New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-08-19
NEW ORLEANS RHPUBIU1N FRIDAY, HAUGUsT

does more than enforce law and order in .
community transccnds the power con-
| fided to it by the people, and is a usurp-
alton. It is a mistake to assume that
the American citizen confdes any Of his
personal rights into the keeping Of the
government, whether municipal or other.
The ordinance therefore, passed on
Tuesday by the Council, and which will
| be found on our other side in the Official
report of proceedings, goes as far as 1t
could or ought in respect to the prevail
ing concert saloons which some persons
demand should be Internationally closed.
The only regulations, as we think, which
the Council has right to provide, beyond
| existing police regulations, are denoted
by its title, can ordinance regulating the
licenses" ETC., and in caring in such form
for the vicinity by requiring the concur
| renee Of adjacent owners, we are not sure
but the municipal authority is over
stretched; certainly so if itoperates inter-
diction, because the Council can not cause
by indirection any consequence it might
not directly command. 1t can not by
such provision, relieve itself from the re-
sponsibility of keeping such order in
these saloons as will secure the neighbor-
hood from annoyance or just grounds Of
complaint All classes of citizens, be-
sides, should practice tolerance and kind
ness, because this too much government
is a failing that has but one side to it, and
that is vicious.
What we have said is in respect to
rights. In respect to the policy of taking
care of private morals by forced means,
we are quite as radical The ceremony
with which you cover a vicious practice
awakens attention to it. and where there
is will the law will hardly explode the old
proverb as to way. Overdo the business
of making indulgence, of whatever kind
penal, and the indulgence will be, as a
consequence, much more extensively
overdone. These effects belong naturally
to social conditions and qualities of men,
manners and mind. There is no more
use in attempting to legislate people into
morality without producing effects widely
injurious to good morals, than of forcing
the contact of India rubber with your
floor without rebound. Such fact is not
only proved by persistent trials in Puritan
communities, but it proves itself So that
all such Legislation is not only in vain,
but mischievous, and we have certainly |
no use for it in New Orleans, where there |
is an over lack Of good morals already.
1t is another question still, whether
from the young these signs
and indications of vice and sensuality, |
and covering from their view the road |
over which their natural physical tenden-
cies, when not educated into restraint, |
may lead them, is wise and true policy |
It leaves the hideousness of vice unseen, |
the natural penalties of indulgence I'M
known, and the whole mystery to them
'AA Sio"a " o1uoi0oOcdSc, "OeH, DeiLo
their own masters, and self-control in mat
ters concerning which they had learned
no evil not likely to prevail with them,
they walk into things without restraint,
and are lost without warning This seems
to US the reasonable aspect of the question
in social sense, which, however, as it
addresses itself exclusively to parents and
educational institutions, does not pro-
perly belong to this argument.