New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-02-29
THE WEEKLY REPUBLICAN
Terms of Subscription.
ear, IS; six months, So 50.
The SO.Called Party of Reform.

The SO.Called Party of Reform.
Under this caption the Ouachita Tele
graph assails the Committee of Fifty one
and their new party. The Telegraph says
Our comments upon the action of the
Committee of Ffty-One shall be brief anG
to the point. We are not a recent convert
to reform. When most of the men com
prising this committee were dormant il
politics, consulting their balance sheets
their ledgers and their briefs, we were il
the forefront battling against the vile and
miscellaneous men whose viler measures
have at last thawed the ice gorge that then
surrounded these recent reformers. We
do not take to the programme of the Com
.mittee of FIfty-One for several reasons
One is that the recommendation implies a
censure upon our past course as Demo
crat.
Now, greatly as we doubted the policy
in the last canvass, of selecting third rate
conservative" men to lead the Democratic
party, we, nevertheless, gave the ticket our
earnest and utmost support. The ticket
failed; but why?
1t is asserted, upon authority undoubted,
that of this identical Committee of Fifty
one prominent civilians of New Orleans,
who now propose taking the lead in defeat
ing the Radicals, only eighteen were regis
tered at the last election in this State We
did our duty, but what were the non regis
tered twenty-three prominent refOrmers of
New Orleans doing! Did they aught then
to save the State, If they did not what
proof have they to offer that they will do
anything in the canvass at hand
These gentlemen have not cOnSidered
we Opine, SO much the labor necessary to
organize Q new party and harmonic the
best elements of the country, as the mere
novelty of starting a new political organ
izatiOn. They have not reflected that in
each parish they must be seconded and as
sisted by influential men who are to give
local direction to politics and to organize
Clubs and committees. They have not re-
fected that their strength must necessarily
come from the Democrats, who are 10th to
admit that men who will not register and
will not work are the kind of men to build
up party and carry a State. They have
not reflected that the country is educated
by sad experience to view with distrust all
political movements originating in New
Orleans. They seem to have considered
that national politics may be brushed from
the forum of State politics by a mere word,
when it is known that the pungent and
barbed arrows of political discussion will
penetrate their armor at every drawing of
the bow.
Where is the need of this so-called reform
party of the Fifty-One 1t will be answered
that, to secure reform, We must secure Re-
publican votes, and that to do this we must
organize new party.
The Telegraph considers the plan imprac-
ticable for two or three reasons, and adds:
But it is much more so in the matter Of
an alliance of any kind with Republicans
that will prove acceptable to the bulk of
the white people of the State. Who are the
Republicans whom we, and thousands in
the State like us, can consistently support
and will support What Republicans have
the Committee of Fifty-one put down on
their slate for State offices, and what are
their antecedents Can a man advocate
their election who has persistently and con-
tinuously fought the iniquitous rule of the
Radical party Can he defend them from
attacks, and advise hisspeople to vote for
them as reliable men who have been true
to their trusts! These questions suggest diff
fculties wholly insurmountable.
(. The party to reform is not the party of
misrule, but the party that has maintained
its opposition to misrule To achieve re-
form there must be hard work. To get hard
work, we must look to the working element
the active, live and indemitable Young
men of the State. How many of the Fifty
one would go out on the levee of New Or
leans, or into the swamps and dark corners
OF the country parishes and stir up the voting
population How many of them will Join
in professions, consult with and advise the
cOlOred people, stand around the polls
whole dav, and afterward attend the
counting of the ballots Eighteen of their
number registered in 1870; but how many
actually voted aud electioneered for their
favorite candidates!
We decline the leadership of men who
have never fought battle. In 1870 we
saw the Democratic party yield its prestige
of 1868 to the keeping of dead men, under
the pressure for a third or conservative
party, and we saw succeeding that piece Of
folly canvass cold lifeless and impotent.
We then declared our independence of all
similar movements in future, and we adhere
to that position. We shall follow the lead
of the national Democracy, and endeavor
to fight upon its platform: but we will not
support men for State offices or State
policy, the support of which must necessa-
rily involve a recantatiOn of our past pOlit-
ical opinions, or any position not tenable
upon the highest ground of Southern 10y
atty and individual honesty and uprightness.
The Telegraph trusts itself to Democracy
pure and simple, aud thus, by indrecton,
censures the so-cailed Customhouse Demo
cratic reformists Of the General Assembly
Of Louisiana. And such is harmony in
the ranks Of the opposition to Governor
Warmoth and the State administration.