New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-08-26
TIE PEOPLE AND TEE LEGISLATURE.

as to how they lay their hands on that
which they find lying around loose. This
is our excuse for retaining from the
Picaysne certain reflections which it pre-
tended to adopt yesterday from the Phil
adelphia Ledger, but which were really
delivered in the REPUBLICAN months ago.
The subject of these reflections was as to
the relative virtue of the people and their
agents, and the occasion fer it's discussion
in these columns was about the time of
the adjournment of the Legislature, when
the Picdyune was full of wrath and indig-
nation against the members, and when it
asserted daily that they were not the
representatives of the people This as
sumption we rebutted on several occa-
sions, contending at all times that any
Legislature which was elected by the
popular vote was necessarily the repre-
sentative of the community, for if the
people were not indifferent they would
not consent to be served by indifferent
agents. And now, after months of leisure,
the Picayme admits the truth of our con-
illusions, but credits them to it's own re-
fections upon some suggestions urged by
the Philadelphia Ledger, which is tradi-
tionally a very slow and very cautious
paper. Under the circumstances, there
fore, the REPUBLICAN is perfectly justified
in retaining its property.
Looking at the last Legislature from the
present standpoint, the /pDblic will prob
ably conclude with US that it was a body
in which there was quite a number of
bad men: but an analysis Of the matter
viii develop this fact, that the badness Of
that body was not confined to any par
tieular color of the skin or politics of the
men comprising it. And this fact will
allow still further development if the
character of the beneheiaries under the
special legislation of the last session is
considered. Although the majority rep
resented in the Legislature was col
ored. the worst men were probably white
men, and the greatest benefits were con-
ferred on parties of the same color. And
to reduce the proposition to still finer
point, the chief advantages that were
either ignorantly or corruptly dispensed
last winter were granted or sold to Demo-
Gratis, as the record will prove. And pos
sibly some of the most determined
enemies of Governor Waymoth to-day are
msh who assume social representative
character, but who have been interrupted
in their schemes by his refusal to assist
them. Then, again, there were many
good men in the Legislature, and this
goodness was not an exclusive attribute Of
any particular color or political faith, but
was wrapped in white men and negroes,
in Republicans and Democrats alike.
There was no trade mark by which a
stranger could enter the hall and pick out
the weak, but Diogenes had to use his
candleand all his eyes to detect the scurvy
from the capable.
Yet these men, all of them, white and
black, good and bad, represented the
State, and the people were and are re-
sponsible for them. This is the logic of
Democracy and Republicanism alike, that
no man can be elected except by the votes
of a majority, and if he develops into q
scamp and still holds his own, his
constituents are no better than he is. If
it were otherwise he would never have
been elected, or having been elected I'M
der false colors, he would have been ban
ished into coventry, where he raised his
black flag. This was the position Of the
REPUBLICAN at the time when the Plea
y,tne held a different faith, and it is the
position Of the REPUBLICAN all the same
now that the Picayune has occupied it.
The Legislature represents its constitu-
ency, and the constituency consists of all
the peoples Some men attempt to evade
their responsibility by refusing to do duty
as voters, but this will not save them, for
sins of omission are as terrible as sins of
commission. The citizen who abdicates
his functions and thus allows the public
faith to be soiled, is as guilty as if he had
consented to the evil. He accepts the
corruptionist by refusing to resist his
domination.
The difference between the REPUBLICAN
and Picayile was and is just this, that we
are more generous in our political philoso-
ply. While the latter insisted, right in
the face of current facts and against what
it admits to-day. that the Legislature did
not represent the State, the REPUBLICAN
boldly and comprehensively assumed the
reverse, and declared what it now insists
upon, that the Legislature did represent
the State, and that the only way to reform
the representatives of the community was
to reform the people themselves. This is
a political suggestion that commences at
the base of the disease, and not at the
extremity. Society is infected with de-
either in being indolent or
in being indifferent, that needs purifca-
ton, and until this reform is perfecteoin
the body of the people, it will be labor /
thrown away to abuse the agents of indo-
lence and indifference. The landlord who
IS negligent loses his rents, and the body
polite that does not guard its own rights
stands good chance to wake up some
without them.