New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-08-15
Poor Louisiana.

YarLs and fabrics at Manchester dull not quota
bly, lower.
Poor Louisiana.
There might be found apolOgists for thu
man who, when the sources OF earthly fe
licity and domestic happiness are dried up
and the sky that was once clear and serene
in the sunshine of prosperity is black and
frOwning with the angry clouds of adj
versity, and poverty and want stare him in
the face, when friends prove faithless and
foes are on his track, plunges the dagger
into his heart or blows his brains out with
q pistol. But We think there can scarcely
be found one who will offer an apology for
the people of whole State who, madly
and without cause, commit political sui
eide. This the people of Louisiana are
about to do. The war Of faction RACES
there with undated fury and threatens
10 bring destruction on the State if the
wheels of it's chariots are not speedily
STAYED. The White Leaguers seem to have
forgotten all the pledges they gave, and
are seeking to deprive the negro Of the
rights with which he is invested by the
amendments to the federal constitution.
Some thirteen months ago mass meeting
was held in New Orleans, at which resO-
buttons were drawn up by committee Of
one hundred men of both colors, in
which guarantees were given that the
colored people should enjoy all the rights
which the bill of the late Charles Sumner
provides. These resolutions, if we are not
mistaken, were adopted by the meeting.
General Beauregard said then: 1--WE are
bound to give this great experiment of re-
publican selfgovernment on the basis OF
impartial suffrage a fair trial; and as long
as we assume position antagonistic in
principle to his rights, and thereby drive
the cOOred man into opposition to us, if
harm results we must lay the blame upon
ourselves rather than on the system. l am
persuaded that the natural relation between
the white and colored people is that of
friendship. / am persuaded that their in
terests-are Identical; that their destinies in
this State, where the two races are equally
divided, are linked together, and that there
ia no prosperity for Louisiana which must
not be the result of their cooperation.
have not proposed to myself any advan-
tages from the resolutions referred to. l
do not seek or desire Office or emOluments.
have in view but the restoration of Lou
isiana to the place of honor from which she
has fallen"
This was noble utterance which Beau
regard gave. But the people there do not
seem to abide either by his words or the
pledges given in the meeting. White
Leagues have been formed for the purpose
of depriving the black man of his rights,
although this is denied. The Shreveport
Times of recent date made use of this
language:
"And, in truth if we fail in the next cleo
ton, 1t is the settled determination of every
white man in Louisiana, who can do go, to
abandon the State.
THE white people have determined to
organize party which, while it does not
propose to deprive them lnegrOes) of a
single right guaranteed to them by the ex.
listing laws, refuses to recognize their Ca
pacity to discharge the duties of legislators.
This party, in effect, says to them: We pro-
pose to elect only honest and competent
men to Office. Knowing you to be incOm-
petent even if honest, we do not intend to
give you place on our ticket, not because
of color, but because of incompe tency."
1t strikes us that if the colored man has
q right to vote, he has right to hold Of
fee. We believe in electing nothing but
honest and competent men, and we are
fully persuaded that among the cOlOred
people of Louisiana, who are in the ma
jOrity in that State, there are some who
are perfectly competent to fill certain po-
litical stations. We have met with some
black men from that State, who, in point
of intelligence and knowledge of State
and national affairs, would compare ia
vOrably with some white men who have
filled and are now filling important offices.
II the quotation given above means any
thing, it means that black men are fit only
to be governed, and to deposit their vote
in the ballot box. provided they vote as
they are instructed by such men as the
editor of the Times, who claims that since
Radicalism made its appearance in Lou.
isiana he has not failed to wage war
against it, and in the defense of his people
against its rascalities. The same paper
denOunces all Northern men, indeed all
men that have not been born in the South,
when they. 60 down there, as carpet
baggers, and declares they should be hunted
with blood hounds or shot dead if thew do
not enter into an unhOly alliance with the
White Leaguers. And all this while it
charges that some journals use every op-
pOrtunity to "rekindle the fast dying EN-.
bers of sectional hate, which have been so
often set aglow by the appeals of political
demagogues." If any papers. either in the
South or the North, are laboring more in
dustriously in this work than the one from
which we have quoted, they have not come
under our notice. There is no sectional
hate in the North against the South that we
know of, and if there is, shame upon those
who cherish it.
Referring to this subject the New Orleans
REPUBLICAN has q good word to say for the
colored people, although we have no doubt
that, as Congressman Elliot admits is the
case in South Carolina, many colored peo-
pie, just like many white people in Louisi-
becoming American citizens. "This violent
and er parte attack" says the REPUBLICAN,
ION the negroes does not show that their
labor is officially stated to be excellent, the
crops cultivated almost exclusively by them
better than since the war; that they have
built the levees and closed the crevasses;
that they are the cooks and servants of the
whites, and that during the dreadful cpl
demic which last year sconrged Shreveport
with such severity that these very c0lored |
people were the laborers, nurses and |
trusted domestics of the people they are |
now ungratefullv charged with plotting to |
destroy! These intolerant journals should |
remember that to all unjust statements
there is reply, that to all violent acts
there is a correlative power to prevent,
protect or punish" s-4
1t is true, as the Times says, that the peo-
pie of Louisiana are walking--"uncon--
Iciously" we can not say, when the Gomez
luences of their conduct is patent-over q
volcano. The sooner. then,
hat the qualification of the races" aboat
which they talked last year, can be effected
he better it will be for all concerned
piHsbu,y Dispatch.