New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-05-04
TIE LAWS OF COMPENSATION.


good. Crime may, and sometimes do
flourish apparently for a time, but Il
reckoning that is sure. to come, is all tt
more severe for the delay. There is
very bad class of men in this State, sna
in numbers, but who are sustained by NJ
merous sympathizers, whose acts refle'
the deepest disgrace upon us as peop''
and give Louisiana name abroad whic
is anything but creditable, and positivel
damaging to our prosperity. These ba
elements are found in those white me
who have been reared under the infuenc
of slavery, TO suppose that the State is d
vided into two distinct classes. as wild
apart in social position and political COZ
sequence as though they belonged to di
ferent orders Of creation. The one elias
is composed Of whites exclusively, descend
ents of the old slave holders, who imagin
they were born to ride upon the backs o
the other through life. This latter clas
includes all the colored people, and sucl
whites as show sympathy for them, or in
sist upon recognizing them as men.
Violence and denial of justice are the
agencies heretofore invoked by which the
results Of the old system of slavery have
been sought to be perpetuated. Taking
advantage of the VIGOROUSLY peaceable
disposition of the oppressed race, small
bands of determined, lawless men have,
for brief season, been enabled to teffify
the numerical majority into sort of &C
quiescence in their deeds. These white
men habitually go with armsi in their hands,
and are we'll skilled in their use, while the
bare suspicion that the colored people
were about to arm in self-defense, has al
ways been sufficient to arouse whole
into panic of alarm, and
raise loud call for the enforcement of the
laws. By such means, comparatively
small number OF men of desperate character
have been enabled to ride rough-shod over
aw and order, human rights and human
life in some of the country parishes. The
esults are seen in the fact that four Con-
'ressional districts are to-day without
representatives. The elections that
we're to have been held were turned into
farces, which the House of Rep
esentatives have declared or are about to
[eclare illegal. In the other district our
representative was admitted only after
atient investigation and a long delay.
he violence committed in the Congress
lonal elections have therefore received the
roper rebuke. The Judge of the Ninth
judicial District has been virtually driven
'om his court because the Democratic
for Congress in that district, and
is fellow conspirators, object to argue
leir causes before colored jurors. Here |
an instance Of man anyions to take the |
ath to support the constitution Of the |
nited States, as asmember Of Congress, |
I'D at the same time denies the common
ghts of man to the majority Of his own
,nstituents!
Sheriff Wisner and Offutt johnson were
rutally murdered in the parish Jail of
and Beavers, noted murderer,
'leased, all on the night of the thirtieth
March. Appropriate rewards have
een offered by Governor Warmoth for
e apprehension of the murderers; and
1t there is not virtue enough in all the
irish to bring them to punishment. It
confidently believed that four-ffths of
e white men of Ouachita know perfect
well who committed these dastardly
ines, and yet not one of them has yet
d the courage or the patriotism to come
ward and proclaim the malefactors.
The Catahoula vendetta, as the recent
tchery of the Liddell and Jones fani-
S has been characterized by writers of {
affected style, is just where the parties
t it. There being no more victims to
'asSinate, active operations have ceased,
this generation at least, and the fol- '
7ers of the respective parties content &
'mselves with endeavoring to throw the G
me on each other. If
t is impossible that deeds, such as we @
We merely glanced at, can be perpetrat- s
with impunity and not beget imitators. a
at universal law, which provides O
ledy for every evil, and affords fitting
lpensationsfor every act, is as inexor- p
g as any of natures DEGREES, and must +
ner or later apply corrective where a
4 fail in their duty. If the people are O
BILE to bring murderers to justice, II
ough the ordinary tribunals of courts G
juries, they will set up Judge Lynch, s.
q his Regulators, and woe then to Of 81
lers and their sympathizers. That 7
ething of the kind has long been ex- ie
ted, is evident from the frequent no. is
s We see in the Conservative papers T
the colored people in this or that p
'lity are quiet and peaceable, and are
king faithfully. 1t is as much as W
say that they have not yet g,
n goaded to madness by their oppres- II
J. We all remember the innocent sur A
e manifested by the city papers at the v,
ct and orderly behavior of the colored Il
pie OF this city on recent great occa- A
!. Those who know this patient, long "a
uring, law abiding, afectionate people W
know they are incapable of creating tb
unprovoked public disturbance. But CT
mildest of men love justice, and will. bt