The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1872-02-24
LETTER FROM NEW ORLEANS.
The Mass acknowledgements ofCom-
mittce of Fifty -0nc--1ts Absurdity, &c. E

1nittce of Fifty 0nc--xts Absurdity, &c.
EDITOR TELEGRAPH:
Deet,. iSi,.-Upon the eve of your de-
parture from the city, you were klnd
enough to ask me to write you. The
action of the committee of fifty-one, ta-
ken at the mass meeting held last might,
suppests reflections that induce me to
do so ut once.
This action was, in brief, to create Il
basis for the organization of Il peoples
party. This party is to be irrespective
of old political biases, and to be com
posed of all who wish to save the State
from it's present rulers, and the corrup-
tons which surround them. Beside, it
docs not exact, from those who come
into its fold, any promises as to the
Presidential campaign approaching.
Thus, briefly, is stated the outlines of
an organization which, it seems to me,
no honest ,aan can object to, if he is
satisfied that it can accomplish the ends
it has in view.
Let lis sec if this can be done. The
registration and election laws, the con-
stabulary bill and the metropolitan po-
lice bill, have neither been repealed
nor so amended as to change their obi
Gus character. The Governor will, at
the next election, possess the same au-
tocr,tic power that he held at the last.
This being the case, will even nine
tenths Of the votes of the State, cast in
opposition, be able to overcome this
power: 1t is pertinent to ask, of what
worth is Il vote if it be not counted, or
if it he counted on the wrong side?
The gentlemen of the committee ar
gued that the fraudulent effect Of these
laws could be restrained by placingdu-
plicate boxes at every precinct, one, the
official, for the Governor, and the other,
unofficial, for the citizens. Said they {:
We can then count for ourselves, and
the people will know exactly who is
elected, and in the face of such knowl-
edge, Warmoth will not have the te-
merity to declare a false election! In
view of past experience, and from my
knowledge of the character of this man
Warmoth, l am forced to pronounce
this argument Il most infinite piece of
folly. Did not, ut the last election, the
people Of every parish i'll the State know
who was elected? Was it not known
that in Sabine, Smart beat Wheyland
two hundred to one, and Wheyland
got the seat ? Was it not known that
here in the city, nearly every Democrat
was elected, and that nearly every Re-
publican took his seat /? How much
wasWarmoth then intimidated by these
facts:
But suppose he Is afraid of public SEN
timent, how easy it is, under this plan,
rect his supporters not to place their
votes in the unofficial boxes. The pco-
pie will then know only their own side.
! Warmoth will know ii too, and he has
| only to stuff the official box with votes
of his own sufficient to give a majority,
and the people can no longer complain,
for they must acknowledge that a ma
jority rules.
In fine, for am afraid trespass too
much upon your space, while reiterate
! that am strongly in favor of an Or
ganization, such as outlined above, at
the proper moment, l can but regard
it's present proposal as Il ranacea for the
ills that SO heavily bcset us, as ill-timed
and futile. Nay, even more, us practi-
cally mischievous, for it tends to stop
any other action for our relief.
In my humble judgment, there arc
but two ways to rid ourselves of the
burdens we bear SO gricvously: Either
these laws must be repealed, or the Off
Ger who makes them the means of OPP
preston must be removed. Votes arc
worthless when they are not counted.
Within the past ten days, or two
weeks, the town of Longview in Tex
as, has suffered from Il most disastrous
fire, cntailingu loss of 100000. Last