The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-06-09
ADDRESS OF THE WHITE CITIZENS
OF ST. MARTIN.

unfortunate State. i hat the question Oh
races controls the voters of color, and that
they make no secret Of their pretensions to
monopolize all the power and emoluments
Of the Government, is a glazing tact which
cannot be controversial. Blind instruments
of an odious oppression and Of a shameless
venality, they have desecrated the right OF
suffrage by elevating to public Office stupid
and Ignorant men, Adventures and knayes,
and worse than these, turncoats and rene
gades who have bartered their b:rth-right
and betrayed their principles and associa-
tons Of the past, their race and their coun-
try.
For nearly seven years the State Govern
ment, with all its ramifications of municipal
and parOchial organizations, has been moth
ing else than a network, nefaTious ring Of
spOiliatlon, of bare-faced monopolies and OF
scandalous speculations. Down with intel
ligence and honesty, down with property,
has been and is the watchword of relentless
and barbarOus crusade against right, justice
and civilization.
A series of bad crops barely adequa to
the support Of life the devastions OF the cot
ton worm, the havoc of epidemcs, the finan-
cial panic, the stagnation of commerce, and,
eliminating over all these disasters, the
wide spread scOurge of a desolating overflow,
have spread gloom of AFFECT poverty, of de-
spair, aud of a mortal agony over our down.
trodden community. And it is under the
pressure of all these calamities, and of this
deadly gloom that by the edicts of the mid
night interlOpers in the Gubernatorial chair
and in the Auditors office, our lands are adj
Indicated to the State, that the repeated
blows of the fiscal auctiOneer's hammer re-
sound in the woe-stricken hearts of a large
number of families struggling against
famine and destitution-and that the collec-
ton Of taxes-stern and inexOIable, is en-
forced upon the deprt ciated wrecks Of prop
erty without any market value, but whose
valuation is cyphered with such edifying
munifcence on the assessment rolls.
Amongst hundreds and thousands of others
an illustration of the tender solicitude of
the petty tyrants who lord it, over us, for
the tax payers, falls under our immediate
observation. A large portion of our parish
is under water and from ST. 900 the parish
tax has been raised to $4,000 by kellogg's
police jury!
FellOw-citizens, if a reckless usurpation,
the offspring of fraud and violence, belstered
up and maintained by a remOrseless denial
Of Justice, and by high-handed tyrany at
the hands of the Federal Government, finds
servile Instruments, mercenary and craven
adulation and support; if intelligence, ex-
perience, honest industry, craftsmanship and
the rights of property are without repre-
sentatiOn in ignorant, debased and corrupt
Legislatures; if most of the sO-called tribu-
mails of justice are political workshops and
partisan dens; if the costs of seizure and
Draconian penalties piled upon extortionate
taxes, levied upon unproductive property,
expose our families to the rgOrs OF confis-
cation and to the anguish of appropriation
and exile; if millions and millions paid by
an impoverished people for the construction
II Of kou n
pockets whose depths exceeds that Of
the waters which cover most of the finest
and most fertile portions of Louisiana;
If selfish monOpolies and audacious
swindles, scandalOus fortunes made from
day to day, with no other capital than
carpet-bag or a per diem of IS, have dried
up the source of credit, paralyzed commerce
and industry, emptied the public treasury
and crushed the State under debt out OF
all proportion with its resources; If over
the upheaval Of the fetid dregs Of immoral
and impure legislation, and of criminal pre-
varication in the various departments Of the
Government, and if, over this chaos of in
famies, reputation and bankruptcy seem to
portend the last dire act Of despair, strug-
Cling against destruction, on
whom should rightfully fall the dread
responsibility On the blind and ignorant
voting machines, engineered by political
wire-p ullers; on the arrogant, senseless
and grotesque aspirations OF the negro
voters, olled and manipulated by I'M
scrupulOus Adventures, knaves and office
seekers who fatten on the public crib, and
whose patriotism kneels and cringes at the
shrine of negro worship and at the feet of
their worthy master and lord, counterfeit
and spurious Governor.
FellOw-citizens, we cannot close our eyes
to the significant fact that black league is
in full organization, and that its object is
the overthrow of the last breastworks of our
dearest privileges, even to the invasion OF
the sancity of our homes and firesides.
Sons of Louisiana! descendants of the bold
and chivalrOus pioneers, who planted the
landmarks of Christian civilization along
the shores of the great river, are we fallen
so low as to bend our necks under an igno-
minious yoke? Are we prepared to surren
der our manhood, to give the lie to our past
history, to the superiority of our race, and
to bequeathe to our children and to future
generations the burning shame and oppro-
blum of an Africanized and disgraced csun
trys
No! Submission, even apathy or Austen
ton would re the pusillanimous sacrifice Of
duty and of honor A Thousand times no.
And in the name of all that we hold dear
and sacred, to the rescue, one and all
To our brethren of st. Landry belongs
the honor of the first organization of
"White League" for the protection of our
property, Of our persons, OF our rights, and
of our race. Emulating their noble exam
pie, other adhesions will follow ours. The
ball will roll on from parish to parish BY
organizing we will know our numbers and
our strength; and with energy and unity
of action, with the manly determination
to triumph, God, in His mercy and justice,
will permit us to share the honor of the
State, and to wipe out the stains of the
loathsome corruption and misrule under
which she is fast sinking in the last strng-
gle Of despair and decay.
In the face of common danger, as
friends, as brothers, as children of COM
mon country, let us, then, forget all our dis
sensions, and sacrifice our personal aspira-
tions on the altar of pure and dsinterested
patriotism.
We trust that all true Louisianians, whose
hearts beat in unison with the lofty con
seriousness and with the noble aspirations Of
the traditional superiority of their race will