National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-12-14

/ FOREIGN OR ALIEN RESIDENTS - viz
GINA, SOUTH CAROLINA AND LoUIsI-
ANA COMPARED-THE CREULEs, OLD
WINGS AND DEMOCRATs-THE PRESENT
/ STATUS OF PARTIES AND THEIR NUM-
BERS-COLORED MAJORITY.
Correspondence of the National Republican,
NEW ORLEANS, Dec. II. 1874.
Turn it as you may, this question Of "the peO-
pie" as presented in connection with the LOuisi
ana case is decidedly interesting. 1t is one some
thing of a knowledge of which would certainly
seem as essential to anything like fair under
standing of the situation. The two, in fact, are
/ inseparably connected, in that proper knOwl-
edge Of the one carries with it to little extent
a solution of the other.
Louisiana, if like Mississippi, Alabama or any
other Southern State, would be readily under
stood Louisiana, as presenting the general
features of foreign principality rather than an
American State, is at once political anomaly
few are prepared to comprehend. And yet it is
only by graphing with the facts as they are and
cOmprehending the makeup Of the body polite
it is that in any wise take in the actual
situation. Louisiana is certainly most unfor-
tunate in its general makeup and composition.
States like individuals, however, must suffer for
their misfortunes as we'll as their crimes A
mixed and mOngrel population, as presented in
Louisiana, must needs, as a natural consequence,
be more or less revolutionary.
A people of such mixed and mongrel eXtrac-
ton cannot well make an oNer-prosperOus State.
1t is said that comparisons are Odious. 1t is by
comparisons, nevertheless, one best arrives at
satisfactory conclusion. Virginia was certainly
far worse devastated by the war than Louisiana.
The proportion, in fact, was undoubtedly as fully
ten in the fermer to one in the latter. few
years of peace, and the relative positions as re-
CARDS material prosperity are fully reversed.
Virginia presents a peaceable and comparatively
prosperous community. The people Of Louisiana,
reVeling in anarchy and confusion, are stagger-
ing on the verge of admitted bankruptcy and
ruin. If misgovernment and maladministration
be pleaded in bar it is but necessary to revert to
South Carolina, and the relative position of
Charleston and New Orleans Whatever may
be said Of the government of Louisiana it will be
conceded that it ranks at least several degrees in
advance of that as experienced by the people of
South Carolina. And yet what do we see as be-
tween Charleston and New Orleans. Charleston,
as it seems, was never before as prosperous and
hOurishing as now. New Orleans, on the other
hand, presents but the general and unmlstakable
evidences Of ruin and decay on every hand.
The difference, as seen, .must rest with the peO-
pie rather than the governments of the respective
States. The people Of Virginia and South Caro-
lima, counting the blacks as occupying the same
relative positions materially in all, are, in the
main, Of the American or AnglO-SaxOn descent.
The foreign and Creole elements of Louisiana, on
the other hand, of mixed, mongrel and Latin ex-
traction, afford a contrast that, to the American
at least, is explanatory Of the situation. The
Americans of Virginia put their shoulders to the
wheel and have, in a measure, at least, made
good the ruin Of the war. The merchants of
Charleston, developing the necessary energy,
have overcome the evils Of maladministrstion as
maniiestly fOur-iold worse than in Louisiana, and
made the city more prosperous and 1Ourishing
than ever before the war.
THE LOUISIANA CREoLEs,
in the meantime, broOded over their misfOrtunes;
damned the Yankees for their losses, and Occa-
sionaly demonstrated higher order of clviliZa-
ton by indiscrminate shooting of colored Radi-
Gals, as in the Grant parish massacre, or in a
general murder of officials, as at COushatta.
The elements in New Orleans, not to be outdone,
have turned loose the DagOes at times in general
massacre of blacks, as in go and '6s; marshaled
their forces under Carter in an open instruction
for the overthrow Of WarmOth in 1872; got up an
imprOmptu instruction (the jackson square
fasco) in 1873, and, q final elimination, a
glorious revolution in September, 1874. There
can be no effects without a cause. Virginia,
Louisiana, Charleston, New Orleans; the causes,
like the effects are equally palpable.
As in a material, so in political sense. 1t is
only by studying the body polite as foreign
rather than an American community that onecan
arrive at anything like fair understanding
OF the situation. The American element, even
though assuming the lead, as a comparatively
small element at best, must be viewed as part
only of the whole. The makeup of the whsle
becomes at once the question of interest to the
public at large. Something Of its makeup and
organization politically in the past may be Of in
terest as preface to that Of to-day.
In the makeup of the original parties the
Wings composed in the main the worth and re-
spectability Of the State. As the party of re-
spectability they drew in their train the repre-
bFs ,-ftk a.
the masses of the various Creole elements of
French extraction. The Democrats, on the other
hand, were the party Of universal suffrage. They
were the party Of "the people," as opposed to the
somewhat highertoned pretensions of the Wings.
The Democrats carried with them, as a conse-
quence, the various grades or castles Of the Da-
goes. They controlled, we'll, the poor whites Of
the country parishes. The Irish and the Ger
mans, too, trained with the Democracy. The De-
mocracy, thus massing the naturalized foreigners
with the "pOOr white trash" of the country and
the eGHGiHe Of the city, were enabled to carry the
State.
At the same time, the city of New Orleans was
controlled by the Wings. On either side 1t was a
mere handful Of politicians controlling the masses
as with an iron hand. Such a thing as freedom
Of opinion was practically never known. 1t was
simply a massing Of one class Of foreigners,
backed by the "poOr whites" against another.
The rank and file on either side entered into the
merits Of the discussion about as do the soldiers
of two opposing armies The issues, as evidenced
in not a few Of the campaigns, were quite as
bloody in their results. They we're certainly such
in their Vindictive animosities as never even
dreamed Of in q Northern community. They re-
suited to a very great extentin break up of party
lines, in a general and murderous onslaught upon
all foreigners in the KnoW-Nothing campaign Of
1858.
THB WAR,
following in its train, swept all of Nothings
and Wings into the common vortex Of rebellion.
II merged all Of the various Creole and foreign
elements into a compact mass, In control Of the
leading spirits Of the Democracy. 1t turned all
Of the Vindictive hatred Of the Creole elements
against the Yankees, 1. e., the Radicals, as the
cause of all their misfortunes.
1t brought out another element of the body
polite in the shape of the blacks. We had thus,
as measure Of reconstruction, reorganization
of parties upon a new basis. We had compact
organization Of all the various foreign and Creole
elements, Of mixed, mongrel and Latin extrac-
tion, with a comparatively small sprinkIing Of
the American, under the lead Of q mere handful
Of Democratic politicians, 'the people Of Louisi-
ana"
We had in opposition respectable showing of
I'D hrya