New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1877-05-02

'It is not right to indulge in facetisB
at the expense of the scarpet-baggers.
They are Just now trif1e unpopular, but
they have been useful. They did the
North favor by going South, which
should not be forgotten, and it seems now
TO be in their power to do the South even
a greater favor by coming North. They
are thus double blessing. They origin
ated what may be termed currency in
politics; circulating medium, a legal
tender much needed between different sec
tions of the country. As they lett US, they
took little with them; they will return
some of them-laden, like the busy bee,
with the results of accumulation and iru-
gality. They have done much to make
solid South. Chicago Tribune.
We transfer the above paragraph to our
columns to show how unjust carpet
bagger at the North can be. For the
editor of the Tribune is q carpet-bagger.
The Western States are largely peopled
by "carpet-baggers. The carpet-baRgers
of the West came from every country in
the world, and from the older Atlantic
States, North and South. They settled in
great swarms upon the prairie farms and
gathered in the towns, villages and cities.
They went to work like bees, cultiva ting
the soil, building houses and barns, and
improving cities and towns. They have
made the West what it is. During the
slavery period there we're very Jew carpet
baggers at the South. Those few we're
divided into two classes-teachers, men
and women-snd plantation overseers-
men. The latter class prospered; they
were esteemed in the exact ratio of their
cruelty to the slaves. They were inferior
in their devotion to the peculiar institu-
-. Ii IL. i Al
were loved and respected by the oGgarchs
of the plantation only little less than
their brute fellows. The other class, the
teachers, men and women, we're pariahs.
They were insulted, prescribed, socially
outlswed, prosecuted in their persons aud
estates, and finally driven from the coun-
try or murdered. The South recognized
and petted all the bad carpet baggers that
came among them, but ostracised and
banished all the good ones. The result
was the slow but sure decay of civiliza-
ton and every branch of industry at the
South. The West, on the other hand,
discouraged the immigration of the de-
PRAYED classes by Furnishing crime, and
encouraged the immigration of the good
and virtuous classes by recognizing them,
giving them helping hand, and lAboring
for their welfare. The result was Won
drous growth in civilization and marvel
GUS material prosperity. In the West
there was freedom of speech, q free press
and complete freedom of political action;
in the South there was neither. There
was a fell determination to crush out all
opposition to the custom of holding men
in bondage; consequently all good carpet
baggers had to be suppressed, and all bad
carpet-baggers encouraged and petted. 1t
L. IL Al. Al
patton and free black suffrage had
changed all this, and Northern men of
enterprise hocked to the South, invited
by its fertile fields, its genial climate and
its varied resources. But they have suf-
fered, through ostracism and persecution
precisely as their predecessors of the
anti-war period suffered; and finally they
have been notified to quit, we regret to-
| say it, by the government Of the United
| States, Thus closes the second era Of
carpet-bagism in the South. The carpet
bagger can speak, vote and act his senti-
ments in the West; but he can neither
| speak, act nor vote his sentiments at the
| South, unless those sentiments accord
with the views of the Hamptons and But
| lers Of the Southern country. We went
| to war to enforce freedom of speech and
| of political action in all the territory of
! the United States; we have ended, We
fear, by conceding away the prin ciple for
which patriots labored and shed their.
blood. The President has forced from
| Hampton and Nichols pledge of abso-
Lutte protection to colored citizens. The
pledge should have contained another
proVisioa-amnestyt to the carpet-baggers.
As the Tribune says: 'It is not right to
indulge in faceti@ at the expense of the
carpet-baggers. 1t is no more right to treat
the carpet-baggers of the South with abuse
and contempt than it would be to visit the
pet-baggers of Illinois with contumely.
Chamberlain, the carpet-bagger, has as
good right to sit in the executive chair
of South Carolina as Heath, the CARPET
bagger, has to be mayor Of Chicago There
is no difference of principle involved in
the two cases. We elected almost, if not
quite, an entire ticket of carpet baggers to
the offices of this municipality few
weeks since, and not one of the incum-
bents bears better reputation in this city
to-day than that borne by Chamberlain in
South Carolina and Packard in Louisiana,
equally among political friends and
political opponents. To denounce man
on account of his birthplace is the acme
of meanness. To ostracise the most distin-
guished carpet-bsgger in Chicago, either
politically or socially would be no more
despicable than to persecute the humblest
carpet-bagger in South Carolina on the
ground that he first saw the light in the
North, the East or the West. The chief
aim of the Federal government should be
not to give to the South reign of peace
in the absence of all save native born citi-
zens, but to insist that peace slsaA reign
there for all who choose to make that Sec
tion Of country their place Of residence.
To this complexion the Southern question
must come at last, and all compromises
that do not contemplate such result are
vain delusions. We hope for the best, but
We much mistake if we are not sowing the
National Wtelely.