The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-07-31
THE BELLS OF '76 AND '6s.

When in the year 1776 the colonies of Great
Britsin published to the world that deathless
Declaration of Independence" which proved
that there Z" is a limit to the despots power"
the bell of the Old South Church in Phila-
delphia rung out loud and clear through the
summer air proclaiming elderly through all
the land, and as its reverberations sounded
over valley and hilltop, as its glad notes were
echoed from steeple to steeple, till through
the whole country arose the mighty pecan to
freedom, every man who heard the tidings
answered the invocation, and with earnest and
solemn JOY prepared for the great strife which
was to come.
To-day, were the bells of New Orleans
allowed to speak, they too would ring forth
note that should traverse the land from end
to end. But their tidings would be far diff
ferent from those which the bell of the Old
South Church proclaimed. Instead of the
glad anthem for the birth Of liberty in the
land, they would toll slowly and sadly a
mournful knen over her grave. Instead of
bidding the world rejoice that nation of
freemen had sprung into existence, they
would ask its pitiful tears for people crushed
outraged trampled under foot instead of de-
handing the admiration of the globe for the
creation of an army Of patriots, jealous
for liberty, pure, single-minded, they
would tell the mournful story of the
bringing into existence of an irrespon-
sible, rapacious and ignorant body of SOL
dieTs; instead of bidding the monarchies of
n \ Al. Al.
problem of self government by the people,
they would invite their gaze at the spectacle
OF pretended free State placed under the
absolute and despotie control ofo man, made
responsible for the abuse of his authority
to no one but his God. But alas the bells
of New Orleans are dumb Our people can
do naught but ''suffer and be strong" for the
hand of power brushes out both resistance and
complaint. But there is a portion of this
nation to whom free speech and free action are
both yet realities, and in them, in the justice of
our cause, and in the merciful goodness of the
all merciful and all good is our trust
Let it be proclaimed in every Northern city,
let them be told in every household, let them
be published on every street corner, let them
be printed in every paper, that the lower
house of the legislature of Louisiana-the pre-
tended legislature which as fairly represents
our State as it does the State of Massachu-
setts-that this body of revolutionary politi-
clans, on the Doth day of July, 1868, passed
an act allowing the governor of the State to
raise and equip whatever troops he chooses,
to employ them as he sees fit, to disband
them at his discretion, to officer them at his
will; in short, an act to create a standing
army ofnegroes in the State to be at the beck
and call of the radical party in Louisiana. Let
these tidings be proclaimed everywhere
throughout the free North, and ifthey do not
there create so strong feeling as shortly to
undo this ubiquitous work, let the bell of old
South Church be re-cast and instead of words
which it now bears proclaim liberty through
all the land" let it be inscribed with the
blacklist of letters, This bell, originally q
token of the birth of liberty in this land, is
now a monument to her memory"