The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-05-20
VIGILANCE COMMITTEES.

We are not the advocates OF violence or
mob law. We believe that the best interests
of a community are bet er subserved by
strict adherence to the properly constituted
authority Vigilance committees are seldom
organized in any place where equitable laws
exist and are properly inforced. Vigilance
committees spring into existence when
community, weighed down by oppression,
harassed to death by every conceivable
outrage, and despairing of all hope OF re-
dress through the ordinary and legitimate
channels, finally resolves to take the law in
their own hands and mete out justice to the
offenders ard guilty parties. When people
are driven to such desperation as thus to
act for their own protection, they are not
ant to be inundated or in any
way restrained by the idle threats
Of the very parties whose crimes may
have given cause for such an extraordi-
nary organization.
The propriety of organizing vigilance
committee in this city has been seriously
discussed, and is now engaging public at
tention. The necessity for such an organi
zation is found in the fact that the people
are without any protection for life or prop
erty. There is no respect for laws enacted
by bogus and a fraudulent Legislature.
There is nothing but cnntempt for the Off
GERS who pretend to administer them.
They are regarded as usurpers and I'M
posters, and without any legal authority to
enforce order or afford protection. With
this state of affairs, then, it is not surpris
ing to find the people alarmed and taking
steps to protect themselves. Self preserva-
ton is the first law Of nature, and if the
thieves, burglars and other offenders,
should wake up some morning and find
themselves suspended to lamp post by an
indignant people, they may attribute their
il-luck to the absence Of any law or legal
officers under the so-called Kellogg Govern
ment.
In connection with this subject we find a
pertinent and sensible article in the Louis
lana State Register Republican paper, and
from that fact, the extract is all the more
significant. Democrats are not the only
ones who are Disguised with the corruption
of the Republican party and the robberies
perpetrated by its Office holders. Many de
cent Republicans are beginning to show
signs Of rcstivcness under the CALLING yoke,
and the oppressive taxation. In speaking
of vigilance committees, the Register says
The Republican would have its readers believe that
these proposed committees favored only by
Democrats This ia a Misrepresentation Republicans
become outraged at bad government and plum 'ering
laws. enacted exclusively for the benefit of the law
makers equally quick, If not qui ker. than Demo-
Gratis. People will not stand by without slurming,
no matter what their pot and see their homes
and business swept away under system of legazed
robbery and the proceeds go to the pockets of those
who enact the statutes to desp il them. 1t is
contrary to laws that immutable, and that
prevail to the lowest forms of life, fof even |
the worm will at last turn its prosecutor, and
battle for its right to live The remedy for vs ance
commit tees s not found in executive threat to |
diaperse them; neither in ing it is the work of
Democracy for litical effect; but is found in
the enforcement of good laws, economical govern |
M MT and proper regard for the wishes aud inter
of the people instead of the Office holders. 1t re-
quires prophet to see that if the present corrupt
rings continue to hold the prosperity of the cty and
State in their remorseless grasp that human power
can prevent the organization of vigilance committees
rs the last resort of desperate men.