New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-12-19
THE ETERNAL TRAGEDY.


i THE ETERNAL TRAGEDY.
The people of the Union have felt tht
fun horror Of the recent Brooklyn thea
; tire disaster. Twenty score Of men and
women wrapt in sudden winding
sheet of fame and swept into eternity,
leaving little more than charred bones
where few minutes before they had sal
in cheer, it would seem Is if the very all
Of Brooklyn must shudder with the shrill
walls that clsaved through it on that aw.
full night. Every newspaper in the land
has made sympathetic mention of the
catastrophe and forgotten its partisanship
in its humanity. A greater tragedy has
often been acted in this section of our
country, yet many of these newspapers
have persistently denounced it as farce
or acclaimed it - legitimate drama.
Is it less q tragedy because men
butcher and fire does not consume?
This thought is suggested by recent
published remark of United States Sem
ator West that it il about time Northern
men should not husband all their tears
longer for the Brooklyn calamity, grew
ous as it is. There il tremendous force in
the covert Eebuke. Mechanics Institute,
Now Orleans, was in July; 1866, tho scene
of the first Of . drama whose prologue
was Fort Pillow. Nearly three hundred
men were slain or wounded in our city
for exercising the simple right of peace
able assemblaga In 1873 nearly one
hundred colored men found asylum in
Colfax courthouse, and when it was fred
BY murderous hands came forth to re-
ceive the hospitality Of the bullet The
crimes of Natchitoches, Coushatta,
Ouschita, East Baton Rouge and other
parishes Of our State have left in
delible smears upon our history as
State. The assassin il grand in
quisitor of opinion one must receive his
tenet or his ball. With Q motive and
method - cruel and wasteful as fire itself
in their expenditure Of life, We marvel
that the American spirit Of fair play, finds
such impotent expression in many parts
Of our country. Is the old plantation
dogma that q ':nigger" is q white mans
quarry, to be accepted as paramount to
the laws BY which the former owns HIM
self, and is made civilly co-equal with the
latter? Ifso, the North is guilty of damn
ing crime, the outflow of which will be q
continuous stream of innocent blood.
Again, if SO. it has, by clubbing the black
man citizen, thrust him into an arena a. |
perilous as was the Roman arena to the |
early Christian. The North not only
brought him upon the stage in 1868, but |
restored in ballots the dress circle tickets
which Southern men left in their other
coat when they started out in rebel
uniform. The "bulldozer" is the hero of
tho new drama, and rejoices the hearts Of
Democratic claquera The black man is
always the heavy villain and the curtain
falls upon him dscourously and respect
July dead. In all this business there is
sluggish drip Of blood, as silent as are
he lips of too many Americans who call
themselves men, and profess Jealousy of
he constitution. Gods lightning's Of
vrath will yet descend upon nation that
'ermits His creatures and its wards to
. the sport of murderous within. The
lorth might better have left them
laves, whom the selfishness of q mas !
er's ownership would, as q rule,
ave protected from violence that should I
ost chattel's life. It is mock human
y that smites of the shackles from q
'ans feet and thus furnishing provoca-
on to murderous bigots, suffers pistol
, be leveled at his head. The North .
lade the slave freeman in name-it is
s solemn obligation to see that he is q
conan in fact. Whatever is necessary
make good his guarantees should be
one; the army captain should stand at q
le elbow of the district attorney of the .
nited States whenever the formers in b
rposition alone can give due emphasis p
law. To falter in enforcing law lest =
70 transgressor of the law be affronted =
ereby is to confess sickly sentimental =
7 that only emboldens that trans Z
essor to more wanton trespasses. n
The North undertook plan of recon If
ruction and must not dodge the respon- D
oility Of it. Every political murder, N
cry act of intimidation impeaches the p
od faith of the North SO far as such b.
ts are permitted to pass unrebuked. ju
'uisiana is twice national soil national
purchase from France in money, ma +"
NAL by reclamation from treason in n
bod. The national representative within =
borders should be determined by the -,
ed presented. If the national court be =.
adequate, then the national arms should ~
at hand. The miserable qualm Of men
70 protest against the presence of Fed "a
Il soidiery as violative Of law, yet ex- in
bit no pain at the incessant breaches of ",
nv law known to the Christian calendar. m,
entitled to no respect save that of con- gu
npt at the hands Of the American people. sic
HAPPY DEMOCRACY. l.1
n its abandonment of all political tn
nciple the Democracy has substituted sa'
distinction of names for the separa- DO
q of doctrine. AS the Romans divided nu