New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-05-19
ANOTHER CRAWFISH PHILOSOPHER.

Lar employment since the settlement o.
the questions which they helped to raise
| Slavery. as an institution authorized and
protected by lay, has ceased to exist, anG
the fanatical crusaders who made it the
whole business of their lives to make wal
upon it, are compelled to fall back upon
original sin as base of action. This
subject being somewhat threadbare, it is
difficult to bring out audiences to hear
lectures and sermons, or secure readers
to newspapers devoted to this dry politi-
cal hash. Hence we see that some of the
noted abolitionists are endeavoring to at
tract attention to themselves by aposta-
Ching, or as the irreverent but practical
minded boys have it, crawtishing out Of
their former positions.
The first act of faith generally consists
IN humble confession that for years the
fanatical penitent has. lived in complete
ignorance Of the habits, feelings, temper,
ETC., Of the people of the South, but like
st. Paul, they have had the scales re-
moved from their eyes, and now know
more about US than we do ourselves. Carl
Schurz, who, by the way, never ranked
very high as an American statesman, Mr..
Wilson, of Massachusetts, and Mr.. Kelley,
Of Pennsylvania, have all in some degree
wiped out the record of their former lives
and made an attempt to rewrite it as they
now think they know it ought to be. We
note also that Rev. H. w. Stocking, who
is described as minister of the Episco-
pal Church and New England Repub-
lican, has come out strong in the
crawfshing business, and succeeded in
demonstrating two things with more than
ordinary clearness. He proves:
l. That he knew nothing whatever
about the South before he made tour
through it: and
2. That he knows less about it since
than he did before
The reverend New England Republican
has just inflicted upon the good people
Of Chicago a gassy sort of lecture, in
which what he was mistaken about once
and what he thinks he is sure of now
form the theme of the discourse. Like
repentant sinner, or a reformed drunkard
turned temperance lecturer, the Rev.
Stocking opens with a confession, the
object of which appears to be to duly i'm
press his audience with a proper sense of
the all-pervading ignorance he suffered
from as result of his New England edu-
cation. If he did not succeed perfectly
in this initial effort he certainly deserved
success, as the following extract from his
purgation will show He accuses his
godfathers and godmothers of having
taught him in his youth to look upon the
South as a
Wonderfully beautiful country, where
only man was vile /; whose white cotton
fields and green canebrakes and fragrant
orange groves were heavy with the groans
and curses of an unwilling and inhuman
bondage; whore an Uncle Tom was found
IN every negro slave, and Legree in every
master. and only one Eva had been given
ing country where huthaH soul was of
less account than the carcass of the poor
old horse that fell yesterday under his load,
and was dragged without the streets of the
city to swell the accommodating refuse :
where souls were born into and died out of
the world without knowing how felt the
touch OF plying hand, or how sounded
the voice OF Christian teaching.
Having thus put himself on good terms
with his audience by showing a proper
density Of intellect and capacity to be
yulled, the Reverend Crawfish begins to
enlighten the people of the Phoenix City
IN the real condition of the South. As he
S the only civilizad being who has been
permitted to return from the Darbarous
'egion, he was naturally regarded as a
MIRACLE of good luck and his speech was
printed in the local papers. OF course,
Ifter having shown his hearers what a
black cloud of ignorance he had Just |
escaped from, there was none bold enough |
o question his capacity to present the
'aked and exact truth after his purgation.
After throwing out the platitudes that
.reat many men who had failed in bust
less in the South were obliged to 90 to
ard work for living, and that the floods
ave completed whatever seemed to be
necessary to an absolute poverty" the
reat Southern traveller takes up politics:
But chief among the mseries of our
outhern brethren, and connected with
hem as their efficient cause, is the political
lisrule under which they have groaned and
uttered tor the past few years.
Political misrule, then, in the opinion
f the ltinerant gentleman, is a more DO
ant producer Of misery in mankind than
he acts of Providence operating in pur-
uance Of the first curse and manifested
4 poverty compelling floods It would
eem to us that people who had been
lined by foolish speculations in war,
otton, lottery and other precarious '.busi-
ess uncertainties, and then drowned
ut by the merciless waters of the Mis-
ssipEEowould not be in condition to be
cry fastidious about political matters
Mess the object was soft seat to fall
ack upon after such signal failures and
re disasters.
Nowhere could we find any other than
10 most fervent aspirations for settled
Id enduring peace, and we believe that
'uthern ambition proposes to itself no :
CHER flight than thst of the right and
essing Of selfgovernment.
We can testify that the above is the a
ntiment Of every White League Demo- q
at IN the State. He has fsrvid aspira- i
IN for settled peace, with himself and S