Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1852-04-10
r. REDEMPTION from Iocofoco MEisrule.

with those of the humblest monied resources.
Not to any particular calling or grade of socie-
ty is this pecuniary distress confined. 1t is eV-
idenced everywhere: in the strict economy OF
our planters--in the apathy apparent in our
workshops-in our comparatively deserted
| stores-in the frugality of iamilies-in the sour
and down-cast countenances exhibited on the
| streets-eyen in the coffee-houses and around
the billiard-tables, the fatal resort of sanguine
| Compartments, to drown sorrow and sink the
reflection consequent upon a sinking purse
and, alas, too practically exhibited at the sher-
ifs office on the first Saturday Of each month,
whose hard but indispensable task it is to Gerry
off" to the highest bidder to satisfy liabilities,
(unable to have been met perhaps through the
difficulties of the times) the property and eff
fects which have probably been struggled for
through years of hope and happy anticipations
but now dissipated, sacrificed, lost! But,
the day Of redemption from suffering caused By
misrule, is at hand!
What has been the cause of this general ard
unprecedented pecuniary embarrassment? Not
merely to local misfortunes which have befal-
len Us hereto crevasses and overf1ows, sub
merging and destroying the wealth of our
| planters, the natural bankers of communities
and States; but politically and mainly, it is at
tributable to bad legislation, to unwise or dis
| honest law-makers-to a Constitution hurried
ly vamped up through party prejudiees, forpar-
ty effect and party glory-to perpetuate prin-
ciples or heresies, advocated as the vitality of a
party, by ENGRAVING them in that sacred instru-
ment, which should alone have been framed
for the peoples happiness and prosperity, with
an eve to the "greatest good Of the greatest
number" and not concocted, as ii .0as, to test
the beauty, soundness, compass and complex
edness of party views, predictions, traits and
characteristics. We allnde to that principle
and those acts which aimed at the destruction
of banks, and which created other pecuniary
obstacles and difficulties for the people to
shoulder, merely because such acts and such
principles had previously been declared as be-
ing assimilated with the materially and very
existence of the party in power, when the de-
lectable instrument under which we now suf-
fer was ushered into existence. Are there any
so ignorant or so blind, who will inquire rhich
party that was? For ten years the principles
of the Democracy have had a most fair and I'M
interrupted trial, as being embraced in organic
laws of the State, which they claim (and which
glory we would not diyest them) as having
wrought with their own hands, and which were
ushered into action at the very acm of Demo-
cratic preponderance. For ten years the works
and the principles of the Democratic party have
had their day-have been tested by the ordeal
of practice and experience-and we would in
quirs of the planter, the merchant, the necha-
mic, if within any similar period in this State
in his knowledge, the planting interest has
been less valuable, m more stagnant
and Improbable, the various branches of me-
chanics less productive? And of all classes
and occupations in Louisiana we would inquire,
if the circulation of capital has not been grow
ing perceptibly less since the adoption of the
present Constitution s--capital diminishing in
its operations through the destruction Of Gre
dit, by restrictive acts in that instrument, as
unwise and short-sighted as they were strictly
party-coIored and prcjudicial in their origin.
But the time has come-the day Of redemption
is at hand-when the people will have an OPP
portunity of arising as one man, and recording
their verdict upon the Democratic Constitution
of lS42-when banks can again be created,
and created upon a safe and judicious basis,
to assist industry and enterprise-the twin
brother of a system which will prevail as long
as the country is a Republic. The time, too
has come when the Executive of the State will
be deprived of a power which has never been
exercised with that impartiality and justice
equivalent with his oath of office and the high
dignity of his position-when public enterprise
will have no unjust legal embarrassments-
when capital will be induced from abroad and
placed upon the current Of circulation in our
State-when the iron safes of our monied men
will be thrown open, and thousands of dollars
find access to the hands of industrious, hard
working, energetic men, instead of Wondering
as at present in their close and strong recepta-
cles, through the existence Of restrictive and
absurd laws which Democracy, in its "pride of
place." deemed proper to establish for the 60
vernment of the people, and fos the retrQgres-
sion of private and public intere SITS.
Yes, the time has come the time for re-
demption, for regeneration, for disenthrallment
from errors long borne through necessity and
through suffering--the time which hallelujahs