New Orleans Republican., 1875-11-21
CUR POLITICAL ARIsTocsAcY,

persons who took British and French pro-
lection during the civil war, and many
others who listen to the 'Marseillaise" or
God Save the Queen" with far more
| pleasure than to. the American anthem,
Hail Columbia" This foreign element
furnishes some Of our most super-South-
ern advisers. These slave born sub iects
of European despotisms have actually de-
manded that free born American citizens
should be expelled and exiled from their
own country. Modest, is it not? That
| such elements should have introduced aris-
tocratic ideas of which the "British Peer
| age and the Landed Gentry is the text
book, occasions us no surprise. Under this
European theory we find different state
OF sentiment toward the Republican party
in the State of Louisiana from that which
exists in the Middle, Northern and West
ern States. There they are treated with
the respect that their numbers and mill
tary force compels; here they are to be as
the Israelites were. in the days of King
John of England.
We find in our contemporary, the Pica-
yotne, an innocent illustration of this aris-
tocratic sentiment. The subject of the
| article is the denunciation of the Repub-
lican party. 1t is said:
The other day we had to comment upon
the disgracetul fact that General Grant and
his Cabinet were engaged in devising means
for the restoration of harmony in the Repub-
lican party in Mississippi.
1t is, then, "a disgraceful fact that an
effort should be made by the public au-
thorities to restore the harmony of that
party to which the administration owes its
election.
We make mere reference to the old
historical division between the free soil
Democrats under Van Buren, and the
slaveholding Democracy under Polk, to
the same division between the Taylor and
Clay and Seward Wings. The Breckin-
ridge and Douglas Democrats sealed their
divisions by taking sectional sides in the
civil war.
We suppose from the observation of the
PtcayUne, that these sclisms and con-
ficts have presented the disgraceful fact of
consultation among the political leaders
of the Democratic or Wing parties to Sc
cure restoration of harmony" among
the men to whom they owed their election.
That all the leaders of party in or out
of Office, in this and in other countries,
have always taken just and active iu-
terest in the restoration of party harmony
is SO well known, that we have no idea
the Picaynne will contradict the state
ment when its attention is called to it.
Republicans are denounced for any such
attempt at harmony, because they have
no rights which aristocrats are bound to
respect.
The Picayune, in the plenitude of that
authority which all anti-Republican or
gans may exercise, goes on to show pre-
cisely the same disgraceful fact that the
Republican leaders are condemned for
having displayed.
1t quotes with complacency this notice
from the Cincinnati Conlmercial
The New Orleans Picoyu,,e has discoy-
cred method of beating the Republicans
in the next presidential canvass 1t is,
first to unite all opponents of Radicalism
under the title of conservatism, sink all
financial and religious questions out of sight,
and make the fight on the misadminis stra.
tion of the past eight years, for which the
Republican party is to be held responsible.
The Picay,tnt responds:
We are glad that the Commercial ap-
proves our programme.
Now we would suppose that there would
be the same propriety in removing the
causes of jealousy within our party, as in
sinking all financial and religious ques-
tions which separate two or three parties
or fragments Of parties. If the President
prosecutes offenders against the revenue
laws, and endeayors to convince Repub-
lican officeholders in Mississippi or else
where that Republican administration |
can alone repose in the character and
services of good men and efficient officers,
it occurs to us that he should receive the |
approval of all good men. Why he should |
be blamed for these things, why no
reference should be made by the anti
Republican press to his prosecution of |
thieves, his recommendation of general
amnesty, and the efforts which his |
ministers and his administration have
made and are making to open trade
and travel with Spanish America, we
can not comprehend. The Picayune
charges General Grant with the
employment of party only to promote his
own ambition. Why does the Picaylne
prove its own intense partisanism by re-
fusing the President all acknowledgment
of good acts or intentions? If the people
Of Louisiana form their opinions of Cen
eral Grant from the anti-Republican press
and party here, he must appear to them
as drunken and besotted tyrant, engaged
in the exclusive business of expressing
the South, enriching himself, and devoting
the occasional efforts of common and
uneducated intellect to the lowest de-
bauchery and the most venal corruption.
When this aristocratic right to discuss
the best means of harmonizing the dis
cordant anti-Republican elements is as