New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-05-10
LOUISIANA LIBERAL REPUBLICANS.

LOUISIANA LIBERAL REPUBLICANS.
Serenade to the Delegation from that State
Speeches by Governor WarmOth and
Others.
The st. Louis Republican of Tuesday con-
tains the subjoined report:
The members of the Louisiana delega-
tion to the National Liberal Republican
Convention, who are at present stopping at
the Southern Hotel, were serenaded last
| night. Herwig's band was in attendance,
and several spirited selections were given
by them. A vast cOncOurse of people, num-
bering 20OO or 5000, met in trOnt of the
hotel, and the proceedings were very en-
| thusiastic.
Colonel N. C. Claiborne said:
Fellow-citizens, / have pleasure in intro
duclDg to you the Governor OF the State of
Louisiana, gentleman who has nailed his
fortunes to those of Horace Greeley and B.
Gratz Brown in the political canvass of
1872. LCheers. He is here, fellOw-citiZens,
to fire the first gun in that canvass that is
to give back to this entire country the lib
erty our fathers won for us. [CheeIsl
will introduce to you the youngest Gov
ernor in America, Hon. H. G.. Warmoth.
| [CEeers.
REMARKS OF GOVERNOR wARMOTH.
Governor WarmOth said
NV fellOw-citizens-It might be more
proper for some ether gentleman OF your
State, native of your State, perhaps, to
address yOu if did not feel that with the
State of Missouri | was as intimately ac-
quainted and associated as if / were born
on your soil. | came here when l was a
boy; | came from a sister State; l found a
home on your soil; l found a hOspitable
people, who gladly welcomed me to it. l
remained here until the unhappy affairs of
aan 7 II
this State. felt it necessary to offer my
life as a sacrifice, if necessary, in order that
the country might be saved, l helped, in
my humble way, to bring about the cOndi-
ton in which this country is tO-day-nOt
its condition in. a political sense, but that
all the States of this Union might be under
one flag in one country. | fought that this
country might be free [cheersl, and not
the empire of a despOt; not States in a re-
publican form, and in name, without the
substance. What do you see to-day through
the length and breadth of the Southern
States You see eight or nine States of the
Union under control of the bayOnet. We
are told we are free. We are told that the
Southern States have the right to elect their
legislators, and administer their own
affairs, and when the people undertake to
wrest their affairs from corruption, from
ignorance, you find the bayOnets of General
taking control. LCheers.l We have in the
State of Louisiana people as brave, as
patriotic. as noble, as determined as any
people on the face of this earth. We find
to-day all the wealth. all the character
and responsibility of the State of Lou
isiana under the control of strangers,
under the control of ignorant men,
who have no sympathy, no Identification
with the people of that State. Cheers. 1t
may be said that am one of these stran-
gers. 1t is true l went to the South seven
years ago. 1t is true, by the condition and
conflicts and revolutions that have taken
place | have been elevated to the first
place in the gift Of the people in the State
Of Louisiana. But it is not true that | am
a party to the oppression and outrages
those people have had to submit to.
GCheers.l l have gone in to assist those
people to free themselves. l have endeav-
Ored to bring about change in the pOiti-
cal power of that State. l have tried it in
one way, have tried it in another. | have
tried twice and have failed. But do not
intend, by the blessing of God, that we
shall fail in the third trial. Cheers. We
Will have an administration that will remit
to the people of that State the government
of that State, that their voice, their hopes
and aspirations may have something to aid
them, and not be controlled by United
States marshals, that are packed in
every convention and every legisla-
tive assembly. [Cheers. Do you call
it a republican government when a cOnven-
tiOn of the Republican party is called to
meet in a custOmhouse Do you call it a
republican form of government when those
doors are barred, and no one permitted to
enter them for one whole day, or that the
whole commercial business of a city like
New Orleans should be stopped in order
that the Presidents Office holders may hold
a convention to indorse his administration !
lCheers. We had a convention in the sum-
mer of 1871, a convention almost exclusively
OF those Office holders, who met not for the
purpose of nominating legislative ticket,
not for the purpose Of inaugurating a cam
paign, but simply on the pretense that it
was necessary to have a new State commit
tee. The real intent was to begin in the
month of August the Endorsement of the
Grant administration. In another State
beginning at that starting point, cOnven-
tiOns were held, until fifteen or twenty
States had indOrsed General Grants candi-
dacy for the Presidency. Public opinion
was controlled; it was packed.
You ought to have seen the convention in
the CustOmhouse. Ninety delegates out of
llS were refused admittance. They found
the gates locked and barred. They found !
$50 armed deputy Unitede States marshals
in the inside. By means of tickets which
were supplied at the POstOffice they were
able to get inside the building. When they
got up the stairs to the second floor they
found there $50 armed marshals beside !
of United States troops, with arms
in hand. There was where we were to hold |
a Republican convention, and when we got !
up and sOlemnly protested against the |
presence of these troops and marshals we |
were told we must leave the building. |
We were not heard further, but gently |
out of the building. "A voice /
''Was Jim Casey there P'l No, he did not |
get there till late that day. We went |
to another hall. We protested against this |
Through the length and breadth |
of this whole land went protests through |
every newspaper, Grant papers, Demo |
cratic papers and Republican papers, A |
delegation was sent to the President. He |
to Id them he would investigate the matter. |
He has investigated it, and what is the re-
suit Every one OF those officers, from jim |
Casey down, are yet holding their offices, |
the Republican party and repub- |
that took the peoples land and property |
without compensation; measure by which |
they were to tax every steamboat and |
every parcel of goods to be landed at New |
Orleans, and measures that were denounced |
by every party in the country. These peO
pie went into a coalition to overthrow the |
State government because the Governor |
would not give his sanction to them. |
Cheers.
When the Legislature met, the Governor, |
seven members of the Senate and twenty |
two members of the House were arrested |
And what do you suppose we were arrested
tOrl We had violated the Ku-Klux law, in
this, that we would not permit these people |