The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1874-05-13
NINTH CENSUS OF TIE UNITED
STATES.

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leaders by the negroes. We hav,
written this paper in vain if the reade
Is not prepared for the policy they a
once adopted. 1t WAS, in q word, til,
transfer to the South of the worst prac
tees of the Tammany Ring in New
York. Each State was ruled by q cor
rupt knot Of obscure politicians, wht
amassed fortunes in few months b,
enlightenment, by bribe-taking, and by
the sale of offices, of influence, aud o
contracts. Corruption managed the
legislatures, presided in the State Hou.
ses, and safe on the bench of justice
While jobbery, collision, and vulga,
frand wasted the finances and swelled
the public expenditure. Half the pro
ceeds of taxation never reached the
state treasury, subsidies granted to
railways went into the pockets of the
rings the railways contracted for re-
manned unmade, and loans subscribed
were stopped on the way to the relief
of the State necessities. To keep M
the system. debt was i,eaped upon debt,
and tax upon tax. until the taxpayer
in multitndes of instances allowed his
land to 60 out of cultivation from sheer
Inability to meet the ever-increasing
demands thus poured in upon him
As part OF this system the negroes were
encouraged to crowd into the towns.
We have already noted this movement
as one of the great difficulties of agri-
culture in the Sonth. Doub less, it is
to very large extent spontaneous.
But it has been deliberately fOstered,
and even instlgated, by the carpet
baggers 1t used to be the policy of
the slave owners to keep the slaves as
mnch as possible in the country.
On the downfall of the Confectionery,
consequently, the whites greatly ont
numbered the blacks in the urban dis
tricts. But to maintain their power in
the towns the carpet baggers' found
it necessary to entice negroes from the
plantations where they would have
been prnfitably employed. The ruff
fanism of 'lhe mean whites as in
slavery times they used to be called,
gave strength to the enticement. I'm.
der any circumstances, the lower class
of whites would hardly have submit
ted quietly to the great revolution that
was effected. Bnt carpet. bag mis-
rule drove them altogether ont of pa
thence. Accordingly, when the Fede-
raj forces were reduced, secret socie
ties known as 'Ku Klux Klan,' sprang
up all over the South, and the mem
bers proceeded to perpetrate the most
Ontrages upon the negroes
and such 'carpet-baggers' as fell into
their power. Naturally, the preva-
lence of these outrages in the rural
districts drove the negroes in large
into the towns in search of
protection. Thus the criminal cnmhi-
nations of the whites reacted in injury
npon themselves. They diminished
the supply of labour iu the country,
already grievonsly insufficient, and, ut
the same time, they strengthened the
power of the carpet baggers' in the
towns, and thereby frightened the
grasp upon their States of that very
system under which the States were
fast siuking into tie bankruptcy and
anarchy.
When everything is said that can be
said, however in reprnbat,on of the
carpet baggers' misdeeds, it still re-
mains true that the responsibility for
the course of events in the South dn-
ring the past eight years does not rest
solely, nor even chiefly. upon them
In every emergency they have been
able to reckon with certainty upon
Federal support, and it was this alone
hat gave them up to settle matters
face to face with the veterans of Lees
victorious armies, they would have
speedily been reduced to the insignif-
canoe from which they emerged for
heir country's misfortune. They,
knew, however, that they had to rem
der account neither to the whites nor
TO the blacks of the South, but only to
the politicians at Washington; and
with these the enormous sums of South
ern money of which they disposed en-
abled them always to arrange matters
1t is this circumstance
which, in American politics, at present
the specially discouraging
feature. For ont of it has grown a
system of ante chambering, of govern
ment by back-stairs influences, which
presents the germ of serious danger
Tor free institutions in every part of
he Uuion. Whenever any carpet.
gag ring wants additional authority
20 keep down the whites, or feels ap.
,reheHsion on account of the scandal
,ccasioned abroad by some trapsac-
ion in which it has been engaged, We
Invariably read that delegation from
he Republican party in the State
N N nod hu tho rinn In nnnatinp M