would have been we'll for them to accept
and abide by? When we told them then,
as we tell them now, that their opposition
to the public school system: because it
educates the colored as well as the white
child, was and is very wrong, is this abuse
or is it advice? When We say, day after
day, that the Democratic party is not the
organization that can benefit them the
most, is this to revile them, We should
like to ask, or is it merely the expression
of an honest opinion addressed directly to
their judgments And so on throughout
the long list of opinions that have divided
the REPUBLICAN from its contemporaries,
all being differences upon political ques
tons as between citizens, concerning the
theory upon which the government Of the
State should be run.
Instead of reviling and slandering the
people of the State, We have constantly
defended them, both against themselves
and against the treacherous friends who
have constantly essayed to abuse them by
pandering to their prejudices and errors of
judgment. And the best evidence of this
faithfulness on our part is to be found in
the fact that after three years of service in
the cause of harmony and order, the white
people have abandoned most of their fol-
les and now occupy, or pretend to oc-
cupy, tlc iutullcitl pltllclul WHICH TIE
REPUBLICAN recommended them to &C.
cupy three years ago.
What the Times meant, bat did not
have the temerity to assert, was that we
had spoken in rather plain terms Of the
people who followed its pernicious coun-
sels-accusing them of their mistakes
and lecturing them fearfully for their
oftense against good government and their
own interests. 1t misapplied the generic
term "the people" to its own followers,
and abused honest criticism by calling
good advice Islander" When such papers
forget their prejudices against fve-eighths
of the population, and strike for reform in
the name of all the people, instead of a
class, then they may essay to lecture the
REPUBLICAN,, which to-day represents a
larger constituency than all the other
papers in the city put together.
FALSE PRETENSES.