New Orleans Republican., 1872-05-22
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A due regard for the interests of the
State at large has sometimes compelled
us to treat certain class of ambitious
men in this community with more consid-
Grafton than they deserved by giving
them prominence in noticing their argu-
ments. An appeal to popular prejudice
must be met and answered, and in doing
this the authors of the appeal naturally
come in as the subjects of the text This
identifies them with the question and
fixes them in the popular mind as repre-
sentative men, when in fact they are no
such thing, but are in reality mere
weather-cocks, showing to reasonable
men the political currents which it is
their duty to resist. These men are tax
resisters while that idea is popular, al
though they pay no taxes. They are in
favor Of repudiation when that is in
vogue, although they have nothing to re-
pudiate. They are reVolutionists when
the times are tUmultuous, because no rev.
olution can hurt them. They are opposed
to what the mob opposes; they favor what
the mob favors. Their argument is that
they can do more for the people than any
body else; their demand is always to be
allowed an opportunity to improve the
condition of the country; and their efforts
always result just adversely to what they
promised to effect As a general rule
their first suggestion is to reduce
the taxes, and their last is to
explain how they expect to do this. One
half of the stump orators that are nightly
engaged in haranguing the multitudes
can not tell what the taxes are levied for,
and the other half can not explain how
these taxes can be reduced When a SEN
sible officer proposes plan to reduce the
public expenditures, these itinerant pub
hcists can not comprehend the sugges-
ton, and if they can they object to the
proposal without offering any plan of
their own. This is the staple of which
our politicians are mostly composed at
present, and the Bee and Citizens Guard
send out apostles Of this sort by the score.
They confound US with demands for re-
form, and yet they never tell us what re-
form they want. All we can get out Of them
is that they want Governor Warmoth de-
feated, and that is their first and LIST de-
mand, as if Governor Warmoth was re-
sponsible for what Judge Cooley does on
the bench, or what the Carrollton Council
does in its own interest. If Judge Cooley
gives Judgment against the city; if
Judge Emerson gives judgment against
the State; if City Council that
consists of the Governors political
enemies engages in unjust and improper
spectators, although the Governor re-
rists all of these invasions Of the interests
Of the people, still the Bee and Guard hold
Warmoth responsible, and the weather
cocks perch themselves aloft and point
with the senseless scandal, not'because
they feel any interest in honesty or desire
t9protect the public, but because they
banker after notoriety, and always strive
to be on the side of the mob in its preju-
dices. And we have to give these po-
litical shoddyites prominence because
they constitute themselves the organs Of
prejudices and Misrepresentation which it
is our duty and our interest to overthrow.
About one-half Of our disgust in opposing
bad measures is the fact that in doing so
we have to give notoriety to the weak men
who ignorantly put these wicked or silly
suggestions forward. We are just now
trying to devise plan by which this half
Of the matter can be abated, for we are