New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-09-14
The Louisianinns nj Saratoxa.

The Louisianinns Mt Saratoga.
| The following letter is from the pen OF
Rev. Burdett Hart, the distinguished divine
Of the First Congregational Church at
1 Hartford, Connecticut His judgment upon
notice, and the letter well worth perusal:
SARATOGA, August, 1873
! To the Editor of the Journal and Courier
| One OF the most interesting features of
! this week at Saratoga was the appearance
| last evening. in the Town Hall. of dele.
| CATION of colored Republicans, to expose
! the frauds of the FusiOnists in the last
| election in Louisiana, and to vindicate the
| record of their own party. They are from
| New Orleans and are members of the Sen
| ate Of Louisiana 1t will be remembered
| that since that election a large committee
| of white men from Louisiana came to
siOnisfs, visited important points and
leading men, and had audience with
| the various departments of our govern
| ment at Washington. They presented one
side of the public affairs of that distracted
! commonwealth, and were well supplied
with those materials which influence both
public and private opinion. Although they
did not wholly succeed in the object of
their mission, they produced powerful i'm
consequent visit OF Senator Carpenter to
New Orleans, and also how his interviews
in that city convinced him that the other
side had not been fairly and fully repre-
scented. These interviews led the Repub-
licans Of New Orleans to new investiga-
ton and array of the facts in reference to
the late election, and to the decision to
make a fuller statement of these to the
Northern people and to the government
than ha0 b Ten made.
Out OF large committee of twenty-one,
a small committee has been deputed to set
before the people of the North, in public
assemblies, facts which are substantiated
by incontrovertible proofs. This committee
held this first meeting last evening at the
Town Hall Of this place. DR.. Hamilton, a
white citizen, presided. The audience was
large and respectable and sympathetic
with the object tor which they had as
sembed.
The first speaker was the Hon. J. Henri
Burch, mulatto. He is man of medium
height, with sonorous voice, a graceful
manner and a natural eloquence. He stated
clearly the object of their mission to the
North; then arrayed the facts of fraud on
the part of the opposition, then spoke of
the actual difficulties under which Repub-
licans labor and live or die in Louisiana,
and closed with the reasons why the
colored men are Republicans Ha pre-
scented facts which were OF his own know
ledge. The pecIls under which the black |
men maintain ther principles were
eloquently and touchingly depicted. The !
steadfast adherence of his race to the party |
which has secured their entranchisement
and citizenship was powerfully set forth. |
Altogether the speech was worthy of the
occasion and hOnored the man who made |
it. Their was d certain courstesy and kind |
illness about it, even in his seyerest charges |
against his political foes, and his treat
ment of Governor Warmoth's treachery, |
which was convincing that the negro will |
make fair as he will an eloquent politi. |
elan. |
The next speaker was Hon. 4. E. Barber. |
He is gigantic black negro. A few years !
ago be was plantation slave. When he |
picked up little learning, taught himself |
the alphabet and mastered the spelling |
book and kept his ears open, and when the |
war came and reconstruction followed he |
was prepared to lead his race in political |
He was at once put for ward |
for the State Senate, his opponent being an
lawyer, and was elected by 1900 |
majority. What progress he has made was
evinced last night by his reading of public
documents and by his comments upon the
slandered Legislature of his State. He is
a natural orator, needing only discipline to
be very effective. as he is now very vigor-
Gus. His treatment OF his opponents was
by the same qualities which
have imputed to Mr.. Burch. Perhaps
our political warfare is to receive a new
color from our black orators of the South
and possibly they are TO teach US that there
may be strength without coarseness and
plainness of speech which shall have the
quality of charity. Certainly, if into the
hot passions of our violent contests the
dark Southerners shall infuse cool blood
and gentle manners it will not be a small
for the cost of lifting them into
the rights and responsibilities of citizen
ship. | hope that the largest ball in New
Haven may,!by and by, be opened to wei
come these eloquent partisans, whose pres
ent mission is one which should receive at
east the candid attention of men of all
parties. For our institutions can not long
stand on q basis OF fraud.
BURDETT HART.