New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-08-09
eoYsRNoR wELLs AGAIN.

y
dressed to the $ Loyal People Of Louisiana,
1 Precisely whom the governor means py
"loyal people, we discover only alter read
inc the document in question; after having
accumulated which task we find that persons
Tins bonored With the executive confidence
are tbose with whom he eonfesses that he had
s. concerted the scheme for the subversion OF
~ state government In thus discriminat-
y HI between the small fraction of oonspira-
: tors Of whom he has assumed the leadership
and the great mass of the people of the
: State whom he mahgns, denounoes, and re-
pudiates, the governor exhibits more sagac-
!! ity than he displayed when he undertook to
legalize an illegal body, by committing an un-
lawful act But his assumption that his ad-
dress is, in any sense, an explanation, is
simply an abuse of terms. The people
whom he has politically betrayed, and whom
j he sought to deliver into the hands of their
merciless enemies, want no explanations from
him, and the persons to whom he addresses
himself fcertainly, need none. With all of
| them his recapitulation of the history of the
defunct convention of '64 is entirely superau-
Gus, The only reasonable inference is then
that the governor has published this ''ad-
dress in order to supply to the enemies Of his
/ State and his section fresh stock of errors,
sanctioned by the executive signature, and
indorsed by the executive testimony So
clear is this intent throughout the whole docu-
ment that nobody will regard it in any other
light than as the governors defnitive
| pronu5cidmie1do in favor Of the radical party
| Further than this it has no relevancy and
no Importance. To the mass Of the people
Of Louisiana it makes but little difference
contumacy and Righteousness, since they
ascertain what he means by placability ana
| ''loyalty." 1t is Of no consequence to them
that he openly ayows his apostacy to the fac
ton which he but lately so bitterly de-
nounced since his intention to betray the
people who elected him had long ago become
1 apparent And what are the complaints
which the governor brings against the peo-
pie of Louisiana In concise terms they
are these That the people of Louisiana, at
the several elections held by them, have
chosen to office men who sympathized with
them in the struggle through which they lad
just passed that Governor Allen would have
been overwhelmingly elected had it been un-
derstood that he would consent to accept the
governorship and that the Legislature wanted
to cali convention to form new Constitu-
ton. But in all of these accusations there is
a confession that an overwhelming majority
of the people Of Louisiana really did belong
to the Confederate side, and that an equal ma
jority was known, by the governor, to be
opposed to the unlawful and revolutionary
scheme Of calling together again the conyen-
ton of 1864. How could it be otherwise
when it was the aFowed purpose of that
scheme to disfranchise the majority, and to
throw the State government into the hands Of
the minority How could it be otherwise
when it was the governors purpose, SO de-
clared by himself, to secure, by means Of that
convention of 1864, ratification Of the con
stitutonal amendment which ratification he
admits could never be obtained from the
people Of the State? In fact, the summing
up Of his whole argument is that be
wanted the convention Of 1864 to reassemble
precisely because the people of the State did
not want it /; and that he wished that body
to assume sovereign powers precisely because
they represented the minority and not the
majority Of the people of Louisiana On the |
other hand it is fair deduction that he op- |
posed Legislative call for aSconvention, be-
cause such a convention would represent the
whole people, and he tried to defeat the paro-
chial and city election bills because he knew
that the people would elect men whom thew |
loved and trusted, and not men who might be
recommended to them by the governor. This
is legitimate and logical summing no
of the governors argument. As to
his accusation that the people of Loui-
siana felt resentment at the abolition
Of slavery, it is answered by the fact that
the legislature which represented them and on
which he casts this accusation ratified the
constitutional amendment which deereed the
abolition Of slavery all through the South
That Governor Wells should have ventured
to make it, only shows that he cares nothing
for the opinions Of his own people, and ad-
dresses only those who are ignorant of the
facts, and to whom enlightenment would be
unwelcome. The same remarks,
exactly, will apply to his statement that, if the
military forces be withdrawn, the lives Of
Union men viii not be safe.
Governor Wells has recently been in Rapides
parish, the parish of his residence, the parish
where he is even more unpopular than any
where else il the State, where his opinions must
oe well known, and where people admit the
lain which he makes to be thefacHe princeps
i Union men. Did he find himself in danger
here? Was hesurrounded bya military guard?
Did it require soldiers to protect him from
,opular violence Mol the governor knows !
hat Union men are as safe in Louisiana as in
Vermont; and that only conspirators and plot p
ters are unsafe here, just as such characters
would be unsafe any where. Ask Mr.. Ii
hoseilus, or Mr.. Rozier, or Jacob Barker, or
M Durant. if Union men are unsafe.
ASK Governor Wells if the. most con-
sistent Union men, those. who have never
wayered. in their devotion to the {" old FLAG !
ire not, or at least great majority Of them
attached to the party of law and order, and
lostile to the designs Of the revolutionists. 1
Ask him if two-thirds of his fellow-eonspira- !
ors are not deserters from the Confederate
,ause, or men who have illustrated their ideas
If allegiance bV n suddan chanoe IF ,,,litios