New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-04-04

1
down as stranger with whom it is
proper to have little or nothing to do.
Whether the Northern visitor is popular
or otherwise, he is treated as in some
sort an intruder the moment his feet
touch the sacred soil once dedicated to
slavery, and it does not quite compensate
for this feeling when he is assured that he
is heartily welcome on the account of his
personal qualities. For this operates as q
restraint upon him. He is given to un-
derstand that this welcome is only given
upon the implied condition that he shall
continue to behave himself in the future
as he is reported to the Southern people to
have done in the past.
Such terms are not exactly satisfactory
to the average Northern mind. Some
thing more secure than popular favor is
demanded. Northerners wish to be
treated as they treat other people They
wish to be free in their persons and
opinions in one place as we'll as in an
other When distinguished man from
the North arrives in Southern city he is
not perfectly pleased to read in some local
paper that he ought to be received by
'oul people" with warm hospitality, on &C.
count of his peculiar opinions upon politics
or religion, maugre the fact that he halls
from the North. 1t is more satisfactory
to think that his character as an American
citizens entities him to the utmost freedom
OF movement, and that it does not lie in
any mans mouth to impose conditions
upon him.
Senator Gordon and Representative
Lamar, both Southern men, recently went
on sort of political pilgrimage to New
Hampshire. They were SO much surprised
and pleased with the kind reception they
received that they think it necessary to
speak of it as special thing. They as
sumo that the converse of what they as
sert would be reasonable and proper.
That the people Of New England could, if
they chose, have assailed them with rotten
eggs, or other missiles, and driven them
off the premises. That the liberation
even Of their presence on New Hampshire
soil was something Of stretch of gener-
osity on the part of the people of the
Granite State. These distinguished South
ern gentlemen have as much right to 90
to New Hampshire, to stay as long as they
please, to enjoy everything that is enjoy
able, to pay their bills and otherwise be-
have themselves, as the Governor of that |
State himself has. They possess all the
civil and political rights in any other
State that they do in their own, and no |
more. To stigmatize them as carpet-bag-
gers, emissaries, or by other opprobrious
name is to insul. not them but their
citizenship, which every Ameri-
can is bound to guard with jealous care.
We are pleased with the comments Of
The New York Herald on this subject, as
follows:
1t is impossible not to smile at what we
may call the nairete of Senator Gordon and
Lamar, who have returned
TO Washington, and who 'speak in the most
tattering terms OF their reception by the
New England people," They have been,
hey assure us, ''hospitably received by ali
classes, and most notably by the ex-federal
officers: who greeted them warmly every
where" We wish that every Southern
and Senator could make
similar pilgrimage. We have never vet
heard Of a Southern man visiting the North
40 matter how conspicuous he may have
been during the rebellion. who did not re-
'eive the highest friendship, sympathy and
mind Of the Northern people at the close of
he war it was that the victory for the
Union imposed upon them the duty of
assisting the reconstruction of the South.
Therefore the best wishes OF the Northern
PEOPLE have been that the Southern people
hould recover as promptly as possible from
he material losses of the war, that the old
should be rebuilt upon
urer foundations than the crumbling cor
Ter stone of slavery, that Virginia should
70 again the "Old Dominion" and |
hat Louisiana should be the imperial
of the Southwest. We wish
We could feel that this sentiment on the |
'art Of the honest men of the North had
'een reciprocraued by the South. For ten
ears the North has been holding out the
live branch. and for ten years 1t has been |
'atience it is sure to win in the end. So
ur hope has been and is now that the
.outh may begin to really know the North;
hat the issues Of the war will be buried
nder the green fields that now cover the
Genes of the former strife; that the bitter. {
ess OF the contest will only be remembered ,
9 Engllshmen remember the wars of the |
and the ROundheads, of the
acObins and the HanOverians-for the 70 ,
lanCp- chiVaIrv Of tho fiunoa |
8 provocative of present dissension and
aired. Every SOutherner like Gordon and I
'amar who comes to the North on DO. 6
teal errand, every Southerner like the -.
who came to live here ard to
lake their homes with us, is a missionary s
peace and Cancellation. Therefore we
elcome them, feeling assured that they
ill carry good feeling back with them |
hen they return, and "speak in the most ,
altering terms of their reception"
Speaker Blaine, who has been addressing .
lie people Of Connecticut, also alludes to ,
lis subject in speech reported synop- :
cally by telegraph:
When the ends of the war have been fnlly =
tanned; when free suffrage is everywhere
'ncedef, and when free speech is nowhere t
enied; when Wendell Phillips and General =
ogan can speak as freely in Georgia as
amar and Gordon can speak in New S
ampshire, the necessity for further appeal f
the loyalty of the North will have ended. :.
ntil then, while he would cultivate and
lcourage the kindliest feeling between the o
orth and the South. he would urge the n
orth to hold the political power as the =
larantee of safety and prosperity to both
ctions. il
This is the true American doctrine, s
hich the people of the North will insist p
ION. They Will forever nnnose all who | d