New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-08-16
White and Black in Louisiana.

The folly of the course of the white ma
tives of Louisiana, in keeping up the agita-
ton over the trace issue" daily receives
fresh illustration. 1t is certain that moth
ing but sound and active commercial
policy can save the State from utter ruin;
yet Conservatives and Republicans sit with
folded hands, in an attitude of intense sus-
pense, each party accusing the other of
hurrying the common wealth, by fatal per-
sistence in useless quarrel, to it's doom.
The sound sense of business men in New
Orleans and the other principal towns of
the State is doubtless opposed to the reck
less conduct Of the ''agltators," who declare
that they mean, at any COST to crowd the ne.
gro out of all the avenues Of trade and poll
tics; but the voice OF wisdom is not heard
above the camor ofthe mob. Railway invest
Ors who have unlimited confidence in the ca
pacity of the State tor a gigantic material
development, if its people would all unite
in genuine effort to develop it, are de-
tered by the perturbed condition of local
politics from making favorable recommend
ations to the capitalists whom they repre-
sent. New Orleans is daily losing trade
because the white people OF this State can
not spare the time to look into the trans.
portatiOn question, SO pre-Occupied are
they with the invention of measures to pre-
vent negroes from drinking at the same
soda fountains with whites. They even ne
SitCt 10 Duuu Ju0 TdllToduS Uy WHICH UQ0
cotton and grain of Northern Louisiana
and certain sections OF Texas can be
brought to the Crescent City, and EN- bark
ed for Liverpool in two days, instead of
being sent out as is now the case, north
ward hundreds CT miles to st. Louis, and
thence down the Mississippi to New Or
leans.
1t is true that the Conservatives have
received severe prOvocatiOn. and that the
ar:f .o,<
have been in power has inclined them to be
somewhat suspicious of measures for de-
velOping the State. No one doubts that the
whites have been subjected to tyranny.
But that does not justify them in carrying
out a vindictive policy. The mass of the
negroes robbed and tyrannized because they
We're ignorant and degraded. The severe
criticisms which they have received at the
hands of Northern Republicans have shown
them the folly of this course. They have
been frankly told that it is their duty to
deal justly by their old masters, and to de-
sert the rascals who have used their votes
for base ends. The negroes know perfectly
we'll that their presence in Louisiana is
necessary to its material prosperity; that
they must till it's soil and reap its har-
vests, just as they recognize that the whites
must conduct its trade; and they are there
fore but little alarmed at the efforts to drive
them away now in progress. But they will
not offer their hands to the white man SO
long as he shakes his fist in their faces.
Noblesse Obige. Let the superior race show
it's generosity by forgiving the negro for the
wrong he has done, on one condition, VIZ:
That he shall heartily assist in rebuilding
the States fallen fortunes. Ii this attempt
at compromise could be made in q proper
spirit. the negro would fulfill the above
condition The moment the Louisiana Con-
servative says to the black Radical, 81 shall
hencefOrth always recognize you as a man,
and as entitled to a share in the State gov.
ernment," the trace issue" is gone from the
common wealth forever.
But the Louisiana Conservative will not
say those words. He refuses to see that
the real crisis in the relations between the
two races in the State is past. He shakes
his head gloomily as he talks of the civil
rights bill. Yet he has already seen that
the enforcement of civil rights is not 80
dreadful thing as he fancied. Governor
Kellogg bOasted the other day to a North
ern visitor that she had a better civil rights
law" now than any Congress is likely to
pass. Under this law, in full operation ia
the State, the Conservative must have per-
ceived that but very small per cent of his
black fellow citizens have made themselves
really disagreeable. Out of the 364, 600
blacks in the State, how many could the
Conservative name who would have ever
thought twice about forcing themselves into
the company of whites at all, if they had
not seen that those whites practically re-
fused to recognize them as equals before the
law? Why should the Conservative refuse
to accord to them that recognition? His
obstinate refusal is doing as much to ipiure
the State as was done in the worst DAYS Of
carpet bag rule. Equality before the law
does not mean social equality in New Or.
leans any more than in New York. What