The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-02-12

that such meetings as this tonight, shouting
their indignation at the outrage, are manifes-
tations of the same conspiracy that was be-
gun at New Orleans. He dares to say that
the people of New Orleans, standing bound
like martyrs, and you, and l, and all of us,
are engaged in it-a conspiracy, l suppose,
against me" My friend behind me sug-
gests that there is another meeting going on
another conspiracy-at
| FANEUIL HALL
| tonight, and I thank Heaven with deep
| thankfulness, after all the troubles of past
years, that the time has come when there is
| one subject in which the voices of Faneuil
Hall and of the people of Maryland can 60 up
together.
Fellow-citizens, the matter does not bear
amplltication or discussion. The statement
OF the question now presented to this people
is the presentation of everything that belongs
to it. 1t is, 1 repeat, the simple question
whether the laws of the land govern the
land; whether the Constitution Of the land
governs the land, or whether it is to be gov
erned by "me;" whether you and are ban
ditti, or whether we are American citizens?
1t is the laws and the Constitution,
THE COMMON HERITAGE OF THE PEOPLE,
which are to be defended. If the outrage
were committed in behalf or in the name of
any party to which you belonged, you would
feel it to be an outrage and would rise up
against it, as you rise up against it now, for
the instincts Of freedom are always upper
most in the American heart, above the in
stincts Of party.
One more word, and have done. Hard
things have been said by President and
Northumberland of these poor people of
the Southwest. Assassination is said to be in
the air, murder rife, and outrage rampant.
Suppose it were true as it is false, whose
doing would it have been? Who has gov
erned that unhappy section since the war
ended? Who has made it what it is?
WHO Is RESPONSIBLE
for the errors and the faults OF all that down.
trodden land except those who irritate and
misgovern and Cypress it? l tell you that if
assassination were rife, assassination is but
the reprisal which crushed human liberty
takes of power. If you deny people relief
and right through their tribunals Of justice,
through their laws and their Constitution
if you give them no refuge but despair they
will take vengeance with their own right
hands and although to take it be crime, it
is crime to which you drive them, and the
sin of the crime is on your head.
look forward with every hope and desire
of my soul to the time to come ere long, when
ALL THIS WRONG WILL BE RIGHTED,
when the people of Louisiana will be vlndica-
ted and stand forth in the dignity and majesty
of self-goyernment, and whether it be soon
or whether it be late, trust that the venera-
Bile man who is by my eide (Hon. Reyerdy
Johnson) may live to see it and rejoice in it,
and rel DICE, too, in what he has done tonight
to hasten it. Reading not long ago the his
tory of the French Revolution as told by Louis
Blanc passage struck me, which springs to
my memory as I speak. 1t was at the last
meeting of the French Convention, when
Delleville rose and asked: "What honr is i.?'
Another member answered:
''IT is THE HOUR OF JUSTICE,
and Delleville shouted: cit is the hour of
the Constitution. I say to you. my fellow
citizens, that, much as you may desire justice
b those oppressed brethren of yours and
mine, the hour of justice will never come to
them until, bright and unclouded, out Of the
darkness Of to-day, you call up for them the |
hour Of the triumphant Constitution
If there be any friend within the sound of
my voice, and see very many, from whom
was separated in opinion during the strife
which ended ten years ago, trust he will do
ne the justice to believe that not one word l
nave said tonight is suggested by the remem-
1rance of the animosities of those days. | am
grateful that they have sunk in their graves,
md have endeavored, as far as one humble
Hdu ullSut, " pIduI uOWcIS III tue sea WHICH |
S over them. There is no man who hopes
more than l from the established union of
hese States. when it shall be consolidated in
he affection and the trust of the people
through the blessings of good government
pread over them as mantle. feel to ward that
estored Union in the genuine spirit of the old
roman superstition, which believed that {
7hatever the lightning fell upon was made
acred and immortal. The thunderbolt of
he late war, which fell harmless upon the
]nion, has given to it conservation. But,
ny fellow-citizens, you can only make it i'm
lortal by making it worthy; you can only {
make it immortal by making it deserve i'm
1ortality, and so long as there exists one
ortion of this land where the cry of oppres- I
ion and outrage wrung from another part
oes not meet with responsive indignation
nd sympathy, the Union Is not what it ought ,
, be and must be. 1t is empty of the heart
nat alone can make it loved !; and, gentlemen, l
can never be animated by the true spirit of
le Constitution SO long as you permit to be ,
Injected into its veins the black blood of mil
AIRY despotism.