The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1873-07-10

premisil,o that Gen. Beaureoard Is


Louisiana who are engaged in the Uni
fication movement, we have published
his Address to the people of that State
setting forth the causes that have led to
it. Gems. Harry Hays and Randall
Gibson, both of whom are native sons of
Mississippi, were the peers of Beaure-
gard as soldiers of the South In a cause
in which honors were achieved much
more dearly than in abusing the negro
and pandering to race prejudices-are
confederates of his in this Unifcation
movement. Also the Hon. Charles III.
Conrad, a man of clear head and unques-
toned integrity; Hon. j. 7. Semmes,
no less distinguished as a lawyer than a
statesman; Hon. /. n. Marks, together
with many private citizens in the various
calIings of life unknown to fame, and in
tent only on doing what they deem the
best under the circumstances in which
they are placed. Whether they have
chosen the wisest plan is not for us to de-
eide They are the best judges. We
are opposed to the intermeddling creed Of
the Puritan who claims the right to con-
troll not only his own but other peoples
affairs. We do not set ourselves up as
the critic of Messrs. Beauregard, Hays
and other citizens of Louisiana; but
we do maintain their right to determine
their course free from outside clamor, for
themselves. This much has been proven
by events that all the promises Of wise
acres that the Congressional plan of Re-
construction could be defeated by the Op-
position of the Southern whites were a
delusion and a snare; that the rejection
of the 14th amendment by the Alcorn
Legislature of this State and the Legisla-
lures of other Southern States on the
pledge of that infamous betrayer, An
drew johnson, that he would lead them
out of the wilderness into which his own
treason had betrayed them, produced
harsher measures from the conqueror,
which in turn had to be acquiesced in !;
and that the Southern whites would have
been spared many such cups of humilia-
ton and bitterness as that which has
been taken by the Louisiana Unifiers TO
avoid greater evil, if they had acted
promptly in the advice of patriots and
far-reaching men like VIM. Yerger, A.
G.. Brown, W. F. Harris, Amos 4.
Johnston, w. S. Featherston, E. C.
Walthall, J. w. G.. Watson, T. j.
Wharton, the Chalmers, and others
whose names are ON the point
of our pen, and recognized their
State governments on the plan,
harsh and ungenerous as it was, dictated
by the stronger section through their
representatives in Congress.
In connection with these observations,
we will submit the following extract from
our able cotemporary of the Natchez
Democrat Its calm and moderate tone
contrasts favorably with the froth and
fustian of some other journals that think
themselves more capable Of deciding what
is best for Louisiana Than her own wisest
and most incorruptible citizens and
bravest soldiers:
One would suppose that the patriotism.
the courage and the devotion to the South
conspicuo1sly displayed, during the war,
by sucL men as Harry Hays, Beauregard
and Randall Gibson, taken together with
the studioUsness with which all of them
have since kept aiOof from the political
wran2le for spoils, which followed the war,
their high station in private society, and
their hitherto unimpeached and unimpeach-
able integrity as business men and citizens,
would eutitie them. whenever they deliber-
ately advance views and opinions in a very
pi essing political and material emergency,
to have those views listened to with due re-
spect, at least, by all Southern people. Least
of all would one suppose that Conservative
Southern men would be the very first to fiy
IN frenzy at the tiIrOats of such men, and
accuse them of dishonesty of purpose, of
recreancy to their race, and of all base and
sordid motives, only because they have laid
down for themselves, and recommended to
their fellow citizens, a plan of political ac-
ton which does not agree with the Bour-
bonistic idea of what such action should be-
1t is this harrow minded intolerance of all
difference in poll zeal views that is at the
bottom of the unnatural disSensions of
which all cur political misfortunes are the
Legitimate fruits. The blind prejudice
which nurtares this spirit OF Intolerance is
ready to denounce every man an arrant
knaVe who seeks to do the best he can for
his distressed fellow-citZenS, the very mo-
mcnt he displays the independence OF spirit
to step out OF the old beaten Bourbon path
which leads inevitably to confusion worse
confounded, and puts himself, for his peo-
pies good, upon the only path which offers
to his mind any hope of Improvement.
Though ma1 may have grown gray in
good works and Wisdom. be strong in hon
esty, and have an honorable career of even
fifty years of Spotless integrity and unset
fshuess behind him-all these count for
nothing 1T all with him whom the blind
ptlisical prejudice OF BourbOnism wholly
pOSstsses-but that man is at once furiOusly
set upon and Villified. charged with treason
cupidIty and dishonor, the very moment he
dares to break through the trammelS of pre-
iudice and trace the path which to him
seems right and best.
And in the same spirit, though not
of the plan, is the following,
from the Corinth News:
It i'll becomes Southern papers to chime
In and endeavor 10 blacken the fair name of
Gen. Beaurtgard. We have no words of
for him. Gen. Beauregartl's !
gallant services for his country, in times.
that tried mems souls, proved him; he has
fought has tody TO The right TO haze an opinion Of
hts otca, though il may differ from that of Il
majority OF his countrymen Let ms re-
member the great deeds of our former hero
and take into consideration the peculifr !
under which he was placed |
that is Il war OF races already inaugurated |
\ State with an exhausted treasury and |
without credit; farms abandoned and GO
ing TO destruction; entire streets in New |
Orleans most totally abandoned; annual |
taxes almost equal to the value OF the pro-
perry, etc. etc. The disease was desperate, |
and required desperate RENE dies. Consider |
all these things before condemning the man |
hat in times past " e have loved TO honor.