The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-08-19
the hands Of the carpet-bag villains you sen
down to pillage her; what them"

uo"h w pitiuss1 iCh WIttt oifgh'
The only reply was a groan.
This incident opens up fruitful theme.
The sharks and skinilints Of this section, who
have been busy for a dozen years stufflng into
old stockings the booty stolen from the pep
pie by the typical oifice-helder of Radical
ism, are just beginning to feel that sense OF
ill-ease which generally besets the individ-
ual who feels the bottom falling out
from under him. The complaeency
with which these people have bought-a at a
round shave, by the way-4every bond which
bore on it's face promise that the people would
pay, without inquiry as to the authority on
which the promise was given or as TO the
equity Of the transaction in any particular,
has been miraculous. The cry has been
BoNDsl BoNDsll BoNDs!!
And anything which purported to be mort
gage on somebody else's property, present
and prospective, has found ready market III
the North since the war. These people seem
TO have utterly forgotten the old adage about
It's being long lane that never turns. can
not make out whether their rashness was the
result Of utter lack of thought or OF blind
faith In the nomnipotence of the govern
lnent " at Washington TO force cunsumma-
tion Of the robberies Of Its creatures In the
South whenever all those bonds should be-
come due. suspect the latter was the ruling
impulse But there Is not so much faith as
there was. in the omnipotence Of the Federal
government to make wrong right by the sim
pie twist Of the wrist, as it Were. which is In
volyed In telegiaphing instructions to COM
when, II a Southern State government chosen
by the people dared to assert the peoples
rights, an order from Washington could tip It
over and set up any sort Of thing In Its stead
which might please the fancy OF the ruling
dynasty. That time is now past. 1t will
never be seen Of men again. There is not
force enough at the command of the Federal
government to upset the local self-rule Of a
good-sized county. Those who closely watch
events discern that q rapid and extreme reac-
tion is going on In the public sentiment Of the
country. The centralst doctrines which
held such mad sway a few years ago are Civ
ing way to
AN ExTRBM1sM OF LOCAL sEtF-aovERN1Na
IDEAS
among the masses Of the people which, UNI
less carefully guided into and sedulously
kept in strictly democratic channels, may re-
fabric. Ii our institutions are in any peril
tendencies to Capitalization, but from
the exactly opposite tendency toward
the dstrbati2a q power toy toward THAT That
makes every individual power unto himself
and results in moboeracy. 1t has. therefore,
become the very delicate duty Of the true
democracy.of our country to see that all the
equipoises Of free government are restored
and adjusted. To draw the fine line, for ex-
ample, between protecting the interests of the
people on the one hand and keeping the peo-
pies honest faith on the other. Reducing to
a specific proposition these generalities 1t is
the duty Of the Southern Democrats, who
control the States of that section, to carefully
sift the debts that are registered against their
several communities; to remorselessly cast
out all obligations that bear the carpet
bagger's stamp OF villainy and to faith
fully honor all obligations that equi-
pudiating the former is as sacred as that Of
honoring the latter. The bonds issued upon
any Southern State by any gang Of carpet
baggers, for purposes OF pelf and pillage, are
no more respectable or binding In my eyes
than would be a mortgage. which gang ol
burglars, with cooked reviewers, might force
an honest citizen to give them upon his house
when they had broken into It. That the ma.
iority of the Southern people hold the same
| view Of the subject is FULLY apparent to me
and the holders of such bouds, whether
| pupEs OR AcCoMpnroEs OF THE pIIFER1Ne
| CARPEr-BAGGERs1
must prepare to abide the consequences Of adj
judication according. to the law, the facts and
| the equities Therefore when asked, as fire.
quently am, in relation to these matters, dc
not tell the anxious bondholder that the South
| Ia SO glad to get free again that she will cheer
1
pet-baggers; but l do say that the South Is
herself again: that she Is In the hands of meT
who know their rights, and may be depended
on TO maintain them to the letter.
| While In this train of comment / may as
well mention another little incident which
will be of interest to the friends and patrons
| of the DEMOCRAT. Meeting friend who Is
one Of the most eminent and successful 81
Northern journalists, was asked the ques-
| ton
| ttro rrYr r,r,tnrp Ar rarNf, m urrcf.rrr ..
Then my friend went on to say that his at
| tention had been called to the DEMOCRAT
| from time to time, and that he had discovered
| in it a tone and vigor new in the journalism
GRAFT has one fault which tends largely tx
vtiate the results of its energy and enter
prise. The fault is
IT'S EXTREME AND EVEN DEFIANT SOUTHERN
| ISM.
BY and by 1t will be dubbed the organ OF
the fire-eaters, and then its weight vii
vanishl'
description about the DEMoCRAT; that The
only strictly fre-eating organs | knew OF
were the Inter- Ocean, the indianapolis Jour
nal, and small sheet, name escaped me
printed In Blaine's town up in Maine But
informed my friend that the DEMOCRAT was
the organ of the self-respect and self-re
lance of the Southern people L that was
| extreme Southernism," why then he ane
everybody else up North must make up theil
minds to stand a good deal of 1t between nov
and the day of judgment.
THE SOUTHERN PRESS
had formed a habit of beginning every arti
Gle with an apology to the North for being il
existence, and had been wont to round up its
periods by returning thanks for that thu
South was not forthwith shoveled off into tn,
Gulf of Mexico. But the DEMOCRAT hat
been ushered into being just at the close e
the era of sackcloth and ashes and just OF
the threshold of new epoch. 1t, therefore
had no apologies to make for being in exist
ence, nor did it feel called upon to return
| thanks for that it was not shoveled off int
| the Gulf. 1t would not eat any fire, I assured
my friend; and, with equal total abstinence
would it refuse to eat any dirt. 1t aimed, a!
| understood the principles upon which it wa
conducted, to utter the average
SENTIMENT OF THE COMMUNITY In WHICH r
| WAS PUBLISHED,
to provide the latest news in the most com
plete form, and otherwise to discharge tn
ordinary functions of daily newspaper
hoping some day to become great" to hav,