New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-02-28

slons, both individualand class, followed
as a legitimate consequence. Both State
and municipal offices were unfairly distrib-
uted, and legislation sometimes became
inJudicious and unwise. But, notwlth-
standing this, the elective franchise was
given indiscriminately, and out OF it has
sprung up a strong and bitter partisan an
| tagonism. These elements combining,
have produced class legislation, opposing
theories of government, and bad laws.
These produced social tumult and preva-
| lent ~disconsent, which party leaders have
| converted into hostility to constituted au-
thority. As long as this condition of
| things furthered partisan ambition, the
opposition did not think Of altering it. 1t
served their purpose admirably, and by
means of this discomfort the opposition
hoped to regain power and the control of
the government.
These plans were defeated by the Gov
ernor, who, cutting loose from the dying
reconstruction issues, struck out a new
line Of political fealty, in which o reform
in State and municipal abuses was the pri-
mary principle.
With this end in view, he proposed, in
his message to the Legislature of 1871, a
repeal or modification of Objectionable
laws, such as the registration and election
laws, the constabulary and police laws, and
the revenue and printing enactments. He
perceived the necessity OF more enlarged
privileges in the elective franchise, and q
freer interchange of opinions between the
electors and their representatives. Popu-
lar government should be simplifed, and
rendered republican indeed by springing
directly from the people.
Acting on these principles, although
they encountered great opposition, he
made a first decisive struggle in their
favor, when the effort was made by the
moneyed interest of the city to deprive the
Firemen's Charitable Association of the
popular and almost prescriptive contract
they held from the people Of extinguishing
fires in this city, and Of perpetuating one
of the noblest and most beneticent char
tiles ever organized in our midst. This
contest involved not only the principles Of
right and Justice, but it involved the right
of the people to determine the character of
their local institutions as against a moneyed
influence, striving might and main to de-
stroy them.
1t could not be that Governor Warmoth
was Indifferent to the interests Of the peo-
pie when he threw himself into the breach
to arrest the attempt made to destroy the
Firemen's Association. He knew that asso-
citation to be composed of men of all par
ties and all shades Of political opinion
He knew, however, that it involved the
right of the people to control their local
local institutions in their own way, and he
sustained them.
The same views were reiterated in the
annual message of the Governor to the
present Legislature. Again the repeating
power of the General Assembly vas in
voked, and obnoxious laws denounced as
wicked and unjust. All impediments to
the free exercise Of the right Of suffrage
were torn away by the men who acted
with him, and the right to vote and elect,
without let or hindrance, their own repre-
sentatives is to-day given to every citizen
of Louisiana, not by the act of the Cam
mittee Of F~ifty-one rich merchants,
bankers and lawyers-but by the act of
Governor Warmoth and his friends in the
Legislature.
Who are the Committee of Fifty-one?
Did they spring from the people? Has
the mechanic, the artisan and the laborer
a representative among them? No! They
are rich men, working for rich mems in
terest, and trying, under the pretext of
reform, to throw the burdens of taxation
on the working people Of the State. They
want their storehouses, their rich mer-
chandise and boarded capital to pass free
of duty, while the burden of taxation is
levied with unstinted hand upon the labor
ing classes.