New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-09-13

The So. Louis Republican is . very dis
erect, if not at all times q strictly patriotic
paper, Its thirty or forty years of Demo.
cratic service has not so completely closed
its eyes to tho signs of the times - to make
it blind altogether. We find in the edition
of the seventh instant very lively cackle
of alarm, which is addressed quite a. much
to border and Northern Democrats q to the
heroes OF the hempen rope, gimlet knife
and shotgun of the same faith down South.
We copy the warning entire:
A STARTLING EXPRESSION.
The New York Graphic is paper which
we seldom find occasion to quote on pOliti.
cal affairs, but the following extract is not
without Significance, representing as it
does q strong underc urrent of public SEN
timent in the North. Noticing the remark
of Southern Democratic paper that 1.-The
outrages Of the Southern States within the
last few weeks insure the return OF large
majority of Republican congressman this
fall, and that the effect of the troubles will
be simply to strengthen the party in power
with renewed legislation, additional Radi-
cal enactments, perhaps ultimately martial
law" the Graphic adds:
Gan this is 81. But after all would it not
be desirable contamination to have the
South put under military law again, and SO
rid those States at once of the rule of muir
derous whites and thievish blacksl There
is growing feeling at the North that the
original reconstruction measures were fatal
mistakes: that the Southern States ought
to have been ruled as Territories under
military Governors until such times % the
passions excited by the war had passed
away. Then civil government might have
been resumed under far more encouraging
prospects than has been possible in Q coun-
try distracted and Inundated by . civil
war, with q large and densely ignorant
servile population suddenly set free. AL
the elements existed tor bad government,
and the South has reaped the bitter fruits Of
mistaken policy. What that section wants
is order, and that can only be given by
military government"
1t is pretty safe to assume that this utter
ance Of the Graphic is the pioneer Of many
similar uttersnces that will very soon be
made in many other channels through
which Northern sentiment is expressed. 1t
is little holder than its larger and heavier
contemporaries and therefore q little ahead
of them. Hence it will not do to fout its
startling declaration that there is growing
feeling at the North that the original recon.
structi0n measures we're fatal mistakes, and
the suggestion that the Southern States
stead of being organized as States under
the control of white depravlty and black
ignorance and superstition, must be &C.
cepted as the preface to very general ex-
preston to the Same purport. In this con-
nection it may not be amiss to revert to an
item in the correspondence of this news
paper some months ago in which reference
was made to conversation between four
or five of the Republican leaders who franz
ed the Ku.klux legislation Of the Fortieth
and the reconstruction acts of the proceed
ing Congresses.
The subject was brought up in discussing
the Arkansas troubles. The gentlemen
participating in the conversation were
Messrs. Wilson OF Indiana, Foster and
Shellabarger of Ohio, Rusk Of Wisconsin
and Sayler OF Indiana. They all agreed
that, in the light Of its results, the recon-
structlon policy Of the Thirty-niath and
Fortieth Congresses was q mistake. And
they expressed the same view that il set
forth in the quoted extract from the Graphic
to what would have been the better policy.
In this conversation Judge Wilson said:
1.-The conditions under which we labored
in 1865 and 1867 were such as were most
likely to produce mistakes. We were deal.
ing with people whose temper we could
not ascertain, because at that time our com.
munication with them was limited and our
facilities for communicating with them
abridged by the spirit Of hostility that still
prevailed, while behind us were the people
and press OF the North, intolerant of the
delay necessary to q calm consideration of
q" the points involved. We were forced to
do something, and to do it quickly: The
reconstruction policy that was adopted
suggested itself first Many OF us support
ed it with misgiyings, myself among the
number, but we all felt that, bad rs it might
prove to be, it was the best we could do
under the circumstances"
This feeling has grown in the North until
it has acquired force enough to break out
in public expression. 1t 10 not at all IN
likely to lead to grave results.
The Republican returns to the subject
again the next day, and gives tho following
advice, which, if followed, would very
seriously diminish the White League vote:
The people of the South have duty to
perform. They should hang their ruf6ans,
whose dastardly crimes servo such good
purpose to the managers of the Republican
party.