New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-10-04
WHAT THE INsURRECT10N1sTs HAVE
GAINED.

Sufficient time has elapsed since the IN
surrection of the White Leaguers for them
to survey the field and ascertain the re-
suits of their uprising. The comparison
between what they promised to do for
themselves, the State. and the party al
the North. which they claim as sympa'
thisers, and what they have accomplished
is not hattering to their political astute'
ness. They proposed in the first place
to install themselves into all the State
offices. after having ousted the legally
elected incumbents. compelling the ac-
quiescence of the national government by
their display of numbers. and by the
.'respectability" of the individuals en-
gagged in the movement. They thought.
because it was for the most part clean
mob. that il by that means lost Its
character Of q mob. and became ''a COM
naittee of the whole" Once installed into
power and possessed of the influence OF
State patronage, the leaders were to turn
their local triumph into political advan-
tage and give Louisiana to the Democratic
party, winning thereby both glory and
power Moreover, the accession to the
government of the State, no matter
by what means, of the ''staunch, solid
men of the community" as they boast
themselves, was to inspire such confidence
throughout this country and Europe as
to give us a financial lift that would set
business agoing, attract capital and en-
terprise, and, in short, accomplish won
ders. These were the promised results
of the "great uprising'-what are the
actual? First and saddest, the killing
and wounding of more than fifty citizens,
with the inevitable misery consequent
thereon; secondly, the advent in our midst
of large numbers of United States SOL
diers for the express purpose not only OF
keeping the peace but of UNFOLDING the
assailed authorities in the exercise OF their
functions; thirdly, the reminding OF old
animosities between individuals and
classes, which by the mere effect Of time
and use were cooling down to ashes;
fourthly, the complete cessation of bust
ness Temporary though it may be), and
filthy, the reafixing upon New Orleans,
and indeed the whole State, the stigma
of being disorderly and mob-generating
place to be avoided as unsafe for capital and
uninviting to enterprise. For all these
the bloodshed, the misery the humiliation
Of being policed by soldiery, the re-
aroused ill-feeling the reblackened bad
name, the business stagnation-for all
these, good and ill-for the peace result
ing from the presence Of soldiery must be
set against the notifying necessity for
that presence-for all these, and per-
haps many more consequences to be de-
veloped in the future, the leaders of the
recent insurrec ton, and they alone, are
responsible.
These, however, are merely local re-
suits. The movement has others more
extensive affe citing the country at large,
by which the fortunes of the two great
parties into which it is divided may be
materially influenced. To one OF these,
the opposition party, Democratic 1t
calls itself, the leaders in the recent up
rising against our State government
looked for sympathy and encouragement.
They got neither. The rank and file'
of the Democratic party feel right.
They have pride in their citizen
ship as Americans, pride in Amer
lean institutions and American civil
zation. "An appeal from the ballot to
the barricade" is un-American; it is un-
civilized; and accordingly the Northern
people and the Northern press have
uttered a protest almost unanimous
against it. Even those papers which
have uniformly distinguished themselves
by the exhi bition of maudlin sympathy
for ':poor down-trodden Louisiana, !"
have withheld their support from this
spasmodic and most ill-advised attempt
to get her on her feet, and have de-
nounced it as a degradation of political
morals by no means to be tolerated in
this country-a precedent fatal to repub-
Ecan institutions.
This conspiracy, therefore, in its re-
suits on the country at large, instead of
aiding the Democracy by the accession OF
Louisiana, has blasted its re-opening
hopes, insured the continuance in power
of Republican national administration,
encouraged the incipient spirit of Gen.
tralization, strengthened the third term
party, and aroused throughout the North
a state of feeling which will undoubtedly
be manifested at the approaching meeting
of Congress, in the strengthening OF the
military arm of the government. So much
for the national political effects of this
imitation of Mexican craftsmanship,
which aimed to establish the claims OF its
leaders to official positions by divine right
of violence. As for the financial results
which it achieved, they are too painful to
contemplate. The credit Of the State and
city, low enough before, have gone down
still lower, and a prevalence of yellow
fever, Asiatic cholera and smallpox. all
combined, could not have had a greater
effect in soaring off emigration.
All the evils here enumerated will doubt.
less be set down by the friends OF the
uprising, not to the movement itself. but
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