The Feliciana Democrat. (Clinton, La.) 1855-186?, 1857-02-28

Dies--by prohibiting executions III clVll SUITS
from taking effect Oh less than three hundred
dollars of value--by lamentations of the law Of
landlord and and tenant, through which land
lords have been more and more subjected to
the will of dcpraved and dishonest tenants
by separating estates between men and women
in the married state, multiplying the causes oil
divorce, and expanding the grounds OF MAIN
tcnance-by compelling property holders to
bear all the burdens of government, and to
liquidatc the onerous eYactions OF municipal
corporations---and by forcing the rich to edu-
cate, out Of their pockets, the children OF the
poor, as well as those who are nobody's chill
drcn. These, with many other enactmensts OF
similar import, Indicate the blows struck by the
no property masses Of the North, through their
representatives in State legislatures, against
the property holders in their midst, prior to
the introduction Of the question OF the terrific
ries and the diversion Of their efforts to the
arena Of general politics. the action OF
universal suffrage, how could the legislative
bodies Of the North avoid engrafting on their
statute hooks the measures of agraranlsm!
Those bodies have been, and are, necessarily
but the opponents Of the no.propcrty masses.
Let us look to the population Of Philadelphia
as fair illustration, in these respects, OF the
population of the North, for whereas agrcul-
tural communities spread over surfaces, com
mcrcial and manufacturing communities con-
centrate in cities in addition to which fact
Philadelphia, in herself supplies us with lib
eral example In Philadelphia there are not
less than FIVE hundred thousand inhabitants,
and out Of this number not more than fifty
thousand against whom IN execution in civil
suit could take effect. The proportion between
the improperly classes and the property class
cs, in Philadelphia, stands as ten of the former
to one Of the latter These figures extended.
as they may be without fear of exageration to
the entire population Of the non-slaveholding
Stntcs, estimating that population at eighteen
millions, would give at least sixteen millions OF
citizens who own nothing opposed to not more
than two millions of property holders. With
;. such preponderating majority and under the
, rule of universal suffrage, can anything be
, more simple than that all the powers OF their
State Governments, and the representative
branch of the general government should be
|, subjected to the former, and that ambitious
f dcmagogues should court their favor by ex,
\ citing their lustful appc,ites and panderlng to
i their necessities Can anything be more sim
= pie than that they should have been taught
. by demagogues or else have learned, through
!. their own reflections, the cxtent of their poti
a. cal dominion, and that they should have swnye'
: legislation in the line of their interests, wit
II the determination hereafter to enforce thei
,s mandates with higher hand? Power Away
IN has been, and ever will be, in practice, TIL
Ia law of right whose teel-gravcn cdicts obll'
:, crate alike abstract moral codes and constir
90 ., tioal observanccs however divincly conceive
10 or eliminated from the wisdom Of ages.
of Nor has this fell spirit exhibited itself alon
v on the statute books of the non slaveholdin
al States, and in the land laws Of Congress dn
of ing the period rccurred to- but it has foSterc
r. the principle Of association in IL multitude {
lc. shapes, until more recently it gave birth
is the mystery of Know Nothingism, and now hi
or originated the political party designated !
ct some as the Black Republican, but by then
no. selves rs the "Radical Dcmocratic porfg"
er- which form it appears concentrated IN sn
- stance, aud fully armed for future conflict {
til. the theatre of the United States The Trad
m. Union" orgnnizaionS-th "Sons Of Tempe
no. ance" uililiatons-the "Odd Fellows" sori
Id ties-the Institutions Of the "Drulds"-tl
nd. brothcrhoodS of "Red Men" the tralernlti
tn of "Orangc.Mcn," and many other klndr
the modefn associations, formed at the North smo
be exclusively Of no.property citizens, and havII
to their incipiney in many commendnble hotlv
)ed there, as elsewhere, nevertheless attesled U
th presence and action of this pervading demo
the The Trades Unions intended, in the beginni''
hey by their no property day-hboring members,
aud resist the dictations of property holders n
hey capitalists in industrial pursuits, felt liS M
not encc aud under its plastic hand assumed hn
,are y the form Of political unions to control g
the ernm.ntal concerns, The application OF
of Secret principle observed ir the lodges OF
crn- societies. and rendered now familiar to
citi- Trades Unions, at once gave birth to the
of crct political fraternity known as Know
,rty things" The dissolution ofthe Wing pa
i've, furnished the ready occasion, and the eXlste
Iism in force of the "Nativc American" pa
true throughout the cities, founded originally in
ROY. position TO the influence of naturalized cltiz
the supplied the political nucleus around which
lips new order gathered, and presented its "0
DID, forcign" feature. In the Trades Unions,
ting well as in the secret societies, vast major
r0rs- if not all, were either native born or Pro
tant, and deeply prejudiccd against Cath'
foul and the Catholic church. This arose from
,rth fact that the Catholic church. acting on its