The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1874-09-11

From the New orleans Tjmes,l

IA lEIUHl llc new OTA6aIlS lil0eSaJk, 81 3
The average human being is SO bound
up in seltishness that he finds it i'm.
possible to take a dispassiOnate view OF
himself, or, at least, such a view as
Others take. His rights are dearer tC
him than anybody else's rights and his
wrongs he feels with a more bitter in
tensity than others feel their wrongs
His thoughts may be vagabOnds but
being his own, he prizes them. His pre-
JUDGES may be intense, but they are
cherished as a part Of Ofhis religion. In
short, his dOxy is orthodoxy while
the doxy of those who disagree with him
is h~eterodOXy.
While things are moving along in the
wen tenor Of theirWay, and hate, malice
and all Observation-Disclosures find no special
~prOvocatiOn to abnormal action, these
peculiarities Ofthe paragon Of animalsT
do not materially disturb the inharlnO-
FniOus harmony of %sublnnaryl events.
But let trouble arise and they intensity
it; let confusion come, and they render
it worse COMPOUNDED.
1t has been one of the misfOrtunes of
Louisiana that her people never look on
public or private affairs with hat calm
philosophy which they would apprOvein
other people. They let their passion get
the better of theirjudgment and instead
OF fairly shaping causes to the accom-
plishment of events they trammel them
by distempered surroundings and make
impediments Of circumstances which
should naturally prove helpers.
3 Through an unc0mpromising. spirit,
sufficiently extended to destroy that I'M
deavOrs of Il people since the war have
hppn " fJ1pnnH 0yyrpU and tnSf tho nnnn
of action" The opportunity fOrredemp-
ton was presented III more than one
occasion, and was lost, because indi-
vidual prejudices could not find a gen.
eral approval, and personal ambition re-
fused to be suhOrdinated to the higher
interests. Of the State. Tt has been one
OF our failings to permit rash men to as
ssume a prominence to which they are
not entitled, and, by their recklessness,
endanger a cause which shOuldbe sacred.
The leaven of aperverted manhood has
brought the pistol and the knife into I'M
holy prominence. and given to perhaps
worthless scOundrels the pregnant sig
n%ificance of political martyrdom.
Elsewhere we give the views of that
Southern, Conservative paper, the Lou
isville Courier Journal, on the inevitable
consequences of the foolish violence
which, within Il few weeks, has become
rampant throughout the South. BY it
the failing hopes of Radicalism have
been revivedin the North and West, and
the return to Congress of at least fifty
Republicans, who would otherwise he
replaced by Conservatives, has been un-
dOubtedly assured. Such results should
give us pause and induce reflection. We
should not only take into consideration
how we feel ourselves, as the ministers
of a lawless vengeance, but how itatfects
that great community of national, and
political interests with which we are in
~dissolubly connected. No MAI lives en-
tirely for himself or by himself, and if
he cOnstitutiOnally acts on his own self
ish prOmptings the chances are that
ninety-nlne times out of a hundred he
will err. 81
Before any rash step be taken the
questions should be asked-h0w Widths
affect others ?-how will it be looked
upon by others? If by following the
devices of our own will we iniure our
best friends and endangerthe higher in
terests of the political community, of
which it is our pride to form a part, we
should stay our rash hand, even if it be
upon the trigger, and turn, ere it is too
late.
To see ourselves as others see us ma
a high mental and moral effort;
but it is one which lies directly in the
pathway Ofredemption. Those who can
turn the eye of things in upon them
and calmly contemplate the re-
suit, may be trusted with some degree of
Those who cannot, or will not,
be permitted to retire.