New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1853-10-31
THE PROPISI0.N" FOR Il REGISTRY
- LIN
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE UNDER IT ,

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE UNDER IT
By the 18th article of the new Constitution,
provision is made for the adoption of a Registry
Law for the city of New Orleans, and the Legis-
lature is thereby especially enjoined to pass
such a law, under which the names of all the
qualified electors of this city, with their resi-
dences, shall be registered, in order to entitle
them to vote This provision is imperative, and
should have been acted on BY the last Legisla-
ture In the multiplicity Of private interests
and political ends which engaged the attention
of that democratic assemblage, it was passed
over For all present purposes the constitu-
tional provision is a dead letter.
Although sworn to abide by the Constitution,
and to faithfully perform all the duties incun-
bent on them representatives of the people,
our Legislators neglected this positive mandate
Whether not they were justified in such neg
lect is a matter between them and their con-
stituents, and the consciences of the individual
members
The establishment of Registry Law for this
city is of permanent necessity. Where such
heterogeneous population exists, it is impossible
that the elective franchise can be respected
withoutit. Our population is essentially migra-
tory, and composed in great part of advsntur-
ers on whom no restraint operates, and who
will not hesitate to vote, whether they are en-
titled to do so or not. The vsitngs of conscience
will not deter them, when urged by the infu-
ence of brides, and backed by lawless partisans,
they have no fear of temporal punishment. In
the immoral state of our floating population, our
al 81 al 11,,4
uine expression of public opinion can never be
had. Men utterly without character aud hav-
ing no fixed residence amongst us are they who
hold the balance of power, and that balance is
always thrown on the side which is willing to
bid highest. For whichever party that vote is
cast, wrong is perpetrated on the rights of
legal voters, and the elective franchise is thus
made subject of barter for the enslaving of
resident citizens.
No wrong can be done under the operation of
a law requiring the names and residences of all
voters to be recorded, and much public injury
may be averted Under such a law the greater
probability of an honest expression of public
opinion will always be secured Although it
will not prevent the bargain and sale of mer-
cenares, it will put a stop to false swearing,
and all the accumulated ills that follow the rule
of corrupt mobocracy.
Every one knows that under the present state
of things there are hundreds Of lawless individ-
uals, who having no right to vote, are yet the
first to be at the polls, being bought up for
consideration Swearing to the necessary quail
ifications is an easy thing when the allurements
of gold are put in opposition to the slender re-
straints of an uneducated sense of right and
wrong.
These views, we presume, will not be contro-
verified by either party. The establishment Of a
Registry Law will be one of the first duties of the
next Legislature, and it behooves our citizens
to send Representatives to that body who will
not be neglectful of the Constitutional mandate
to establish such law. The obligation to have
done so was imperative in the last Legislature,
being embodied in the Constitution-ea
individual member of that body being sworn to
carry out the provisions directed by that instru-
nent. In failing to pass such law our legis- |
mindful of the oath taken by each
Individual member. For having forfeited the
rust reposed in them they are amenable to their
constituents Let .tlIer constituents decide
whether they have faithfully administered the
entrusted to them. Let, also, due |
retribution be visited upon those who have tar
ried by the wayside in doing the bidding of the
people, their masters, and who buried their
talent in the earth.