New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-02-16
KEEPING COOL HEADS.

llie Sity IldIi SATURDAY ulSlI W lake
plebiscite of the discontinued people who
will assemble on that occasion as to what
it shall do, and how, and when, and where.
This extraordinary, not to say revolution
airy body, pretends that it has originated
certain measures of political nature
which it desires to coerce the Legislature
of the State into adopting and as the
initial step toward the enforcement Of its
suggestions, the committee will declare its
purposes tomorrow. night and demand the
assistance Of the people of the city in its
efforts to terrify the legislators Of the State
into an acquiescence in measures which
they do not elect to adopt of their own
free will As we understand this move
ment, the committee merely designs to
enforce the repeal of the existing laws
upon the subject of registration and cleo
tons, and to secure the passage of other
laws upon the same subject which the
committee has prepared in regard
thereto. This is done in the name
of reform. We have not seen these
new DEGREES, nor have we been able
to find any citizen competent to tell
us what they are, or even to give us
an intellipible outline Of the same. 1t is
said that these projects have been sub
mitted TO the Legislature and rejected,
which raises the presumption that they are
defective in some of those essential TEA
lures that efficient and just laws ought to
have, for since the Legislature rs willing
and fsady to modify the Objectionable tea-
lures in the existing statutes regulating
elections and registration, we can not con-
ceive that it would reject the bills pre-
scented by the committee so promptly I'M
less it had discovered in them provisions
inconsistent with the absolute freedom OF
the elective franchise. And yet these are
the measures that the committee proposes
to force upon the State through the agency
of a mass meeting of the citizens.
In the first place it would be well for
the cnmmittee to remember that rebelLons
are not profitable investments in the
United States. Very few temperate men
have ever made their fortunes out of tu-
multuons attempts against the legally con-
stituted authorities for the lesson that
history teaches is this, that disturbances
which responsible citizens lend their faces
to generally break away from their control
in the long run and end by returning to
plague their inventors. A riot, such as
the Bee and Picoytne are tanning into ac-
tivity, might result in the slaughter OF
some Republicans, but it would certainly
end in heavy bill of costs against the
property of the committee The men
whose political rights are menaced feel
quite as determined to maintain their status
as the committee does to enforce its OBJ
jectionable programme: and they have de-
termined that before they will submit to
be degraded by any committee they will
try the last resort that men imperiled can
rely upon. Life and liberty are quite as
well worth fighting for as stores and
stocks.
There is no reason in, nor justification
for, the alarming action which the COM
mittee seems to have determined upon, for
the laws upon the subject Of registration
and elections, about which the excitement is
originated, were not the causes of the frauds
that are said to have been perpetrated
under them, but on the contrary, they are
the enemies, so to speak, of these very eff
fects At the time the registration officers
were opened throughout the State there
was no complaint outside Of New Orleans
that the officers were abusing their trusts,
but, on the reverse, We heard good re-
ports from every parish that the registrars
fulfilled their duties faithfully and fairly.
At the election that resulted directly after
ward the same reports were made,
the people generally admitting that
they were allowed to vote freely and
deliberately, according to their desires.
If these We're the effects of the laws, why
are we now disturbed with demand for
their repeal? As the State is Republican,
the election of Republicans does not war
rant the change of these regulations that
secured such result, for until the voters
change their political opinions, the same
result is the only one we can look for in
the future. The committee cannot alter
the political complexion Of the majority
any more than it can change the phys
ical color of the men who give this ma
iority, and therefore its riotous demand
for a repeal of certain laws is a grave mis-
take, as success in that respect will not
give it control of the State 50 long as the
majority of the people are opposed to its
political ascendancy.
The suggestion that change III the
laws regulating registration and elections
will suppress frauds upon the ballot box, IS
q mere cheat which the committee under
stands as well as we do. No law can pre-
vent rascal from working rascality. The
best statute that was ever framed can not
secure the ballot-box from being tempered
with if there are human fingers near it
that are disposed to play tricks upon the
public Every Democrat in the State
knows this, and we are afraid the commit
tee knows it too we'll. And, what is more
to the point, we feel satisfied that some of
the members of the committee are laying
their plans to take advantage of this very