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

I 3
ing men politically opposed to him, GUST
ing Others from Office or driving them
from the polls. --rr D..
Now, if the Democrats would be candid
for once, they would admit that the
greatest crime, in their eyes, the Repub-
hcan party has committed since the abo-
lition of slavery, is that OF having con-
ferred the right of suffrage upon the
freedman. This is the real cause of all
their bitterness and hostility manifested
toward Republicans from the commence
ment of reconstruction until the present
time; and yet they tell how much they
love the colored people and what an iden-
tity Of interest there is between them and
the Democratic white people who formerly
held them as slaves ,..
But this kind of talk does not tally well
with the conduct of our Democratic
friends and fellow-citizens when an cleo
ton is about to take place. If they can
not then by gentle means persuade their
colored fellow-citizens to vote the
Democratic ticket, they persuade them
with shotguns to keep from the polls
means Of reducing the Republican
vote not recognized by law, but on the
contrary is made criminal offense and
cause for defeating, through the agency
OF the Returning Board, the election of
men to Office by such means. And then
comes a desperate attempt, by means of
rebutting testimony and legal skill, to
overcome the weight of evidence going to
prove that men had been freely killed
and other means used to intimidate and
keep others from registering or going to
the polls. When this fails and the Re
turning Board has displayed the courage
TODD its duty in the face of threatened
danger, then it is denounced as part and
parcel of the detestable machinery con-
structed to keep Kellogg in power. The
sending of United States troops in the
parishes to arrest men charged with muir
der was seriously cited as evidence that
Republicans intimidated innocent Demo-
cratic voters. 'r... .r
These are but few Of the tricks that
have been resorted to by the Democracy
of this State to make it appear that the
present Republican administration, in
endeavoring to maintain the rule of the
majority, has plundered the State and
robbed the people Of their political rights,
when in fact Democratic party, through
the agency Of murder and robbery, has
been expecting to gain control of the
State government. And with this record
it dares go before the Congressional In
vestigating Committee now in session |
here for the purpose of establishing that
it is entitled to the possession Of the |
government Of the State
Upon the subjec. of its robbery of the !
right men to vote the st. Louis Democrat |
expresses the following views:
Men who begin by robbing a man of his |
right to vote do not hesitate to rob him of |
any other right, even OF his right TO sell his |
labor where he will.
When the war closed, we found that laws |
were being passed in the Southern States |
which in effect created peOnage. To pre-
vent this was found impossible, under forms |
OF free goyT9sr a except by giving the |
negro a ballot for his defense Let the bal |
lot once be taken from him by arms and the /
next step viii inevitably be legislation
placing restraints upon labor. II will be
easily so devised as to escape the constitu-
tiOn. Legislatures created by revolvers
will adopt, Governors created by rifles will /
enforce il, and there will be no appeal to
the United States Let no one suppose that
this is but the dream of an alarmist No /
man who understands the temper of those /
who used to own labor, or the peculiar
necessities of the cotton and sugar planting,
viii expect that the struggle viii be less
desperate 10 those States than it has been
in the mills of England or the mines of
Pennsylvania. In fact, 1t must be more
desperate, because TO the conflict between
labor and those who need labor there are
added the prejudice of race, the feelings of |
those who have owned or inherited slaves,
and the ugly passions which civil war and
strife for political mastery engender.
The old free States must choose whether
they viii maintain free labor or not. We
need not say what abandonment of free
labor involves. The people know. On the
other hand, the maintenance Of that system
OF labor involves an entire change of laws
respecting the Souttsrn States. What is
called self government has failed to main
tain in those States the conditions under
which free labor Ia possible. The colored |
people are not able, the majority Of the |
whites are not willing, to maintain those
conditions. 1t remains for the people Of the
North to determine what they will do, if
anything, to prevent the complete over /
throw Of the system Of free labor, and of |
that equality Of civil and political rights by |
which only that system can be defended.
The above extract indicates clearly
enough that the writer thinks the condi-
ton in which the negro has been placed
by the Republican party is the great |
plague spot seen by Democratic eyes in
this section on the body polite of our
country 1t is this more than any other
real cause that has engendered their BIT |
terness against white and black Repub-
leans Free labor and the right Of suf- |
frage conferred upon freemen is rather
more than. our Southern Democracy bar
gained for when they attempted to seeede |
from The Union.
Es aEG
- frIb NOT VERY Rrg0T.uTp