The Opelousas courier., 1867-07-27
The Duty Of the Hour.

M The Duty OF the hour.
1t is evident that Congress will no
leave the subject of reconstruction unit
it has fully provided the means for carry
# ing into effect its own wishes concerning
@ the Southern States. The course pur
sued by Gen. Sheridan concerning regis
tration seems to be generally approved
by the dominant party, and we may ex'
S. pect the passage of an enactment legal
81 izing, as far as an act of Congress may dc
81 it., the Interpretation given to the mill.
III tary bills by the military officers charged
Nj with their enforcement. We do not ex-
Nj pect that Congress will impose new
"a terms and conditions for the admission
II of Southern representatives and senators
II They will continue the state of things
now existing as to registration, and will
give us share in the government when
4 the registered voters of each State will
n say the word. The attorney generals
opinion ON the reconstruction bills will
not be permitted to influence registration
OF elections; and we must go on as we
were moving before that opinion was
published. In fact, it has made little or
no change in the course of events here.
1t alarmed leading radical politicians,
however. There would have been no
July session but for that opinion and the
advisory order based upon it. The great
object of the session will be accomplished
when Sheridan's policy, or something
near it, is embodied bey ond question in
the statutes of the United States.
We see in all this no occasion for
changing our advice respecting registra-
tion. Had the commanding generals of
the five military districts ceincided in
opinion with the attorney general of the
United States, the white vote of the
South would have been much larger. But
there has never been good reasons for
believing that the attorney generals
views of the reconstruction measures
would be acGuiesced in by the radical
party, Congress or the military cOmman-
ders.
We adhere, then, to the position we
have from the first assumed We must
make the best of the position in which
Congress has placed us, and do every
thing in our power to bring about speedy
reconstruction. Reconstruction means q
return to peace, the dawn of hope, the
revival of business, the influx of immi-
grafton, the rebuilding of our levees, the
regeneration of our planting interest,
the end of unrest and uncertainty. We
cannot afford to lose these things because
there is but one door through which we
can pass to get to them, and some of us
don't like the door. There is no help for
it. Let every good man use his influence
us far as it will go toward bettering our
condition, and if that influence does not
go as far as we should like, it is simply
our misfortune. We can do something,
at all events, and we have no right to
leave it undone.. Every man of good
character and sense. whois entitled to
vote, should secure his registration GER
tifcate while there is yet time. When
the polls are, opened he should deposit
his ballot, and do it i'm such way as to
satisfy the dominant party that they have
been mistaken in holding out the idea
that the oath of allegiance Southern citi-
zens have taken do not have a binding
and sacred force. Register now, and
afterward vote for unconstitutional con-
Sentlon, whether there is any other
reason for convention than that it is
made condition to the renewal of our
representation in Congress. Our Consti-
tuition may have been changed enough.
A little while ago, the then great leader
OF the Republican party, the late Presi-
dent Lincoln, was fully satisfied with it,
But as the Republican party of to-day
says Louisiana sliall have no share in
national legislation until constitutional
convention is held and new Constitu-
tion is made, let us gst over the work as
quickly as possible. If we don't help to
doit, it will be done nevertheless. and not
as much to our satisfaction.
If we cannot have everything we wish
just as we wish it, we must strive for the
best thing attainable. We suffer from
our exclusion from Congress. We can
help to remedy that evil at least, and the
less grumbling we do while we are re-
constructing, the better shall we be
treated. In reconstruction is our only
hope of salvation, material, social and
political. 4 For reconstruction, then, we
mustswork heartily and zealously, not
withstanding all discouraging influences
That is the duty of the hour.
<I N. o. Crescent