The Louisiana Democrat., 1867-04-24
Register Yourselves.

SuVulu futllcI determine TO - act upon
them. Some, indeed, are disposed to
be pleased with them as giving us more
definite hope of disenthrallment than
did the vague proposal of the l4th con
stitutional amendment. But the word
acceptance" has disagreeable sound
to many, while to act upon the terms
presented involves neither approval nor
disapproval Of the action Of Congress.
One of the chief mistakes Of those
who propose to abandon themselves to
fate and Congress, is in supposing that
their prompt registration of themselves
and voting at all the elections under
these bills amounts to some surrender
of principle. On the contrary it is the
only means in your power whereby you
may hereafter vindicate your principles
and have the privilege of asserting
them. If you fail to do 80 now, wheth-
er you have principle or not is as
much a matter Of indifference to your
fellow-citizens and your country as if
you had been dead for a score of years.
1t is only by your prompt and consery-
ative action and your inducing all un-
der your influence, both white and
black, SO to act, that you will show
that you have principles.
That negroes are voters does not de-
grade you nor diminish your influence,
unless you purposely abandon the field
to them, and submit to be governed by
men whom they qualify and by laws
which they make, and in making which
you do not participate. "Silence," says
the common adage, "gives consent."-
When you fail to register, and fail to
vote for men who will preserve to you
and your children what little Of infu-
ence and power is left you, you consent
that your enemies shall rule you, and
their principles be victorious.
The fact is, the South would have
acted wisely had it made the negroes
voters Immediately after the surrender,
and thus have drawn their affections
wholly to the Southern side, nor have
waited for the North to impose negro
suffrage upon us as penalty. The ne
gro works for us in the field why
should he not work for us at the polls I?
Have we not ourselves participated in
voting with men whose moral degrada-
ton cannot be surpassed by that of the
negro, and did it weaken our principle
OF degrade us at all9
Nay, it would seem presumptuous
for those who can be voters under this
bill, to refuse to do so from motives of
pride and views of personal dignity,
when such men would vote if they
could, as John A. Campbell, late Judge
of the U. S. Supreme Court, and G.. Il.
Beauregard, whose name will be famous
to all mankind, after theirs shall have
ceased to be known, even in their own
family. Conscientious scruples are
certainly to be respected; but none can
keep any man from voting under con-
gressional mandate, who voted under
that of the President, andwho took
the oath of allegiance set forth by him
as a means of amnesty.
Registration, however, does not COM
pei any one to vote. There are those
who took the oath of amnesty, but
have declined to vote. Such can, by
being registered, ensure the right of
suffrage, though they may not see fit to
use it. Itshould be borne in mind that
there are only thirty days given us for
registration. Such as within that time
do not avail themselves of the chance
offered them, will have no part in either
electing delegates to the convention,
nor accepting or rejecting such consti-
tuition as it shall make for US. If you
think you cannot feel free to vote under
such regulations as now govern us, you
can, after registration, omit to do so;
but if your better sense tells you that
by an earnest effort to put into the con-
yention men Of sound judgment, deep
reflection, clear perception and great
perspicacity, by whom such constitu-
! tion can be framed as must be accepted
by. Congress, and, at the same time,
leave to our people who have taken
part in the war all the rights which
have not yet been wrested from them,
you will then have the privilege of
doing so. But if you do not register
now, you cannot vote then. You viii
be as much excluded as if alien born,
and might as well at once en1igrate to
Brazil or Mexico. 1t should be con-
stantly borne in mind that there is a
large party in Congress, led by Sum-
ner and Stevens, which is hopeful to
establish over all these States such gov
ernments as Tennessee and Missouri
now groan under, in which the so called
Loyalists and the negroes alone vote
and hold the reins of power. They
could not obtain such O restriction of
the franchise in the military bill as
would have effected this; but if we re-
fuse to register and to vote, we shall do
| it for them. We may rest assured that
a State government framed by their
emissaries here will not contain sim
gle feature of liberty towords the man
who has been true to the South, wheth-
er as Union man or as a Confederate.
Nothing would give them more rejoic-
ing than to find us, from pique or
pride, declining to assist in organizing
the future government of the State;
nothing now gives them more dismay
than to find such Southern men as we
have named, with Longstreetand Hamp-
ton, Wise and Throckmorton, accept
ing the issue presented them, and pro-
ceeding at once to try it before the peo-
pie. The game is in our own hands il
we play it; it is lost irretrievably if we
refuse to DO SON. 0. Pieayune.
J
| THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL-A
PANIC IN THE RADICAL PARTY.-There are
two remarkable articles, one from the
Providence Journal, Senator Anthony's
organ, and another from the Springfield
Massachusetts, Republican, a Radical jour
nal Of acknowledged influence in New Eng
land, The I" lesson of Connecticut, as the
Tribune calls it, has been thoroughly learn
ed and understood by at least two leading
Radical papers, and the Philadelphia North
American also thinks that the Radical ma
|jority in Congress has been pushing along
the cor of national progress little too fast
for some sections Of the party"
The Providence Journal states the cast
| . A a A 4