The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-01-24
SUFFRAGE AND D1srRANcHrsEMENr.


The radicals in the Mechanics Institute
convention have at last got to Cabling on the
ouestions of suffrage and Acknowledgement.
In the exercise of that sovereign power which
they suppose TO have been conferred on them
nv the federal Congress- thew o-n -.
1etermlne whom, OF the white people OF this
State, they will permit to vote, and whom
they will prevent from voting. We presume
that vagrant and mendicant loyalty has figured
it all up, and made tolerably close calcutta
ton of the number necessary to be excluded,
in order that the brilliant statesmen and peri
patetic politicians who compose that deserv-
ing class, may be enabled to stuff the emolu-
ments of Office into their empty and
capacious carpet-bags. But some of the
black members of the convention seem to
hesitate. They want to vote and to hold
Office themselves; but they can't see the abb
solute necessity of working exclusively for the
benefit of the vagrant and mendicant loyal
lists. They begin to see that the extremes to
which they have been driven by these timer
ant patio will, very probably, turn the cur
rent of public opinion against that whole
legcs originated.
This fer was expressed very emphatically
by one of the ADLER of their members who,
yesterday, declared himself against any dis
reimbursement; end afterwards received the
congratulations of several of his colored col
leagues. Judge Cooley, too, volunteered some
excellent advice 70 the majority, advice which
4 81, HoI
idea that the ediice they are erecting would
be permitted to stand by the people of the
country. But of course, they will not follow
it, 1t is useless for Judge Cooley to tell them
that, if the United States troops were with
drawn it wouldbe simply absurd for the three
hundred Thousand negroes, aided by a few
score of vagrant and mendicant loyalists, to
attempt to govern the four hundred thousand
white people of Louisiana. 1t is useless to
tell them that an ignorant and uneducated
minority will never be able, except by the
aid of exterior force, which must, some day,
be withdrawn to rule an educated and intelli-
gent majority. Some of them see that the
approaching political revolution will deprive
them of the assistance on which they rely,
and that when they are left to shift for them
selves they will surely come to wreck in the
storm of reaction which will have been raised
against them. But the majority have an in
fantle reverence for Congress. They think
that Congress can enact miracles. Their
superstitious belief in congressional power is
as great as their faith in the voudooist, or the
snake chsrmer.
Of course, the itinerant "loyalists know
very well that the people of the country are
opposed to them; that they are hostile not
only to negro supremacy, but to negro suf-.
frage; and that in one way or another, they
will finally overthrow the whole scheme of
congressional reconstruction; but these pa
triots have no alternative. They are bound
to risk all, or lose all Their motto is:
"Root, hog, or die" They know that they
have Only one chance to get their hands into
the public treasury; only one chance to get
into Office; only one chance to fill their empty
csrpet-bags; and that this chance depends on
the Acknowledgement of the white people. If
they can't have long term of power, they
will put up with short lease; but power and
plumber they must have. 1t matters little to
them if the whole scheme of "loyalist"
supremacy be finally oyerthrown, so that they
have two years, or one year, or even six
months Of Office and emolUment. They know
that the deluge is coming; but they care
nothing for it if they only have time to get
out of the way with their plumber. SO they
gable on about the inalienable right of every
body to vote that will vote for them, and their
own indefeasible right to disfranchise every
body that will not vote for them, aud laugh
at the credulity of the unhappy creatures
whom they have deluded with sounding
words end false promises.