The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-11-06
DON'T VOTE AS THEY SHOT.

its issue Of the 31st inst, thus forcibly ar
raigns Mr.. Geo. VIM. Gusts, the eminen
lawyer, for his late violent and unmanly parti
san speech, delivered in the vain hope of say
ing the State to Dix and the Radical party
Mr.. Curtis is gentlemun and scholar, ant
cannot fail to feel very keenly the keen thrust.
Of the Tribune:
In the face of these facts, the Republican
speakers continue their attempt to fire the
hearts Of their hearers by talking of the reign
Of terror in the South. We do not refer te
the baser sort. who know of nothing else to
talk about. Mr.. George William Curtis, than
whom no better representative of the culture
and conscience of the best class of Republi-
| cans still adhering to the party organization
| can be found, adopted this worn and weary
| strain on Thurday night.
Embarrassed by the necessity of supporting
party whose President dominates such men
rs Williams for Chief Justice, whose leaders in
New York drove Mr.. Curtis out of the Civil
Service Commission, and whose Senators con-
spired with the President and Mr.. Butler to
bury the reform under the disgrace OF Sim
monsit must be admitted that the orators po-
sition was hard one' But it is deeply to be
regretted that a man so respected and so in
fuential should have thought of nothing bet
ter to relieve his embarrassment and catch the
applause Of his audience than denunciations
OF Mr.. Tilden as Secessionist, and q "wearer
of Tweed's collar" and an unworthy allusion
to s'the Rebel yell" 1.-THE Rebel yell" said
Mr. Curtis, sis the music march to-" and
this was the text of his speech.
The truculent phrase had its momentary
success but we should be sorry to think that
the applause which greeted it was anything
more than thoughtless,tribu+ to a piece Of
rhetorical violence. If it came from any
deeper source, it would be subject of pro-
found regret Nearly ten years has passed
since the rebellion succumbed. During all
that time the Republican party has been in
power, controlling vast majority of Congress
and most of the State Governments. Even
MIR. Curtis will admit that the Southern peo-
pie have suffered grievous wrongs at the hands
Of some of the rulers whom the war and the
negro vote have placed over them. If they
have ever committed any violation of the law
they have been promptly punished by the
Federal courts and the Federal army. They
have been robbed and plundered and impris-
oned at will. In some States the entire white
population have been reduced to poverty and
the resources of the State almost exhausted.
In Louisiana the momentary insurrection
which was the legitimate offspring of another
deliberate crime OF the Administration, has
been made the pretext Of series of arbitrary
arrests and imprisonments which seem in
credible in their extent and Audacity Yet in |
this time Of their misfortune and misery, a
man so amiable and patriotic as Mr. Curtis, |
to save an election in this peaceful and pros
porous State, is willing to excite the dying !
passions Of hatred and revenge against peo-
pie already too severely tried. His attacks |
upon Mr.. Tilden simply show that bitter par
which makes good men unjust, but |
his ungenerous appeal to the hostilities OF ten |
years ago shows how the prospect of losing an |
election will stir up the hidden depths Of a
soul in which party is still sovereign
These appeals have not been so effective
With voters this year as they have been with
audiences, and we find in this fast some en-
couragement. A great many Republicans
who care nothing for politics, except as an
honest means to righteous end, have refused
to "vote as they shot" The shooting was
right while the war lasted, and the voting was
needed to sustain the muskets. But if, after
The shooting had been over for 20 many years,
we must keep on voting all our lives for the
same set of politicians, simply to spite the
:ebels, the war which brought freedom to so
many has evidently not brought it to u.s. We
greatly mistake the spirit Of the hour if
enough music can now be found in the echoes
i the rebel yell to keep the old majorities in
he well-worn line of march.