New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-04-18
PuRPosELEss PUBLIC MEETINGS.

ready to enter the political turmoil SO far
in advance of the end Of the decisive
campaign. The meeting of the Re-
pubIcans last Thursday night was
respectable gathering, considering
the absence of all excitement to attract
the masses of the party; but the con-
vocation on Monday night was a decided
failure, not because there was not very
large concourse of citizens, but because
the people who did attend were cheated
into the belief that they would see and
hear Mr. Douglass. who did not appear
during the evening. If it had been hon
estly stated in the call that the meeting
was summoned to support the factionists
of the Customhouse, most Of the orators
and seven-tenths of the crowd would have
remained away.
1t would be impossible at this time to
assemble an earnest and enthusiastic meet
ing of the responsible members of either
party, because there is no provocation for
the people to leave their homes in order to
attend a political gathering at present.
The elements are not in existence to excite
the public mind just now, and the people
are not willing to create an artificial tur-
MOL in April, when they know that if
they only wait for three or four months
they will have surfeit of the genuine arti-
Gle. We are to have most exciting con-
test next fall, and We are perfectly willing
to wait, and we suppose most of our
friends are of the same mind, until the
necessity Of the hour calls us to take an
active and incessant part in the contro-
versy.
Political parties must reflect before they
act. The questions before the people re-
quire solution before they can be in
dorsed by mass meetings. When we have
decided what to do, then is the time to set
in motion the power that is to accomplish
the purpose. 1t is necessary to have the
purpose first and afterward the action. At
present there is q disposition to consider
we'll what is best to be done, and until re-
Election and patriotism have instructed the
public as to its duty, and inclined it to
the performance thereof, mass meetings
are mere waste of breath and time. They
are worse than waste, for they lead men
into the assumption of positions that they
will find it hard to disavow or ex-
plain when better reflection has shown
them their error.
As Republicans, we can not forecaste,
even with the lights before us, what the
next three months may require at our
hands. Two conventions Of our own
political friends are to be held, the one at
Philadelphia and the other at Cincinnati.
If the future allows us to exercise an alb
solute freedom of selection, without any
danger to the ascendancy of Republican
principles, between these two conventions,
we desire to be untrammelled by any ut
terance made at mass meeting in advance
Of the time Of making our selection; to be
perfectly free to select the best candidate
for the Presidency of the United States.
And this, we presume, is the position Of
every Republican in the State of Louis
lana. If Sumner, Adams, Brown, Trum-
bull, Chase, Greeley or any other lifelong
exponent of republicanism is nominated at
Cincinnati, with fair show of success,
and General Grant is nominated at Phila-
delphia, without redressing the abuses
which his friends have committed against
the party in Louisiana, we desire to be free
to support the man who promises to give
the best satisfaction to our ideas and prin-
ciples. The uncertainty that wells this
problem renders it impossible for us, and
for thousands of other sincere Republicans,
to decide at present what course we shall
pursue, and until we have decided how
and who to fight, what propriety is there
in our assembling in mass meeting to pro-
claim our indecision?
The first duty of the citizen is to solemn
ly consider the necessities Of the country,
and the best men to provide for these ne
cessities. We can not all have our imme-
date choice, and, therefore, we must con-
sent to take the best representative man
that we can get We can not even get
man who will do just what we want to
have done, and we must, therefore, con-
sent to take the candidate who will do the
best for us that he can. This is the re-
Elective part Of the work. The next is the
active part. Having selected our prin-
ciples, or the nearest approximation to
them that We can secure, and chosen our
man to carry them out, then comes the
work of the election. We need be in no
hurry about making these selections, SO
that we make them wisely and determine
to carry them through to victory. We
know the day the battle is to be fought
and we can delay determination until
month before the election, if to this delay
we add the spirit and the will to win when
the hour for the struggle arrives.
In view, then, of the important alter
natives that the future promises to offer
for our selection, it is out of all propriety
to be engaging in the work that should be
postponed to the supreme moment when
we grapple with the opposition in that
fierce struggle which must end by making
one or the other the victor. It was be.
cause the people appreciate this fact that
they failed to respond last Thursday night
en- masse, and which would have kent