THE LOUISIANA BILL
Mr. Eliots Louisiana bill was promptly passed by the House; nor was
it surprising, for the report of the New Orleans Committee reveals the appalling situation
resulting from the attempt to reorganize civil government by the late rebels. The thing
most hated in the city of New Orleans is evidently steady fidelity to the Union. That the
hatred is honest only makes it more deadly. The massacre of loyal men was deliberately
planned and terribly executed. Nor can any one doubt that one of the conspirators, if not
by position the ringleader, was Mayor Monroe, a fierce and notorious rebel whom the
President pardoned into office.Of
the Presidents part in the tragedy it is most painful to speak. Of the slightest
sympathy with loyal men or of the least wish to inform himself of the facts, there is not
a trace. Trampling upon his own theories, in defense of which he defied Congress,
denounced by name Senators and Representatives, and stumped the country, he peremptorily
called to account the person whom he acknowledged to be Governor of a State for a strictly
local act. Knowing, as the country knew, what the spirit of the city Government was, and
what the decision of the courts, he ordered that the military arm should support them.
Disdaining the officer whom he had insisted that Congress and the country should recognize
as Governor, he addressed himself to other officers with whom, even had they been what he
claimed, he could constitutionally hold no communication whatever. And when the fearful
slaughter of defenseless loyal men in the exercise of the plainest right of American
citizens occurred, he who had promoted it for the word is not too harsh had no
word of sympathy or sorrow, and went through the country trying to smear Congress with the
innocent blood that cried to Heaven.
It is a very sad and solemn story. After
half a year the details are not less fearful than when they were first known. They have
steadily accused us who are responsible for the government of the country and for the
ample defense of all our fellow-citizens. Except for the countenance of the President the
New Orleans massacre had not taken place. Except for his persistent opposition to the will
of the people in Congress, of his contempt for experience and for common sense, the
universal disorder in the lately rebellious section would have been in the way of
pacification. The old rebel spirit has counted upon him. Invited by him, it has scornfully
rejected the Amendment. Relying upon him, it has outraged and murdered and continues to
outrage and murder loyal citizens of every color. The doubt, confusion, and virtual
anarchy in Texas and elsewhere have been developed and encouraged by his foolish
insistence that an experiment which has long been a tragical failure is a triumphant
success. The New Orleans report is an indictment of the whole Presidential policy. It is
now seen to have been wrong in its theory and fatal in its results. It proposed to build
loyal Governments upon disloyal men, and to leave the security of the rights of the
freedmen to those who hated them for being free.
That the policy was not at once
repudiated was due to reasons which we have heretofore explained. That it was wise to try
the experiment when once it was begun we have always thought and still think. That its
failure is total and terrible we have long distinctly declared. Mr. Eliots bill
proposes to begin anew, and to build up a stable foundation. Its principle is, that the
civil Government of Louisiana must spring from the loyal and not the rebel element of the
population. Its chief defect, in our judgment, is the extent of the disfranchisement.
There are thousands of people in the Southern States who believed in "the South"
and fought more zealously for it than Toombs or Wigfall who are thoroughly disenchanted,
who have sincerely acquiesced, and who would most willingly see the leaders punished. Mr.
Eliots bill permits such to vote after a certain process; but it seems to us that it
would have been wiser to exclude a certain specified class from the polls and from office,
and to allow all the rest to vote. The reason is, that a vast disfranchised class of those
who have been always honored as masters and leaders, is a dangerous class; while, by
making it small, it is the interest of all others to support the Government.
But no bill could be entirely
satisfactory, while this avoids many of the theoretical difficulties which trouble so many
minds. Political metaphysics have been exhausted. Whether the late rebel States can or can
not ratify an Amendment whether if they can, they should not be represented
whether if they can, they may be required to ratify as a condition for enjoying an
unconditional right, are the questions around which Congressional schoolmen have spun
their webs, but without catching the conscience or common-sense of the country. That sense
and conscience have determined that the rebel States shall be restored only when proper
guarantees have been obtained; that loyal governments are no more to be expected of
disloyal men than figs of thistles; and that innocent citizens of the United States shall
be every where protected by the United States. If that is centralization, make the most of
it. Mr. Eliots bill begins at the right end, and we hope that it will become law
without much change.
Articles Related to Military Reconstruction:
News Items
January 19, 1867, page 35
Impeachment
January 26, 1867, page 50
Congress and
Impeachment
February 16, 1867, page 98
The Probability of
Impeachment
February 23, 1867, page 114
The Louisiana Bill
March 2, 1867, page 130
Reconstruction
March 9, 1867, page 146
The Thirty-Ninth
Congress
March 9, 1867, page 146
The Veto of the Reconstruction Bill
March 16, 1867, page 162
The Fortieth Congress
March 30, 1867, page 195
The Fortieth Congress
April 6, 1867, page 211
Sprats and Vetoes
April 6, 1867, page 210
Adjournment of Congress
April 13, 1867, page 226
Prometheus Bound
March 2, 1867, page 137
The Result
March 30, 1867, page 194
The Southern Commanders
April 6, 1867, page 218
The Debate upon Impeachment
March 23, 1867, page 178
We Accept the Situation (cartoon)
April 13, 1867, page 240
The Big Thing (cartoon)
April 20, 1867, page 256
The End of Impeachment
June 22, 1867, page 386
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