New-York tribune., 1878-06-11
TIE LOUISIANA PROBLEM

will not down. Several times already it has
been the decisive element in national affairs,
and we see no reason to hope that 1t may not
plague the country many times hereafter.
For those are entirely unphilosophical who
attribute difficulties in that State wholly to
temporary causes-On one side TO n particular
set of Outrages, or on the other side to par
ticular set of frauds. Some part of the diff
Guilty, at least, is likely to last for years, and
the best that friends of free institutions can
expect Is that there may be a steady improve
mcnt in the political condition of the State,
and a gradual elimination of the mischief
making elements.
There has been not much thinking, but a
great deal of shrickine, about the Louisiana
problem. Extreme views have been taken by
partisans on both sides, and not unnaturally.
The Democrat or Republican everywhere else
relies almost exclusively upon the Democrat
or Republican of Louisiana for information,
aud the Democrat or Republican Of Louisiana
is a person incapable OF seeing more than one
side. and prone to exaggerated speech and ex-
treme behavior. In Louisiana each party seems
to the other the direful spring OF all our woes.
This violence and rccklessness of party spirit
is not peculiar to Louisiana. We find some
thing of it here something more the further
South we go, and more in Cuba, Mexico, or
Central American States than in Louisiana.
1t is a trait which appears to increase with
the higher temperature and the greater pro-
portion of South European OF African blood,
as we 20 southwark. DR.. Draper declared
that free government had been historically
failure, and was philosopbically impossible,
south of a certain isothermal line. and the
citizens of the United States cannot yet
point to their States Of the far South as proof
that he was III error.
Ithas often been remarked that the Republican
party and It's administrations are to blame for
the bad character of those who lead it in
Louisiana Undoubtedly there has been cen
sure deserved, because bad men and bad deeds
have been excused or defended; but when it
is said that more worthy party would have
found more blameless representatives in that
State, there is something to be answered.
The intensity of party spirit, and the unscrup
ulousness OF its methods, have by nat
ural selection and years of constant train
ing made the leaders what they are.
Since the war, it has been extremely
hard for an upright, self-resDecting business
Republican principles in Louisiana. The most
cruel social Ostracism was resOrtcd to deliber-
atey and systematically by the Democrats in
order to make it impossible for men who care
for social consideration for themselves or their
families to affiliate politically with the Repub-
Iicans. The meanest and basest prescription
in business was employed to c0erce men of
capital or enterprise All that is vile and
malignant in SANDER of personal character
those had to expect who attempted to defend
Republican principles, and the purest and most
worthy were maligned and blackguarded even
more than the most knavish or abandoned,
because they were more sensitive to such as
saults. BY systematic and constant resort to
these methods for fifteen years the Louisiana
Democrats have done all that they could to
make il impossible for decent, substantial
property-owning and reputable men to be-
come leaders of the Republican party. The
wonder is not that the management of the
party has fallen largely into bad hands, but
that so many respectable and worthy men
have still dared TO uphold it.
Repeatedly the effort has been made to place
pure and worthy citizens of high standing in
the community, in charge of Republican'inter-
ests in Louisiana. President Grant tried to
strengthen the party by the selection Of Gen
eral Longstreet, but the world knows with
what yenomous slander he was hunted down
by men who had been glad to honor him. Ev-
cry attempt has been met in the same way,
until it has become true that more moral
courage and self-sacrifce are required, in order
to take leading part on the Republican side
in Louisiana, than can be expected from one
in ten thousand men Of good character, busi-
ness or professional standing and social posi-
ton. IL Louisiana has been badly governed,
it is due quite as much to the INSCRIPTIONS
partisanship of Democrats as to the errors
Of Republican administrations or the short
comings of Republican voters.
Moreover, corruption did not enter Louisiana
with Republicans. 1t is a weed which grows
rank in every tropical climate, and was only
too well-knOwn In New Orleans before the war.
The Plaquemine frauds were the first in this