New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-08-15

uiaAe ILLS TEST case, as eStaDusnlug Inc
fact that the convention was packed, be-
cause the circumstances connected with
it transpired at our own door, and the
evidence can be had, to maintain our posi-
ton, without any very great trouble. If
we should go off to Caddo, and assert that
a similar cheat occurred at that point, the
lack of proving our assertion would re-
quire full twelve months to complete it,
and then Mr.. Lowell would be the master
of our communications.
e Given, then, that there were thirty-five
| parishes in the State that voted for the
Republican ticket at the last election,
and that of these thirty-fve parishes sew
enteen sent unquestoned delegations to
the city, pledged to the support of the
State administration, we have one-haf of
the Republican party, as represented by
parishes, acting with Governor Warmoth,
and the other half in contest. Taking
| this fact as the basis of an argument, it is
clear that the Customhouse organization
only represented the fraction of one-half
of the party; for since it admitted that
ons-haf was unequivocally for Warmoth,
by agreeing to seat the delegates from
seventeen out of thirty-fve parishes who
were admitted to be his friends, it can
not escape the dilemma that the other
half was divided, because it had to resort
to usurpation to sustain its friends in
their seats until they were given an OPP
portunity, in the preliminary organiza-
ton, to vote themselves in over their con-
testing opponents. At the organization
in Turner Hall, there was no question
raised as to who should be admitted, but
all the members advanced and presented
their credentials to the convention itself,
which was the proper judge of its own
members. At the organization in the
Customhouse, Mr.. Packard decided as to
who were and who were not delegates,
thus stripping the convention Gf it did
not lose the right to call itself by such an
honorable name when it abdicated its
power into his hands, of the attribute of
passing upon its own composition. What
was there to prevent Mr.. Packard from
sending one hundred men into the con-
vention who had never been heard of in the
parishes, on the same principle that he
admitted Morrison and Kemp? And what
was there to prevent these bogus delegates
from maintaining their seats, and usurp-
ing the right to speak in the name of the
party? If Mr.. Packard could seat two
delegates from Jefferson, as he did do, in
the face of the people, why are we not
credited in saying that he seated other
men in the same way, in defiance Of the
people of other parishes? Without strain
ing this argument, we think it will do to
say that what was done in one case could
have been done, and was done, in others.
In the next place the personnel of the
two organizations must be weighed in
order to ascertain which carries with it
the real party force. And in this measure
ment We find the strongest argument in
favor Of the convention at Turner Hall
Every man who has made himself at all
familiar with the politics of this State
during the last three or four years, will
recognize in the delegates who upheld
the State administration the men who
have been the strength and pillars Of the
Republican party up to the present day.
On the contrary, the list of delegates to
the body at the Customhouse, striking
out the names of those who refused to
participate in its proceedings, are almost
all new to the historian of the great
struggle which gave Louisiana to the
Republican party. Some of them, it is
true, have been honored in the councils
and with the votes of the party; but
leaving out Dunn, Packard, Lowell
and Ray, all anxious to beat down
one man in order to rise themselves,
the men Mr.. Packard elected have
yet to .make' record for themselves.
They may be good Republicans, but it is
reproach to them that they are taking
advantage of the victory which others
have won to imperil the interests of all in
order to gain their own advantage. And
it IS very little credit to their sagacity
that they do not see that they are fighting
under the same banner with the Demo
cratic organs, one of which, in view of
the peril in which it considered Governor
Warmoth to stand at present, says of him
that the whole people owe him special
spite because he was the 'sfrst niger
elected by the niggers of this State" As
this sort of argument suits the enemies
of the Governor, we recommend it to the
organ of the faction that assembled in the
Customhouse. 1t will serve to digest the
figures which we give in the beginning of
this article, to the effect that the undis-
puted Republican parishes either sent I'M
disputed Warmoth delegations, or they
sent such representatives that Packard
had to resort to usurpation to defeat
them. TIT. ....... .......
OUR SCHOOL WORK.
There is no question which so interests