New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1867-08-27

pGdCt lON1s IL WV HAsesAN "
the great tree of liberty that they are about
10 plant. We are about to establish here
a republican form of government, beneath
which every man shall be entitled to equal
rights. and we wish that every man in the
state should show by his actions that twill
be safe to confer upon him the privileges and
rights that we intend to secure for ourselves.
The Republican party of Louisiana would
be glad if to-day there were not a disiran-
chised man within her borders. Just so soon
as the public safety will Justify such an act,
the Republican party will labor for the re-
moval of political disability from the class
now DISTINGUISHED The state can never be
wholly prosperous, and our people can
never be wholly contented SO long as one
half of our citizens are shut out from the
exercise of the franchise, and are aliens in
the land of their birth. For the present
this exclusion is absolutely necessary 1t IS
not yet safe to entrust any political power
in t he hands of the men who have been
disfranchised for participation in the rebel
lion. We must exclude them. and go Tor
ward with our work of recognizing the
state without their aid. But as soon as We
fit them for the intelligent discharge of po-
are wholly converted from the error OF
their ways, we will admit them once more
into the political fold, But they can never
be thus converted so long as they listen to
the teachings of their old leaders, and con-
fine their reading to the columns Of their
old newspapers. These men look forward
to the coming of ." a reaction" against the
spirit of republicanism that pervades the
land. When this state is readmitted into
the Union, and the military power is re-
moved, they hope to build up for them
selves a party that will insidiously seek
to undermine the new government and to
drag the state back into the condition it
stood before the war. 1t may be said
that this will be impossible. We believe
that it will be impossible. but we also be-
lieve that the attempt will be made, and
that it will be productive of much trouble
if into it the white people Of the state per-
nit themselves to be drawn. 1t is useless
to attempt to persuade ourselves that the
majority of the white people Of this state
are any more favorable to the principles of
the Republican party to-day than they were
seven years ago. If they knew what these
principles were, they would embrace them
gladly, but they are deplorably ignorant of
them. 1t is upon this ignorance that the
old political leaders base their calculations
for their future operations The moment
reconstruction is accomplished these lead
ers will commence the work which they
now foreshadow in their speeches
and in their newspapers. They
will foment dissensions among the
Republicans, and harmonic and con-
solidate their own ranks. The practical
administration of the government of this
state upon the principles of Republicanism,
will inevitably be opposed in every posi-
BILE manner by the reactionists. If those
old leaders are permitted to regain their
influence over the minds of the whites, we
will have in Louisiana what they have in
Tennessee and instead of being able to
devote our time and energies to the work
Of building up the material interests of the
state, we will be compelled to carry on a
warfare, perhaps for years, with the party
that seeks to stem the tide of republican
progress, and restore as far as may be the
condition of things before the war.