The Caucasian. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1874-1875, 1874-04-25
What it requires to be an
' 1n:~s..:.s Repb'ie'@

lican" for the five or six years in the Par
iBh of Natchitoches, is o lesson full Of in
struction and a. type of such Mr.. Black
stone was decidedly representative man.
To be an ''uDswerving Republican" during
that trying period required q man who
would shrink from no duty which bribery
could suggest and no robbery which could
DO accomplished under the guise Of police
legislation. The police jury of Natchitoches
has usually been appointed by the Govern
or or by ono or two white men, peers Of
Mr.. Blackstone, and consisted of two
thirds negroes and three or four such mon
answering Republicans" a. Mr.. Black
stone. If there was representative from
the property holders and moral portion of
tho community, he was in q helpless min
GRITTY. That such Police Juries should have
done their work we'll is what could have
been easily anticipated and is now attest
cd by the ruin and desolation of the Par
ish of Natchitoches and the aff]uence of its
manipulators. Its system was rs simple
as it was effective, and oven tile Credit
Mobilier might envy the skill with which
it plundered the public. Contracts for
bridges and other public works were CIV
Oh to tho licutenants and corporals Of
their clubs, at five times their value. For
instance a bridge, the building Of which,
was not worth more than $500, is let to
one for $500. A Toll bridge and cause
way, is given to another as monopoly
aud $500 loaned him to build it. $1,000
is given to another to paint the Court
House VIII ich was not worth over 500, but
this contract had the excuse Of having
been given to one whose conversion to Re-
publicanism had been attended with moro
Of trcachery and falseIood than usually
attended those remarkable conversions.
These contracts one would think, could
have been multiplied sufficiently to have
.ratified even q Credit Mobilier, but it
seems not to have afforded sufficient scope
to tho genius Of these architects Of ruin
They embarked upon bolder plan. $4,000
in paper was issued to one of their leaders
lot tie purpose Of going to Cincinnati to
have map Of the Parish Autographed.
Rapides paid only $1,000 for a better one
$4,000 was then appropriated to get mp an
Emigration Bureau, aud warrants issued
to the same individual to 80 to Cincinnati
to have the prospectus printed. But the
excuses and ways of issuins this parish pa
per. was merely The mandatory for th G
raw material. In order that there should
be no waste. ring had been formed WITH
access to the school fund and tax fund, to
buy up this parish paper at twenty cents,
lawyers employed bring suit, Judgments
rendered, and the people required to make
good this wholesale robbery in greenbacks'
We will rot venture to state the exact
amount Of this species or tax paid by the
Parish, lest we should underestimate it.
We were informed that $4,000 was paid
one year, perhaps $20, 900 another; and $50
900 another, a nd still there was left q debt
of $4,000. If we state the matter incor
rectly, the Republican dare not correct it,
by giving true statement; for any state
ment of it is almost too monstrOus to DO
believed. TSaat tho people should be en-
pover,shed to begsary, aud that some
should have grown to atluenco in tn G
midst of this robbery. is what everybody
in Natchitoches knows. The only sur
prissing things that the people of Nat
chitoches did not rise in their might and
deal with these rob bers, as they would
deal with highwaymon. A committee
from men who knew their rights and
know how to protect them, might have
convinced these creators of taxes, that
they had better resort to some other
means of making living.
Such arc some of tho trying circumstan
| ces under which Mr.. Blackstone was ar
''unswerving Republicans" but they are
not all, To entitle white man to the
full sympathy, confidence aud support Of
the Republican party in Natchitoches and
other parishes we could mention, it is moi
SuluCICuk uO 10
with the odors Of treachery, 1alsebood
and bribery-hc mast haze the swee1
scenN') Of ooncabimage and o.
course negro concubinage, has tn {
browning merit of all concubinages
Mr.. Blackstone possessed this GROWING
virtue. 1t is true that when he became q
thorough Republican, he married his con
cubiue. We can truly add our testimony
to that of the Republican-in saying that
he was an ''unswerving Republican" and
just such an "unswerving Republican" al
has laid the State of Louisiana in ruins
and degraded even the morals and integ
rity Of the blackman. just such as he
have taught the negroes in our Legisla
tnre, that to grant monop"lies for brides
was honorable, that perjury was not sin
theft not dishonor But worse than al
this; that a white man, no matter how vile
ond dayraded ho was in n fit associate fOl