The People's vindicator. [volume] (Natchitoches, La.) 1874-1883, 1874-07-18

OF the lSnOble Wretches forced upOl
us as rulers by the horrible allianc,
between negro ignorance and the Gun
ming Of Washington bureaucracy, ri.
lors grown lich amidst general dis
tress, and reg in the proceeds Of
taxes wrung l''ee. a gasping people
rulers painfully Maintained by nation.
al bayonets in positions reekiug with
dishOnor and felony. aud from which
there would need bc but one wild
hour ofunrestained anger to hurl them
forever
Need we repeat the old story Of
brutal violence stalking at midni ght
in the drasgled shroul of judicial
authority and under the shadow OF
the Federal power, enthroning an OK
ecrablo oligarchy of the most igno.
rant and proAigate negroes, leagued
with the most dangerous class Of re.
pacious whites, the very scum of 90
ciety 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
denunciation of tle wrong-doers, and
yet not a hand has been lifted to de.
liver us from their expressions.
With our hands on our hearts and
appealing to God, We and the whole
white people of Louisiana can lelare
that We are in, no way responsible
for the intolerable evils of misgovern-
ment under which the State is perish
ing. From the time that the right
Of suffrage was, as we believed, aud
We still believe, accorded too hastily
to a race in the infancy of freedom,
we firmly resolved that it was our du-
| ty, and wise expcdiency to accept
the policy of the reconstruction laws
in their full scope. We endeavored
ut once to address ourselves to the in
tellisenco Of the negro, to explain to
him that slavery having been forever
abolished, he, as a citizen possessing
all tho rights of white citizens, had
the same interests and the same du-
ties as white men. Our orators and
our press piled linn with tho obvious
reasoning on these subjects. We in
vited 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 advances with
distrust and suspicion unhesitating.
~ fallovad the leadership of .pan
whom they knew to be unworthy and
dishonest, and with scarcely an ex-
ception invariably voted like a body
Of trained soldiers obeying a word Of
command. We still hoped that time
and experience would give them dis
erection in the exercise Of a precious
right, which they never exercised here
or else where except as a gift from our
race. We thought that a right which
they owed to tile white race would
not be persistently used by them to
accomplish the ruin of white men. In
this hope we have been most griev-
ously disappointed. The negro has
proved himself as destitute of Gem.
mon gratitude as of common sense.
Instead Of improving in his capacity
to make an intelligent and patriotic
use ofthe ballot, we do not hesitate to
affirm that he is to-day less qua lifted
for the duties of self-government than
he was seven years ago. In the be-
ginning We are willing to believe that
he was guided by q childish faith in
the bad control Of his vote. But
though he has long since lost that
faith /; though the barefaced rascali-
ties of those men are now known to
him though he denounccs them as
liars and thieves, he still retains them
in positions Of power and trust for the
avowed purpose Of breaking down
the industry of the State, wasting it
by exorbitant taxation, and finally
driving it's white inhabitants to other
States.
Any one who has been to their
meetings, or overheard their private
conversations, knows that they dream
of the gradual exodus of the whites,
which will leave Louisiana to their
exclusive control like another Hayti.
The increasing spirit of caste found
ed on the most absurd inversion of the
relations ofrace, shows itself in every
form. Their incessant demands for
Offices from the State, city and Fcde-
raj Government for which they are
unfit, and to which they have no ii.
tie other than the color of their skin
the development in their conventions
Of a spirit Of prescription against
white Radicals and even against hon.
orable Republicans who fought in the
Northern armies for their liberation
their increasing arrogance, which
seems to know no bounds; their in.
creasing dishonesty, which they re.
gard as Q statesmanly virtue; their
contemptuous scorn of all the rights
Of tue white man which they dare
trespass upon. All these signs warn
us that the calamity which we had
long apprehended is now imminent,
and that We must be prepared for ali
it's consequences. Disregarding all