The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-01-23
SOUTHERN OBEDIENCE TO FEDERAL
AUTHORITY.

:, Inc most terrible plank in the platform of the
New Hampshire Republicans is the resolution
which says, "We are in favor Of the strict en-.
forcement OF the Constitution and laws of the
United states in the Southern States" This is
all that we ask, but it should be remembered
mat the Constitution and laws of the United
states are very unpopular in the turbulent States
OF the South, and their enforcement IN Misssis-
slppl and Louisiana would offend IS the people. >
n. o. Republiean.
To our readers at home it is not necessary
to remark, in answer to the above paragraph,
that there is no disposition at all on the part
Of the people of Louisiana or Of Mississippi,
Constitution of the United States or any of
the laws of the Federal Government; but for
the benefit of readers abroad, and to correct
an erroneous impression which some fair
minded person might otherwise get, it is well
enough to note few we'll known facts.
Ten and half years have elapsed since
the surrender of Lee, by which the War OF
secession was brought to complete close, so
far as the people of the Confederate States
could end i.
d
ea-iier, there was not single organized COM
pany of Southern men in the field or in gar
rson making resistance to the authority of
the Federal Government. Never was there a
resistance more vigorous followed by sur
render more complete or more entirely in
good faith. Since tia! date there is no single
instance known to the Radicals of New
Hampshire or to their sympathetic reprssen-
tative, the New Orleans Republican, where
either civil or military officer Ct the
United States has been opposed or menaced,
or in any manner interfered with in the dis
charge of his duties or in the execution Of
his orders. Base and brutal men in
The uniform of the army of the Union, COM
manding soldiers made up of the worst of
those negroes recently emsncpated, have
exercised arbitrary authority in a manner
most insulting, aggressive and provoking; but
there has been made to them and to white
soldiers no resistance Of any kind by man or
boy from the Potomac to the Rio Grande
The Republican knows that twenty days after
the capt. ulation at Appomatox, or at any time
since, corporais guard of Federal soldiers
could have marched from Baltimore to GaI-
weston without the slightest opposition or
molestation whatever; that not single arm
or weapon has been raised anywhere III the
lately confederased States against the Off GERS
or soldiers of the army of the Union; that no
single military order issued to the Southern
people has been disobeyed f; that no process
of any federal court in the hands of its proper
officer has been at any time resisted by force
or evaded by fraud that no force or conspir-
acy has been employed by our people to
divert from the federal treasury any of tie
dues to which it was entitled by the laws
which the Southern people had 10 share in ell
acting that no contempt or spirit of resist
ance has been manifested towards the civil
or military ag ents sent among US to execute
the laws Of the United States or to enforce the
DEGREES of federal courts and that no serious
effort hiss anywhere in the South at any time
s.nce the surrender been made by any person
or persons of influence to undo or nullify any
Of the legitimate effects Of any federal law
whatsoever.
The Republican will excuse US for denying
that the Constitution and laws of the United
States are unpopular in the South, as it as
serts. Those who now interpret the Consti-
tuition and those who execute the laws are for
the most part deservedly odious to us, be-
cause they are our enemies and rule over us
in spirit of tyrannical hatred; but against
the Constitution as we hope to see it con-
strued by patriotic statesmen, and against the
laws as we hope TO see them executed by Off
GERS acting under the authority of just and
honorable men, the Southern people harbor
no enmity and will offer no obstacle
The truth is just this: The people of the
South are, have always been. and will always
be loyal to the principles of republican gov
ernment as embodied in the Constitution, and
when carried out in its true spirit by honest
patriots, both the Constitution and the laws
made in pursuance of it will nowhere find |
more constant or more faithful or more cor
lial support than among the people of our
Southern States.