The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1875-04-28
louisiana.

Senator Ransom's speech on Louisi
ana, says the Albany Argus, was yer,
impressive, and, in many passages, elo
quent. A most striking picture it is
in which he contrasts the wonderful
natural advantages and the effects o
bad government in that unhappy State
Her soil is as fruitful as garden. He
climate, tempered between the glow of the
tropics, and the milder winds from thu
Cult, is genial and delightful. Her pro
ductions are more abundant than those O
the Nile. Her fruits are more delicious
than those of Italy. Her flowers are az
fragrant and beautiful asimagination car
paint. The great Mississippi, once ladel
with the richest commerce Of the world
flows through her borders. The Gulf q
Mexico, like another Mediterranean, opens
its broad bosom to her trade. Nature has
blessed her with its most munifcent gifts
and art has contributed to cultivate then
to usefulness and beauty.
He then describes, truly, the indus.
try, energy and cultivation of her PEG.
pie, and adds:
Such is the physical state of Louisiana
and such is the character of the people who
| once possessed, but in the language of the
House Committee, edo not now hold the
State government From the UNION Of
such country and such people, what Of
happiness and honor might we now ex.
pects And yet, Senators, you behold in
Louisiana a scene of calamity which de-
fies description. In all Europe, Asia aud
America you will see no country, no PEG.
pie so cursed and so forlorn.
He means this, not for rhetoric and
affecting eloquence, but for true pic.
ture of a deplorable and horrible reali.
ty. Worse, and greatly more shocking
is the illustration he draws from the
picture in Mr.. Corcoran's gallery:
In that magnificent art gallery which
one of the noblest benefactors and philan
thropists of the age has presented to the
people of this city to delight their tastes
and elevate their sentiments, there is a
painting that represents the "Famine in
Egypt" Whenever enter that beautiful
hall and behold OH the sad canvass the
shrunken forms sind wasted faces and ap
Pealing eyes of that stricken people as
they gaze on the rendered and pitiful fig
ures of their starving children, and press
the willing bodies to their unnourshine
breasts, my heart turns to Louisiana, and
by the agony and ruin of that once noble
State and the dark river that lays before
her. the painted death and despair on the
Nile seems but a miniature. Sir, physical
suffering is much; want, hunger disease
pain all try the mind and body; but what
are they when a proud refined, intelligent
Christian people behold the government
the liberty, the virtue their fathers lef
them, and which they in sheir souls cher
ish, dying out and passing away, never t.
return to them or their children; whe,
they behold the shadows of Mexico, O
Jamaica. of Central America, worse thai
the shadows of death, gradually but sure
~ settling over their conntry9
Such is the terrible desOlation whic]
radical oppression and corruption hav
brought on the best portion of our South
ern country. Is it to be wondered at tina
Northern industry suffers, and Northern
commerce languishes, when the great mar
ket OF the South is destroyed
Our Northern brethren are not weakly
generous and disinterested, and they vii
not be willing, when they know it, t
nourish carpet-baggers and rogues at tn
South, at the expense of their own trad
and prosperity.