New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-11-14
THE WANDERERS RETURN FROM BRAZIL,

to win"
THE WANDERERS RETURN FROM BRAZIL,
At the close of the war great number
of Confederate soldiers, apprehending a
condition of prescription and punish
ment at home which would surpass the
advantages of passing their lives in the
country of their nativity, emigrated to
Mexico and to other continental States.
Those who had been prominent as soldiers
naturally took service under the military
government of the Emperor Macmillan,
and, as they shared his fortunes, were, of
course, affected by his fall. There were,
as we have learned, bodies of land as
signed them which were formerly the
property of the Church, but secularized
and sold under the laws of the republic
The successor of Macmillan, though
equally hostile to ecclesiastical supremacy,
preferred that different direction should
be given to the confscated property,
hence, as we have heard, the difficulty
about the confirmation of title in much of
the land grants made to the American i'm
migrants.
The proposals made to immigrants by
the government of Brazil were even more
favorable, but successful settlement in
that country is subject to so many ex-
pensive and uncomfortable conditions
that the Americans who availed themselves
OF these grants were soon left penniless,
and in some cases wandered about the
streets of Rio without the means for food
or lodging. We were informed by Hon.
Fl. 7. Blow, of St. Louis, then the min
lister of the United States at the Court of
Brazil, that upon his application the gov
eminent of the United States aided those
disappointed exiles in returning to their
own country, where they were made well.
come by general amnesty, which re-
lieved the political disabilities of almost
all the citizens of the Southern States.
1t is said that our government is to fit out
a vessel to bring back such of these emil
grants as may desire to return to the
United States from Brazil and our atten-
ton has been attracted to the different
view taken of the obligation of patriotism.
The federal government, denounced as
oppressive AID unjust to the South, has
granted general amnesty and indemnity
for property furnished to or destroyed by
the federal armies 1t has already
brought back some OF those disappointed
exiles, and is now unostentatiously en-
gagged in doing its duty by all the
citizens of the Union, just as it has done
in regard to the unhappy victims of Cuban
cruelty. The sufferings of men for the
Confederate cause do not seem to excite
any intense desire to make sacrifices of
time, talent or money throughout the
the South. We recently noticed that the
Legislature OF Mississippi voted ten thou
sand dollars to compensate the profess
sional services % two Confederate attor-
neys, to be rendered in defense of Mr.
Jefferson Davis. Mr.. Davis had given his
services and periled his life in the service
of Mississippi, and it would have seemed
that five hundred Confederate attorneys
would have rushed open-jawed to his vim
dication, for a responsibility incurred in
the common cause. 1t would have been
thought that no greater offense could be
given these patriotic gentlemen than to
offer them compensation for a spontaneous
and generous application Of that oratory
not needed in war, for the defense of those
who had suffered from the war. Not bit
of it. Provision was made for paying the
professional services of the attorneys, and
we have rlght~to infer that if no such
payment had been provided, and no other
person had gone on the bond of Mr..
Davis or appeared In his defense, that be
would have been left to the tender mercies
of President Johnson and Judge Under
wood.
A suggestion which appeared in the
Picayune is calculated to have an unfav-
erabie impression upon. the public mind.
II will raise the suspicion that the men
MANNED, besgared and exiled in the cause
of the Confederate States are not much
the care of grateful constituency who
in some cases stayed ct home, run the
blockade and whsedlsd General Butler
and, othsns, or enjoyed Parisian pleasures
while others were in the field. Thosa