The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-01-11

kansas Parsons, i'll Alabama, or Hahn,
in Louisiana, got to be Governor, he
was hOOted at and quickly made to get
down, so that the Carpet-baggcr APP
peared to be the only ALTERNATIVES.
There was a general absence or sacri-
flee Of craftsmanship. The negro was
terrOrized instead Of being cOncil-
lated, so that he had to fly to the car
pct-bagger for refuge. Then came that
series of shameless combinations in
every State where unprincipled men
and advGntureTS-native and Northern
took advantage of the situation and
mastered every Commonwealth except
kentucky. C~arpet-baggery becameim-
perial and the States wasted with war,
and its demOralizatiOns were picked to
the bone, and the consequences of re-
bclliOn carried over to the second gene
ration.
AGAINST CARPET-BAGGERY, PER Sc,
there was any rising in the South;
for there is rcasOn to believe. that too
many native SOuthernerS, of wealth and
influence slIarediu the plumber Of KIM
ball, Littletield, and SOuthwOrth. In
New Orleans some of the ableSt gene
rails of the Confederate army, and some
OF the most responsible bankers, have
been all the while invisibly at the car
pet-baggers' side. The leading banker
in Atlanta said to me, I'VE all got
drunk with Kimball and are just now
getting sober. ThcrearG plenty OfpeOplc
in this town who are now foremost in
cXecrating Kimball who would cover
their faces if he should come back here
and open his books"
The organization called the KukluX.
which some have accredited to General
Forrest and some to Wade HAMPTON,
was the joint product of political fer
ment and of the instability of field la
Dor. The Southern landhOlder, under
takingto keep all his broad acres and
take the place of his OyerSpcr, was met
at the Outstart with the want of money.
indifferent business abilities, and the
~unsteadinesS OF the freedmen. The ne
gro, seeing no money for two or three
months at q time, would finally get dis
COuragcd and knock Oft, and the planter
would lind his whole crop in danger of
destruction. If he made 4 error and
his profits were consumed by some I'M
WOntCd circumstances, or he ~Squandered
the profits and did not pay his negroes
their wages, they would fly to the
squire and get Judgment upon him.
II ORIGINAL KUKLUX
conspiracy was an insane attempt to
substitute 4 secret magiStracy of mas
ter owe slave again, 81 that the laborcr
should be compelled to keep his CON
tract until the crop was gathered and
be deferred from annoying his employ
er by litigation. A Mr.. Belts, at Mont
gomcry, who isnoW a sort of seargeant-
alarms for Senator Spenser, and is IL
told me that he had been Grand CvclODs
OF the kukluX, and that its original de-
sign was to stop negroes from suing
and make them work Ott the season.
But such a conspiracy was awaited Of
by politicians, poor whites, assassins
and grOggery l~OafPrs, so that society
was brutaliZed in every direction. the
country became unsafe for man, woman
or child, and when the United States
had to interfere the carpet-baggcI's
grip was frightened, and the negpOiiated
the white man, and the consequences in
every respect We're humiliating to the
cOnspiratOrS. The track of the fugitive
kuklnX can be followed from the
sWamps of the CarOlinas to Arkansas,
The late war in Pope county was par
tIclpatGd IN by mel who had hunted
down the LOWerys III North Carolina.
NATURAL WEALTH.
Everything exists in the South which
Nto III IN EBoO w lINh IL NldlIlltu 10 De
the richest portion of the earth, IF
that section possesses a 1.-THE of the
craftsmanship which it always claimed
to have it should be able to harmonize
existing conditions; but this can not be
done by the kukluX order, by q reac-
%tiOnary spirit, by pnrblind politics, or
by u~nprincipled alliance with men like
WarmOth, or blind devotion to garru-
lOus and whimsical old fossils like A,
IL. Stephens. The principle of Justice
and the practice of patience and cheer
tnlness are the qualities required in
Southern craftsmanship. This genera
ton must be content to be poor in or
der that the next may be manly and
comfortable. To antagOnize the negro,
the better disposed Northern man, the
age and the general government is
merely to
THROW AWAY A NOBLE OPPORTUNITY
to prove the true greatness of Southern
manhood and WOmanhOod. Many gen
%eratlOns of negroes have worn the har-
ness OF slavery with patience, and there
is no righteousness in holding this Door
subject to be the cause of the disadvan-
tages which now prevail. To teach the
negro how to be citizen will be anObler
business than to ~aSseVGrate that he never
ought to have been. Perhaps the North
made a mistake in precipitating the ne
gro into the franchise, but it was u mis-
take which necessity demanded, and its
mcOnYenlences are only temporary,
The meaner class of carpet baggers are
., bound to disappear from the South, but
every Northern man who settles there
, and takes q part in public affairs to pro-
tect his property and make q career is
not a t-bagger. There have been
4 old rebel officers hOnOred with positions
\ and nobody scandalized them the plain
+ fact must be said that the freedom OF
speech and travel in the North has cath
OlOcized II society, while the South,
and especially the ladies thereof, grew
= provincial under the rigid police cOndi-
: tiOns.Of the slave period. We have in
t the North a enormous population of
= people who would be glad to escape
Y from Il rigorous climate and settle i'm
: pleasant Southern towns like Hunts
: vile, Augusta, Shreveport, and Colum-
l bia. They have n pefect right to talk
their part in politics and discussion
but the social code must relax before
t that land will ever be inviting to North,
t ern men. The enormous number Ot
people who go every winter along thu
S shores of the Gulf stream in Georgis
y and Florida complain that the hote
. rates are out of all proportion to tht
= comfort bestowed.
: FREE LABOR.
The substitution of free for ~slave-la
9 Dor may have an injurious effect on th,
sugar crop, owing to the fact tina
heavy WOOE nTTSA 10 H. - ~