The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-09-19
and the hyena may hold their foul revel un-


But it has been urged that we were rash
and precipitate. Had these things which
have been done amongst US, and not in some
obscure corner, but in the light of day and II
the face of the whole American people, beer
attempted in Ohio, or New York, or Massa
chusetts, ten thousand men in arms woulc
have long ago asserted their rights, anG
taught the General Government at the very
threshold of invasion, the limits of its just
powers. But the passions engendered by
civil war, the lust of conquest and the
crooked designs of politicians, had SO warped
the natural sense of justice, SO killed reason,
as it were, in the very eye, that, under the
party cry of rebellion, every act Of ours was
construed into disloyalty, every effort to re-
cover our local government stigmatized as
treason, and in the interests of peace and
public order we submitted though not with
out manly protest-to an interminable cata-
logue of wrongs, the least of which would
have goaded any free community into frenzy
We have been pointed to the ballot-box as
the certain instrument of relief from any ills
we suffered. The suggestion is born of the
densest and most willtul ignorance or Is but
an added insult of bitterest irony. What
refuge could the ballot afford against regi stra-
ton and election laws which placed the whole
machinery of election under the control of
the party in power, and enabled it, through a
returning board, to declare at will who was
or was not elected? This palladium of liberty
in well regulated community may prove, as
we have demonstrated, the most terrible and
resistless engine of despotism in an i'll ordered
one. It was in the face of the admitted re-
suits of the ballot that our legal government
was overthrown and usurping one installed,
and what mockery it may become in the
hands of INSCRIPTIONS men, the election of
1874 exhibited-though not without whole
some effect-to the entire country.
1t was for this very purpose that an army
of nine hundred thousand suffragans, Ca
pable of indefinite extension by false enrol
ment, was created with stroke Of the pen.
An army of ignorant, credulous, easily duped
electors. with no idea of the duties or respon-
sibilities of the voter, organized into leagues
and councils, Cfficered by needy and knavish
ADVENTURES and moved as one man by nod
from Washington. The leaders of the Radi-
cal party did not disguise their motives. In
the extremity of their remorseless purpose,
since they could not hold the South and
plumber it as a conquered province with a
uniformed army, without an intolerable stigma
on their republican pretense5, they deter
mined to carry out the same end, under the
forms of democracy, by an ununiformed
army. whose rank cheated the penitentiary
and whose file was conscripted from the slave
mart. And now that the staff on which they
leaned has broken and threatens to pierce
them; now that their gorgeous promises
have proved an illusion, and threats have
lost their terror, and the negro voter has dis
covered that, bound to the soil as he is, his
own prosperity and the prosperity of the
South are indissolubly interviewer, and that
both depend on good and stable government;
now that Southern outrages can no longer be
coined in the Department of Justice and
scattered broadcast over the North to fire the
loyal heart, devilish purpose is exhibited to
light up in the black belt of the South the
fires OF instruction, in the hope that, stirred
to frenzy by unutterable outrage, the white
man may &reak some sudden vengeance, and
the exigency be created which will justify the
acceptance of a third term. Let us hope that
he prudence and moderation and wisdom of |
our people will enable them in the future, as
n the past, to act with deliberate forbearance |
md to smother every such spark of civil dis
cord before it has burst into devouring |
flame.
We have been denounced as turbulent |
md riotous faction. The lie comes with |
aggravated indecency from that Republican |
,ress which, inside of our lines on the night |
If the 14th of September, published its morn
ng edition of the 18th, and of the succeed
ng days of the McEnery government, with
'ut the loss OF type, or the interruption of
is business by single hour. This same
republican organ, remember, has been one
# the most Unsuitable leeches of the treasury
lear after year it has drained enormous sums
rom the people through the printing bill. 1t
founded on and applauded avery fresh out
age committed or threatened; tainted, Will
led and misrepresented the White League
rom the first hour Of its organization, and
xultingly prophesied its utter annihilation
whenever the metropolitan police and the
egro militia should be hurled against it.
let this is the paper, for whose protection
galnst long pent up popular indignation
pecial guard was furnished on the advance of
he League, which, after pallid acknowledge
nent of our generosity, now repeats its slaA-
Ter with accumulated falsehoods.
Who does not remember, with Just pride
nd exultation, that in our escape from long
nd bitter thraldom, when some excess might
ave been pardoned to the spirit of liberty
nth which our people were intoxicated, not
single act Of disorder can be charged against
s. Not person was molested, not store
INVADED not a pins worth of private property
AIKEN or des royed. For three days a satur-
ALA of freedom rioted in our parks and
venues; yet we exhibited to the world the
spectacle of people so re-
trained by law in the very revolt of liberty
nd SO self-respectful amid the license OF uni
ersal rejoicing that not one rude word even
ullied the Wilderness of our unstained tri-
mph. II the White League is "a mob," it
), at the worst, mob of gentlemen, " native
nd to the manor born" and identified, for
eal or woe, with the history of the State;
banditti" who have given to society what
yer hostages Of family and fortune man can
ledge.
1t has been alleged that the League was
iverted from its first intent by designing
zen, who insinuated themselves into its
ounsels and overruled its original purpose.
ioIent men belonging to the class which
icero describes as Oppressed with debt, /
1t expecting authority; who, wishing to be
assessed OF power, think they can attain
lose honors, the republic being disturbed,
hich they would despair of were it quiet. ~
ave those who have been promoted from our ]
ster to the roll of the immortals, the White
eague to- day, in rank and file, as in intent 5
Id purpose stands unchanged by one man I
one letter. This community knows, as We
atefully remember. that after the events of
oY CO ,bar lact nd