The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1872-07-20
"THE UNITED STATE TICKET"

entire body of Democrats and the advO-
Gates of Reform throughout the State.
1t will be see that it is not put forth
as a Democratic ticket, but, us its patrO-
nymic indicates, it's fusion ticket. Let
us inquire briefly who the high contract
ing parties to this bargain are, what
bodies of men they represent, what an
thority is vested i'll them to mortgage,
hypothecate or otherwise restrain or
dispose of the ballots of the people and,
finally, what is the object and aim of
this complication so secretly formed and
so suddenly launched upon its mission
of evil.
In the first place then the two commit
tees are composed Of men who lack the
prestige of success. They are failures
in the most Odious political sense because
they are the men that defeatedin Loui-
siana the policy that had redeemed Mis-
Ouri, Tennessee and Virginia, a policy
that lately carried the greatest political
convention of this age like a WhirlWind
and that will eliminate in the triumph-
ant election of it's founder and greatest
leader to the second place i'll the gift Of
the nation.
They are men who, if they had the
respect and confidence of the people,
have forfeited both because they have,
in secret cOnclave, struck q bargain, in
AID &Dx,,,,r nf r-binI, EhpiI. n1,r4it,1oy,nT ~
if they have any, were not consulted,
and leaving the conviction strong as
'proofs from Holy Writ" that they, not
the people, are to be the benefciaries of
the compact.
In the second place, the great body of
men whom these gentlemen at one time
represented have accepted the name and
the policy of the Liberal party and will
not be led by two citizens Of New Or
leans whose influence is confined to the
metropolis, and who are the figure heads
of committees that have been first emas-
culated, and then repudiated. As to the
representative capacity Of Mr.. Randolph
for whom does he speak and act, for
instance, of the thirty thousand people
of the parish of St. Landry? We chal-
lenge the production of one single indi-
vidual in IL whole population, except,
perhaps, the parish memberof the quon-
dam Reform State committee, that will
own the authority of that defunct body,
or the surviving fragment of it to bar
gain, sell, Or in any manner pledge OF
influence his vote.
A very respectable number of gentle
men of this parish did, at one time, atfil-
late with and support the Reform move
ment, but solely with the hope and pur-
pose of accomplishing political reform
through the only practical basis, that Of
a fusion Of all elementsfavOrable to that
end-that hope having been defeated
by the impracticability, as much as by
other causes, of such men as Mr.. Ran,
dolph-the sympathisers of that move,
ment, with the single exception alluded
to, have gone, rank and file, into the
Liberal party.
In the third place, who vested Mr.. La
sere with authority to drop two names
on the Democratic ticket, if it be a De.
mocratic ticket, and to substitute two
other names in their stead? Is this il
accordance with Democratic usage o.
any other usage governing great political
parties in their operations? Is it not {
palpable example of that assumption o.
power by the few yer the many, of tina
system, in it's most obnoxious form, o.
subordinating the great interests of al
entire people to the rule of a metropOli
tan clique, whose acts are done in secre
and whose purposes, disguise them a
they may with patriotic phrases, ar
bent to one selfish end-the a%ppropria
ton to themselves Of power and place
We inquire again, by what right die
the head of the State Democratic com
mittee agree to drop from the politica
vocabulary the name Of the great part,
of which he was constituted the especia
champion in this State, when that yer,
name has been chung to through goc'
and evil report by thousands of citizens
with a pertinacity that demonstrate,
their attachment to it and who hay
hitherto stood aloOf from the Liberia
party solely because they cou1dnot brin,
themselves to a surrender Of an epithet
to them, time-honored and talismanic
; But we make no quarrel with Mr.. La
sere on this point-the Liberal party ow
him much for having, at one fell swOoT
removed the only stumbling block to
complete, comprehensive andimmediat
union between Democrats and Liberal
throughout the State.
Finally, seeing the utter impossibilit
of success, what object is proposed to b
: accomplished by the projectors Of thi
mongrel ticket? We say impossibilit
of suceess-let no man of observation
/ doubt this, especially when he reflect
that out of the seventy or seventy-fv
papers in the State, and as far as asce1
tanned, only sir give c~ountenance to thu
: joint project Of these two self-constitu
ted leaders of the public opinion OF. til
State, and when he listens to the luke
J warm, doubling support given it, eve
= by the few individuals here and Their,
some of whom look with favor upo
5 Grant, upon Kellogg, upon any alliane
J with any seto 0 men rather than with til
! gentlemen who, in the city and through
: out the parishes are working for tt
: great popular movement.