New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-01-29
EASTERS AND ALIENS.

KAsTERS AND ALIENS.
According to the elegant dicta OF thu
chief organ Of the Last Ditch Democracy,
Southern society is divided, as to soclaI
rank into two classes-aliens and theil
masters. No very lucid definition is given
of the meaning of either term, and as
the two do not form a perfect antithesis, We
are left to infer that q considerate regard
for the feeling Of the subordinate class has
led the writer to modify the harshness o.
name by which it is called to the public
| notice. For "aliens' read serfs, and the
real meaning is made complete, the riddle
is solved, and the mask raised. The
master class has been well known to the
so-called aliens for many years. In those
before the war they were generally armed
with slave whips, for the double purpose
of persusding the aliens to greater exer-
tons in the field, and to check any rat
ural exhibitions of discomfort at the
extremely humane and benignantly patri-
archical rule Of their masters. Some OF
the aliens were black, and all were poor.
All the masters were white, except per-
haps, here and there doubtful case, in
which pure Caucasian ancestry could be
traced.
Since emancipation, however, there has
been no legal line OF demarkation between
the two classes. The aliens have come
into all the civil privileges Of the aristoc-
racy. They have been taught to think no
man is their master, and none entitled to
their respect unless he possesses supe-
rior intelligence, wealth and virtue. Many
ridiculous claims to Unborn superiority
have been set up by pretentious scions Of
decayed houses, the inheritors OF once
glorious names and broad estates, both Of
which have long passed out Of possession.
The old shareholders and their descend
ants clung to the miserable conceit until
they found themselves sinking and the
alien class rising. Then the greater por-
ton of them abandoned it, and have since
looked around for opportunities to make
for themselves names which will COM
mand respect. Since all men are free,
none can call another master. The only
slaves are those made subservient to their
own passions and follies.
With full knowledge Of these things
it becomes vastly amusing to see rickety,
wheezy disciple Of the old regime crack
ing his whips over the backs Of freemen,
knowing q. the same time lie dare not
touch one of them without mourning the
penalties of the law that now protects all
alike, aliens and masters. Men Of New
Orleans, how do you like tie assump-
ton? Are you prepared to fall back more
than a decade of time and revive the
notions which it cost bloody war to root
out? Men who have accepted the situa-
ton and amnesty, too, are not in con-
dition to lord it over those who have been
consistent American citizens ever since
their birth OF naturalization. To attemp:
such folly would be an act entirely in
consistent with tie terms Of their pardon.
For, in the vernacuiar Of Bourbon;sm,
the alien belongs to that class Of people
who have graciously pardoned the mas
ters' their manifold transgressions, and
are willing to live side by side with them
on equal terms. But the old relations Of
master and slave, naudsill and aristocra:
have been disturbed, uprooted and abol-
ished from the American language. The
only difficulty about it is that some Of the
pseudo masters are unconscious Of their
changed condition, and every now and
then fall to cracking their whips from
force of habit.