The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-07-01
Business Meeting of the Ores
cent City White League.
The Platform.

f~Ac~~S ''SSe>~~~~ W
the hour, and there was one resolve to NEE
them.
Col. F. N. Ogden brought the League to order
and presided.
The Crescent City Democratic Club by resou
ton, was invited to attend the meeting Of the
League and participate in its proceedings, and :
committee OF three was appointed to make know
the action Of the meeting.
The committee retired, and in short time re
turned with the Crescent City Club Their en-
trance was greeted with cheers.
Capt. Hodgson then read a resolution, adopted
by the Crescent City Club, before its adjournmen,
sine die, rendering to the White League thei,
paraphanalia ETC., used in the campaign of 1872
Inc following PLATFORM
was submitted by President Ogden for the APP
proval Of the club:
PLATFORM OF THE C. c. w. LEAGUE.
The Crescent City Democratic Club of 1868
having changed its name to that Of Crescent
City White League" has thought that an explana-
ton was due alike to its retired members and to
the people OF New Orleans of the motives Of a
change so seriously and so sadly suggestive.
1t may be stated that the elements of personal
character and of general purpose in the club
have undergone no change since its origin
Cur members with lint few losses m accesvions
are the same as for many years past, and we feel
determination to strive in the task Of practical
politics to establish and maintain snch govern
ment in the State and city as shall guard the
liberties Of the citizen his business and the ac-
cumuatOns of his industry.
Our fellow-citizens will permit us to recall with
just pride our strenuous and persistent efforts
in this behalf, though they have again and again
been prostrated by the fatal intrusion Of high
All our struggles had been hitherto conducted
under the ancient banner of Democracy To which
we shall ever look for guidance in ali National
contests But we are now fast drifting to a CON
fict, bounded by the limits of the State. and
which the men of Louisiana alone must settle. if
Justice and fair play shall rule and not Federal
violence. II "a a conflict not involving a single
issue upon which an honest RepnbIican can pos
sibly differ ma snch from an honest Democrat a
conflict the decision Of which we would contident
" and gladly remit to the votes of the very adj
calls of New England, nav to any BODY of civilized
men in the world; for it is a conflict between
virtue and deprayity - between enlightenment
and thick ignorance between civilization and bar
barism-a barbarism artificallv stimulated and
held up by the perverted authority of the most
civilized nation in the world A civilization
whose cry not for help against threatened de-
struction but for mere fair play in maintaining
itself is answered from Washington bv insults
and blow. In this dire emergency the national
Democracy is powerless to afford relief. The
national Republican party, absorbed in it's dream
of future domination and quarreling over present
schemes of finance, has forgotten that there is
such an outlying province as Louisiana which it
might rescue from perdition and disgrace. for
the sake Of the good name of the National Com
monwealth.
Need we draw a picture of our utter tlesola-
ton? Need we point on the one hand to our
devastated fields, our waning commerce. our idle
workshops, our decreasing popua ton our in
creasing taxes our pal,per multitudes pension
ara nv,o nj oh yifv fLa tbar
the orgies of the ignob!e w1etches forced upop
us as rulers by the horrible alliance between ne-
gro ignorance and the cunning of Washington
bureaucracy rulers grown rich amidst general
distress, and reyeling in the proceeds Of taxes
wrung from q gasping people. rulers painfully
maintained by national bayOnets in positions
reeking with dishonor and felony. and from which
there Would need be Int one wild hnur If unre
strained anger to hurl them forever?
Need we repeat the old story Of brutal violence
stalking at midnight in the drappled shroud of
judicial authority and under the Shadow of the
Federal power. enthroniny an execrabla olipar-
civ Of the most ignorant and proHioate negroes
leagued with the most dangerous class Of rapa-
ciOIls whites the very scum of society America
has rung with the echo of these wrongs. and we
have heard even those who have made it a system
to hate us raise their voices in denuncation of the
wrong doors, and vet not hand has been lifted
to deliver us from their expressions.
With our hands on our hearts and appealing to
God, we and the whole white people Of Louisiana
caIl Uecdre uIl0t we are IN no way responsible fer
the intolerable evils of misgovernlnent under
which the State is perishng From the time that
the right Of suffrage was as we believed and as
We still believe, accorded too hastily to race in
the infancy Of freedom, firmly resolved that it
was our duty, and a wise expediency to accept
the policy of the reconstruction laws in their full
scope. We endeavored at once to address our
selves to the intelligence OF the negro to explain
to him that slavery having been forever abolished
he, q citizen possessing all the rights of white
citizens, had the same interests and the same
duties as white men. Our orators and our press
Piled him with the obvious reasoning on these
subjects. We invited him to our meetings. we
called him to our Platforms We placed some of
them upon our tickets Election after election
they turned a deaf ear to us: treated all our adj
vances with distrust and suspicion; unhesitating-
~ followed the leadership of men whom they
knew to be unworthy and dishonest, and with
scarcely an exception invariably voted Like body
OF trained soldiers obeying a word of command.
We still hoped that time and experience would
give them discretion in the exercise III precious
right, which they never exercised here or else
where except as gift, from our race We