The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1868-07-18

is a crime to invite the citizens Of tn
country thus to repudiate their lndlVld
ual pyomise~ LApplause.] Was 1t no
a crime to force the creditors OF this an
other States to take a currency at time
worth no more than forty cents on tn
dollar in payment for the sterling colt
they gave to build roads and canal:
which yield such ample resources o
wealth and prosperity? [Applause.
Again they say it is due to the labor
er of the nation that taxation should be
equalized. Then why did they make
taxation unequal. Beyond the injus
tice Of making one class of citizens pay
for another the shares of the cost Of
schools, of roads, of the local law, which
protected their lives and property, il
was an unwise and hurtful thing. Cheers,
1t sunk the credit of the country as un.
usual terms are always hurtful to the
credit of the borrower.
They also declare the best policy to
diminish our burden of debt is SO to i'm,
prove ouf credit that capitalists will
seek to loan us money at lower rates OF
interest than we now pay, and We must
continue to pay so long as Reputation is
threatened or suspected. Then why have
they used five hundred millions of the
tax drawn from the people of this coun-
try to uphold a despotic military au-
thority and to crush out the life Of States,
when if this money had been used to
pay our debts capitalists would now
seek to lend us money at lower rates Of
interest. But for this covert population
our national credit would not be tainted
IN the markets Of the world. Applause.
Again they declare Of all who were
faithful in the trials Of the late war there
were none entitled to more especial honor
than the brave soldiers and seamen who
endured the lrardships of campaign and
cruise and inperiled their lives in the
service of the country. The bounties
and pensions provided by the laws for
the brave defenders Of the nation is an
obligation never to be forgotten. The
widows and orphans Of the gallant dead
are the wards of the people, a sacred
trust beqdeathed to the nations care.
Have these sacred tru IS been perform
ed? They pay to the MANNED man, to
the widow or orphan, currency which
they have sunk one-quarter below the
rightful value by their policy Of hate, of
waste; and of military despotism. The
pittanceto the wounded soldiers is pinch
ed dowd twenty per cent. below the value
Of that coin which he had right to ex-
,pect Loud cheers.l s..
! Is there no covert Reputation in this ?
EApplanse.l Again. they say foreign
emigration, which in the past has added
so much to the wealth, the development
of the resources and increase of power
to the yepublic-the asylum of the op-
pressed all nations-should be fostered
and encouraged by a liberal and a just
policy. Is this foreign emigration fos-
tered by a policy which is a mockery
Of the laws just passed declaring eight
hours legal days labor. The cost of
the Government and the swarms of Off
cials so swells the cost of living that
men must toll on to meet the exaction.
[Cheers The time was when we could
not only invite the Europeans to share
with US the material blessings of our
great country but more than this, we
could tell those who fled from oppression
that we lived under a Government of
laws administered by the Judiciary which
kept the bayonet and the sword in due
subordination. Cheers.]
We could point to written Constitu-
ton which not only marked out the
powers Of government, but whose anxious
care secured to the humble man the
right of property, Of person and con-
science. Is emigration encouraged by
trampling that Constitution in the dust,
treating it with contempt, shackling the
judiciary, insulting the Executive, and
giving all the world to understand, that
the guarantees Of political and civil
rights are destroyed? tApplause,]
But the croWning indictment against
the follies and crimes of those in power
is in these words: !" That we recognize
the great principles handed down in the
l1eclarationsof Independence as the true
foundation OF democratic government,
and We hail with gladness every effort
toward making these principles a living
reality on every inch Of American soil"
Ii, within tie limits of the ten States
OF this Union, an.American citizen. stung
By sense Of his wrongs, should public
ly and truthfully derlounce the men in
power, because in the very language Of
this declaration of independence they
hays created a multitude Of officers to
harrass eur people and eat out their snb-
stance, he would in all human probabili-
ty be'dragged to prison or if, in thel
indignant language Of our fathers. he
should exclaimed that theyhave affected
to1srsndef the military independent or
superior to the civil power. have abolish
ed the free system of English law as
established here in arbitrary government
for the ofense Of asserting these princi-
pies, he would be tried and punished by
. military tribunal. [Great cheering
Having declared that the principles tof
the Declaration Of independence should
be made q living reality on every inch
Of American soil. they put in nomina-
lion a military chieftain, who stands at
the heat Of that system pf despotism
that crushea beneath its feet the great
est principle of the Declaration Of Inde-
pendence. Cheers.
+ is held By military orders to be a
crime TO speak ont the indignation and
contempt which burn within the bosonisI
of patriotic men. IF tomorrow mill
tary order should be put forth in that
State Whersfthe ashesof Washington are
entombed, that il viii be an offense to
declare that the military should ever be