New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-02-17
A LITTLE PLAIN TALK.

A well recognized rule of law requires
every man to come into court with clean
hands. And this rule is applicable in all
cases of contest where one party is the
accuser and the other the accused. We
invoke the principle and file our peremp-
tory exception in the case now pending,
wherein fifty gentlemen, claiming to be the
people, have arraigned the Republican
party.
The attempt of half hundred men of
this city, who have managed to have
| themselves constituted committee for
the purpose Of forcing the Legislature Of
| this State to enact or repeal such laws as
they may choose to dictate, is an extraor-
| binary and revolutionary one, most GER
tainly without any parallel in representa-
tive government, more especially when it
appears that only one-third of this junta
are voters, and that while these gentlemen
are vehemently complaining of the large
amount of taxation and it's oppressive
| character, many of them are not taxpay-
ers, while theirs have not paid the taxes
the burden Of which they complain. They
further make appeals to the mass Of the
people to sustain them in these revolu-
tionary proceedings, and to justify their
conduct
That these gentlemen are playing the
part Of usurpers will appear very clearly
when the facts in connection with the
origin of this so-called Commute of Fifty
one are recited
On Friday, the first day of December
last, meeting OF the citizens was held at
the Mechanics Institute, at which meeting
a resolution was passed requiring the
chairman of the meeting to appoint a
committe Of fifty citizens, to take into
consideration the embarrassed condition Of
the city finances, and to propose such
remedies as a careful investigation may
suggest"
Have these gentlemen performed the
duty assigned to them? Have they not
gone beyond their assumed duty? If they
are such patriots, and believe they can
render valuable service to their fellow
citizens, why have not they confined their
action to their instructions? Do they not
know that they are playing the part Of
demagogues?
A pretty state of things, surely, when
lot Of men who are not voters, and de-
faulting taxpayers, can combine with few
political dead beats for the purpose Of die
tating to the representatives Of the people
of the State what laws they shall make
No man who understands the great prin-
ciples OF republican or representative
government would ever engage in any such |
undertaking as these gentlemen are en-
gagged in. In monarchial or non-repre-
sentative government, where the people |
have no voice in the making of the laws
they are compelled to obey, there may be,
nay, there are and have been, circum-
stances under which the people would be
justified in attempting to resist the legally
constituted authorities, or even to resort
to violence to redress wrongs; but in a rep
resentative government, where every citi-
zen has voice in the making of the laws,
any effort or attempt to redress grievances
other than in the way provided by law is
and can only be regarded as revolutionary.
and they who undertake it are guilty Of
crime as heinous as any that can be com
mitted, for he that lends himself to public
disorder and turbulence under the pre-
tense of redressing wrongs that the law
a quiet and peaceable remedy
or IS dangerous man in any community
When this committee was appointed to
10 specific duty, why did they not CON
inc Themselves to it like good business
men, as many of them are, instead of
with other matters not contided
o their charge? They have by their con-
luct rendered themselves liable to very
evere criticism; but if they now pursue
he course they have started on, by APP
,ealing to the mob for aid in their anti
republican and demago9ue course, they
'ill certainly forfeit the good opinion of
IL peaceable and law-abiding citizens.
let them at orce change their course, let
hem become voters, pay their taxes and
ONE before their fellow citizens with
lean hands, and then whatever influence
heir wealth, their intelligence, and their
onduct as good citizens can reasonably
ntitle them to, we make no doubt will
re cheerfully accorded them, and their
kindly invited in any and
very thing calculated to secure a condi-
ion of things in which every mans life,
berry and property will be protected and
ecured, and the great principles Of lib :
rty, peace and justice may be firmly .
established. ,