New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-05-02
THE TRUE SOUTHERN SITUATION

THE TRUE SOUTHERN SITUATION.
Response from an Old Native Citizen
Who IL Well POsted-Nlr. Charles
NOrdhoG Severely but Justly Criti-
ciZed.
NEW ORLEANS, May |, 1879.
EDITOR REPUBLICAN,:
| wish to say a word inst at this juncture
in regard to the true Southern situation,
and in response to the false and I'm nst full
limitations of a portion of the Northern
press through its reckless and uniformed
Southern correspondents.
take it that a venal newspaper press is
the greatest curse and disgrace which
could befall any people. In my humble
and nnsophisticated estimation, man who
writes and publishes for the public intor.
nation and guidance that which he knows
TO be false, and pats his name thereto,
stands scarcely seconds on the roll OF IN
fanny to the willful murderer who expiates
his crime upon the scaffold. He simply
stands disgraced in the estimation Of
all honorable men, and is stunned
az the common enemy to that peace and
good will on earth, known to be essential to
the welfare and respectability OF every CIV
ilized community And if, through ignO-
rance the newspaper writer publishes what
he is little, if any, the less guilty with the
willful rogue and liar. No land or country
has ever suffered and bled more sOrely on
this score than has the South, for the last
decade. She has had ruling and allcOn-
trolling newspaper press, as venal and cor
rupt in the maiD, and as villianously false
as hell ITSELF q press which has not only
pandered to and INDUCED, but has encour
aged, fostered and fed false and mis-
enid al yrrh1to aantimant which fhnnUh
somewhat excusable~ in the inception, was
nevertheless false in foundation, and has
led tho people down down, from one
depth of ruin to another, until their condi
ton in many localities, is very nearly hope
less.
The local Democratic press Of the South
has been mainly at fault in this respect
has been the chief sgressor-though
not alone SO. But finally the Southern
Democratic press, particularly IN Louisiana.
begins to show much improvement in tone
and temper, so that here at home there is
decided hope of salvation from this thral-
dom and incubus. But there still remains
a foreign check and barrier which seems to
exhibit no improvement deathly vampire
with huge black wings which AS it tlutters
and broOds over us appears rather to
increase in its volume OF pestilential breath:
a leaven of untempered meanEess and mex
SuHhDlc IdsCdIitN anu NChdl ibtCi
which has filed our cup OF forbearance
quite to overlooking.
l refer to correspondents OF Northern
papers sent here under wages of sin and
the influence of blood money to write up
our situation" from standpoint that may
pay most in ready cash, regardless alike OF
truth. honor and the most ordinary ameni-
ties of every day life.
And the more deplOrable is this auxiliary
evil and prOstituted help to destruction
when in the person of any of this brood of
falsehOOd and ill omen ia found one who
Processes to be sat heart" good and true
Republican, devoted individually to the
canse of truth, justice and fair dealing, but
who, as correspondent, is hired to write
such letters as his purse-holders and sordid
drivers and dictators may direct; as, for
instance, in the shameless case of Mr..
Charles NordhOti, the present Louisiana
correspondent of that most dsreputable and
catchpenny sheet, the New York HcJuld
| do not know anything which has so
nearly made me lose all confidence in pro-
fessed manhood as the recent letters of this
correspondent. 1t would be bad enough
II the false and most unjust things which
he writes were left to face the world in an
anonymous shape; bat the Shame and
humiliation and self-degradation become
oyerpowerlng and most astounding when
ne nnblushingly attaches his proper name
in full thertO
And think have right and most ex-
ccl!ent grounds to complain OF Mr. Nord-
hot in special and most pointed manner.
He would, for the sake of pleasing those by
whom he is hired to write III, a case to
order on Southern affairs, cast libel upon |
every political faith and hope which his |
heart cherishes; which he knows / know, |
and since the humiliating fact concerns me
and those among whom live much more
directly and vitality than it can possibly be
to concern him and those among
whom he lives. including those who employ
nun to do such dirty work, | say have
Just and special right and occasion, and
deem it my special and bounden duty to
of such injustice at his hands,
not only in my own behalf, but in behalf of
my native land at large.
| would refer now specially to the letter
Of Mr.. Nordhotl of the nineteenth April. AS
published in the New lerk Herald of the
.wenty fourth.
The first item which the gentleman
breaches with view OF placing the Repub
lean party of Louisiana in default is the
COLOR llne,' and he strives hard to make it |
fppear that the census OF 1870 is false ard |
must to the Democrats-that there are |
more white voters in the State than that
ensus indicates. The main argument is
nat the census was taken IN the summer
inc, when many white people were absent
rom Louisiana. This is really no argu-
4ent at all, and only shows the weakness. |,
.ot to say pusillanimity, of the gentleman's
peclal pleading in behalf of the client who /,
ees ana feeds him. The absentees, what ,
ew there may have been, were evidently l
ecorded IN the census the same as if they !
ad been at home. No census taker is ever :
expected to bluff up face to face to each !
nd every individual he records and look | {
pom and identity him or her personally: it b
only sufficient TO ascertain from the |
est available information how MANY per
LIS are in the habit of residing upon GER
lin premises, and of what age, color, sex.
C.. and certainly this information can +
come at as well and as correctly
hen some of the household are absent. as q
all were present. But the gentleman fur. "
Ter contends that the census takers did +
IT thoroughly record that part of the white u
,pulatiou which is scattered over the pine G