The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-08-23
THE SOUTHERNER.

|
Neither the native New Englander nor the
native SoutAeIner have ever lost his identity
with his ioretathers. Charles Francis Adams
aud Wendell Phillips are types OF character
that were seen in the cabin of the Mayfower.
Robert. Z. Lee and Lucius q. c. Lamar are
known to us as faithful descendants of those
adventurous, chivalroHs throng that first
sought the banks Of the James and the Savan-
nah. The Southerner has changed less than
any other Amer. can. He has bred in and in,
and to-day he has the large bones, the spare
side -fece and sober, earnest look Of HE an
cestors. He is still tmid aed honest in at-
fairs of business, courteous III affairs Of
society, and keen III affairs of politics
The leisure given to the whites by slave labor
developed two traits in the South. One was
the habit Of study, and the other was devo-
ton to the sports of the field and though the
philosopher like Madison loved adventure, the
traits distinguished two different classes Of
men; the learned and the unlcarned. But
these two classes met on the common ground
Of politics. The township system in respect
to its poltics-deyelopmen was stronger ii the
South than in New England, And the politi-
C | sy tenn developed was local and wholly
Southern. Democracy was narrow and I'M
democratic: and the South was never able to
| look upon the North as anything but motley
| homogeneous mass, to be used, but not re-
spected. 1t met the North only in convention
and though it permitted the Democratic party
to have Presidents from the North it would
| permit it to choose only the weakes. men.
The moment so strong man rs Stephen A.
! Douglas was spoken Of, the South lost control
| f itself and Of the nation.
| The Southerner always got from Europe
what he read, and from the Europe of long
ago; SO that his opinions had ID conservative,
old fashioned flavor. He did not know the
signs of American times, but no man 50 well
knew the little details of European hist Dry
and politics. In climate which induces con
temptation rather than arduous struggle with
the practical events of life, he pondered prob
lens that were half-centuly old; though in
the tierceness of conventional or congressional
debate he had a way Of giving his problems
smack Of original flavor. Even during the
war, when Northern gene,als were winning
battles by expedients, and by lessons learned
in an hour, such Southerners as jackson and
Lee were fighting battles with the tactics Of
the best soldiers of the past learned in frontier
barracks but applied with their own genius
But they never could understand the charac-
ter Of the men they We're fighting. They were
different race.
What most surprises us in the Southern
character is that extreme honesty with which
it approached everything The Southerner's
political intrigues were matters of science ap-
plying affairs of sentiment. He was honest in
maintaining slavery, and the men who are
now able to acknowledge the wrong OF the old
system are very few. We have never felt dis
posed to curse the first settlers on the James
River for receiving the Dutch vessel with its
slaves because we we're always checked by
the thought that near the lime when it ar
rived the ancestors Of our New England Abo-
lltlonists were hanging witches. The training
of the South, and the influences of slavery
itself, deprived tie Southerner Of ability to
see the fundamental error OF his political and
social system.
In our day, after nine years of suffering and
patience, the Southerner rouses from his
political lethargy, and, with new conditions Of
society around him, resumes his old habit of
political planning. 1t is not surprising that |
MS plans relate wholly to himself He is
honestly selfish, and he does not love North |
that defeated him. His plan is necessarily
startling one. He seeks power alone; and |
there is flavor both of genius and Of the alb
surd III his effort to take new step towards it.
As the Republican party and Grant are two
elements OF power, he will rob one from the
other In 1872 he took Republicans like
Greeley and Schurz from Grant. Failing to
get power, he now offers to take Grant from
the Republican party. Political manmuvres
in the South always had tincture Of impu-
dent bravery.
Grant is man every way who would please
The South. He never hated the South,
md he fought his battles because it was his
vocation to fight battles. The South respects
him for winning them. Nothing goes further
IN the South than a good fighter, unless it be
good horse. The very faults ascribed to
irant by his critics would be considered vir-
ues by leading Southern politicians. His
.igar smoke would be social incense. His
appreciation of bluegrass whisky would be no
,ffense to people who talk over their politi-
al dreams on the porches of wayside inns
His lack of that tr1litless quality which leads
men Of the North sometimes to talk much
bout progress, would endear him to the South
I'm heart. Some of his social habits might
,e compared by them with those Of Old Hick-
ny. /
We think that Grant affects the South
His compliment to 'the immortal jackson" ,
nay have b&en sentimental and honest, but it
vas also pbitic. He appreciates people |
Who dream and speculate and he has reason
or knowing that, when reused from social |
lumber and hurried into the field they
ought well. Then, he knows that the dream
# the South is a dream of political despair;
md he has an honest respect for fallen foe
lie adds to TIN, quality that other one Of be-
ng the only man who can retain the black I
ote and at the same time win the white and I
While men like John Forsyth will never 8
oalesce with negroes, either socially or
there need be no wonder if they {
viii permit the negroes to vote for white
andidate Of their choosing. -Fronk Leslie.
CLIPPED TALoNs.-The following clever q
rick was recently played upon an avaricious
french landlord by a poor wretched engraver
Who had cot into arrears with his rent s'Give }