The People's vindicator. [volume] (Natchitoches, La.) 1874-1883, 1875-02-20
Our Duty.

Oul OutJ.
The TM0icGioy comes ont this week
enlarged from six, toa seven column
newspaper. 1t has always been our
endeavor to make it worthy Of the
patronage it receives, by representing
faithfully and correctly, the sen
timents and feelings of our people,
on the cnsrossing political subjects
Of the day; to post them up on all
occasions, Oh the duty which they
owe, as citizens, to the country i'll gen
era!, and to their State, in particular ;
in a word, to make such q paper as
its readers need, and have right to
expect from us. We believe that We
have the right to say, that we have not
faltered nor failed as sentinels on the
watch towers Of our liberties. who,
understanding their duties, dare per-
form them in the face of opposition,
under the greatest disadvant ages, and
without fear or reprcach from any
quartcr-Wo have always approved
and encouraged what we conceived to
be conducive to the welfare of the
common wealth, and condemned and
denounced with equal readiness and
freedom, whatever we conscientious
ly believed to be in tho least opposed
to tho honor and prosperity Of the
people, no matter whence it came,
whether from friend or from foe.
Our political enemies have no rea-
son to be satisfied With our course,
Tor we have never failed to show them
up in their true character, and to
trounce them as they deserved. We
do not regret their enmity towards US
the approval of the corrupt and vi
cious is by no means tho object Of
our ambition. Had they been sim
ccre in their views and pure in their
motives, we would have been as rea-
dy and willing to give them credit
for that. Fairness and truth would
have prompted Us to make the &C
acknowledgements. BIT when educa.
ted, natiye-born Louisianians, traitors
to their country and their race,
are at work night and day, coolly,
deliberately and for lucre, to break
the State down, in order to pull them
selves up, it is natural for public
journalists, to lash them openly, az
their consciences tortures them Sc
cretly. We have our duty. to per.
form and will not shrink frem it,
and the mode Of doing it, we shall
certainly not borrow from them. The
unblushing corruption pervadiug the
three branches of our Federal and
State governments, IL such az to re-
call to every reading man, the worse
days of the Roman Empire-Thc
parallel is striking and complete.
There is not deed, there is not a
measure, there is not q means Of ac-
complishing nefarious ends, which
cannot be found in, the ono as in tho
other-Extravagance, corruption of
rampant snbscryiency bri-
berry, libel, public iniormers, pros.
c'iption, murder; Ignorance is q ia.
vorite on account of its viciousness
freedmen arc preferred to free born
American citizens; the scum is raised
to the surface barbarians have in
yaded the Senate House of tho ma
ton presents are made to curry ia.
vor with the tXrant; pretorian guards
execute with cruel vengeance the des-
pots DEGREES; provinces tremb!e when
tho Caesar is angry ; rroconsuls are
created to plumber and Cypress the
people; the rulers frown forces a
smile to the lips when the heart is
ready to burst with sorrow the vir.
tuous and the worthy are condemned
to silence, and doomed to bear mis-
representation and persecution and
despair; the solliery led by a Sc
janus surrounds the legislature, and
drives out the representatives Of the
people by force of arms; the vile,
only, enjoy happy state of exis-
tence; in fine, the lives Of citizens
are made bitter with hard bondage,
insult and oppression. The features
arc the same in both pictures. w.
Wien such is the condition Of the
is it q wonder that Juve-
pals, with their biting and scourging
satires, spring up on every side, and
that such papers as the New York
Herald and Sun, New Orleans. Bdlle.
tin and Bee, Shreveport Times, and
The Peoples Yindicator, have be-
come public necessity? Did they