New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-01-17

conspiracy. l charge that the Senators
known a. the McEnery Senators, who claim
to have been elected in 1872, were ali
present in the city from their different par
ishes, and meeting with the Democratic and
White League Senators elected at the last
election in preparation of plan to reyOlu-
tionize the State Senate. ] charge that on
the floor of the House Of Representatives,
fourth, it was openly Inserted by White
Leaguers that the Kellogg government
would be completely overthrown that day.
L charge that when General De TrObriand
entered the hall of the House there was no
legally organized House in session; Mr..
Willis was not the Speaker of any House.
The body there assembled was q revolu-
tiODary mob-nothing more.
Finally. 1 charge that in the White
League COushatta campaign of 1874, in its
assassinatiOns and massacres, in the tone of
its press, in its war upon negro children in
the schools. In their proposition for restOr.
ing star cars, and in the thoroughly pro.
scriptive, vindic.ive and revengeful spirit
which they have reawakened in the people
and heightened to fury never known
before, the white people of this State have
more completely repudiated every principle
they professed and every promise they
made in 1872 than was ever done by any
political party in the history of the world
before. In 1872 they had adopted Greeley
and his platform Of peace and Cancellation
and the recognition Of the legitimate results
of reconstruction. In their adoption of the
Liberal platform they more expressly and
specifically repledged themselves to these
orators, in the resolutions of all their
meetings and in the professions Of all their
newspaper press they again and again and
again iterated and reiterated these same
principles. There is not q single one of
these principles that they have not aban.
doned, repudlated. condemned and put
under the ban of a terrible prescription by
their course for the last eighteen months,
The massacre Of 1866 led to recOnstruc.
ton; the massacres Of 1868 led to the cleo.
ton laws, and the enforcement acts of Con-
gress; the massacre Of Colfax in 49, 3 sent
chill over the wave of sympathy, which
was rising at the North for us, and in nv
opinion defeated Mr.. Carpenters bill for .
new election. and the massacre ct COushat-
ia. and the White League campaign of
1874, with the riot of September Ia, end
ing in the revolutionary attempt 60 over
throw the State government on January 4,
have undOne all that the Liberal and Con-
servatve men ct both parties sought to &C.
cOmplish in 1872, and have brought the
State to the brink Of war and desolation.
NV friends, Invent with the Fusion party
OF 1872. l did it honestly. did it with
out pay. They all can not say that. did
i without bargain or promise of reward.
They all can not say that. did it at much
pecuniary and personal sacrifice. did it
to my own political destruction, for was
bitterly assaulted by my former political
friends. and at the same time politically
Ostracised, ignored, and in every way
thrown overheard BY the people whom I
was trying. to assist. did it. clearly and
painfully foreseeing all these disagreeable
consequences to myself; but did it solely
avert this very conflict that is now upon US.
l tried to commit, and did commit, pub
licly, solemnly, and, as thought, beyond
recall, the white people of this State to
such an acknowledgment of the rights of
the cOlOred people, and of republican priu-
ciples as would forever prevent them from
again drawing color line; from again pro-
scribing people for politlca! opinions; from
again trying to carry an election by fear
and threats, by revOlvers andh knives, by
leagues and cOnspiracies, by murder and
massacre. was content to abandon all
hopes of political preference for myself,
could by this course have attained this
end.
l failed, failed more completely and
swiftly than ever did any public man who
trusted to the public professions of so large
a number Of people. failed not from any
fault Of my position, but from the deliberate
abandonment by the white people of this
State of the position taken by them in 1872,
and their going back to the violent and
bloody tactics Of 1868. In this course they
have been encouraged and sustained by the
Democracy Of the country and by the hopes
of a Democratic victory in 1876. In the
returning sense of the country OF the true
situation here and in the continued ascen-
dency Of Republican principles rests our
only hope for salvation from a reign Of
terror under the second COnfederacy. equal
IN violence to that of tho first Confederacv
of 1860.
For those sincere and liberal Conservative
Democratic gentlemen who acted with me
in good faith in 1872, and who have extend
ed to me so many acts of courtesy and
kindness have no words but of friendliness,
adding the hope that we may yet cooperate
for the cause of good government in Lou
isiana. To those able and astute leaders
and followers of the Democratic party who
accepted the aid of myself and Republican
friends with mental reservations, and who
afterward repudiated their promises and
made themselves merry at the expense of
our credulity, hope that they will allow
me to return nv thanks for the ingenious
and useful lesson that they have taught to
Republicans. and will pardon me for com.
forting myself with the words OF the quaint
old Scotch rhyme:
He digged pit. he digged it deep.
He digged it for his brother;
But he himself fell in the pit
That he had digged for other.