The Ouachita telegraph., 1871-04-15

majority.
West maintained that tie election tous
conducted ,oith fairness, and also denied
that the State debt had been yeckless,y in
creased. The Democratic Legislature
of 1866, created under President ohm
sons policy, had appropriated more
money than both it's Republican sue
the accession of the Republicans to
power, were only worth IS and 40 cents,
were now salable at 65 and 20 cents and
in good repute with capitalists.
Instead of forty millions, as alleged
by Blair, the States liabilities ,cere cithin
the constitutional limit Of Twenty-Five mil
lions. In regard to the voting away of
money to railroads, he said the Legis-
= .s.vure mad granted a subsidy to rail-
road, as means ofpreventing the trade
of Texas from being wrested from New
Orleans, and that this policy had been
supported by Democrats, and riadiccte7
BY the people.
He would, if he could, blot out the
record of Louisiana's 8 deeds of blood, but
he now bore willing testimony that
peace reigned within her borders, and
that persecution for political opinion
had been in great degree modified.
His people acoultl assent to any legislation
deemed necessary for protection IN tie
South.
We have reason to be thankful for
not having in any way contributed to
the election of J. Rodman West to the
position Of United States Senator His
election never gratified us particularly,
even with the mulatto Pinchback for
his competitor. Born in Louisiana and
an appointee and supporter of President
johnson, (while johnson had power
it was curious circumstance to us that
Senator West should learn to love the
Radicals become Il supporter Of Grant
the meanest of all Johnson's enemies
and ally himself with the piratical
and freebooting rulers of louisiana
We heard this conservative Senator
praised for his moderation and for his
semi-democratic sympathies, and we
saw Democrats in the legislature sacri-
ficing their consistency and party, as
we believed, to promote him to an ex-
allied position. We were willing to
wait in order to ascertain exactly who
was right and who was wrong.
The utterances Of Senator West, from
his place in the Senate, settle the ques-
ton. We ask the reader to read at
tentiveiy again the utterances of Sena-
crat, to answer for us what have the
good people of Louisiana gained by the
election of this man. The moderation |
he has displayed-the political respect
ability he has managed to secure-what
are they now, as the Senator turns
tiercely upon the Democracy of the
State, but piercing thorns and powerful
poisons to be used for our discontinue
and for the elevation Of the Radical
party all over the South:
This conservative" Republican Sen
ator declares, in effect, that prior to
Warmoth's elevation as Governor, Lou
isiana was in a state of s'anarchy, blood
shed and riot.' How does this decla-
ration, made in the presence of the
whole Union, agree with the opinions
of those Democratic State Senators and
Representatives who either voted for
Senator West, or voted to make his
election unanimous? And how does
Senator West himself, one of President
Johnson's supporters, reconcile this
declaration with the fact that he sus-
tanned the policy and State government
he thus SO tiippantly and even falsely
denounces And the Senator, not con-
tent with his wholesale indictment
against the best people in Louisiana
the State he claims to represent-must
needs champion the cause of the carpet-
baggers, with all of their Incidence,
corruptions and prosecutions. He, the
elect in part of native Southern men,
the recipient of votes from men known
as good Democrats who daily denounce
the misrule and rascality of CARPET
baggism, proclaims in the Senate his