The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1875-02-10
Conflict Of Evidence.

|. 1t Is rather astonishing to us who liv
u IN Louisiana, to hear Of the reign {
e iaWlessness, intimidation and murde
, sald TO exist throughout our, benighte
ota1e. Military strangers who com
mere Tor few days, and associate dur
: ing that time with nobody but Radica
e otfice-h olders, know all about it. the
are contideiit that all is anarchy an,
oloodshed. Citizens of the State AM
Northern visitors resident here TO
mouths past have, strange to say, heart
: nothing about it.
It's strange that somebody who know
OF these things personally. cannot b,
FOUND to testify; strange that we canno
get the names, places, dates and othe,
particulars Of the outrages perpetrated
Such testimony as is adduced to cDnyic
a State of treason and condemn it tt
extinction would not be admitted in q
Justice OF the Peace case to decide the
ownership of a pair of shoes.
On the other hand. gentlemen Of un-
questionable impartiality, taken from
both the military and civil walks of
HE, testify to the complete loyalty of
the people of this State and their great
freedom from violence and lawlessness.
THESE gentlemen speak of their own
knowledge, they have been where they
could not but see what was going on.
they have associated freely with the
very people accused and their supposed
victims, they haye practically tested
the question ofs5stracism, instead of
taking it for granted, and they have
found that all Northern gentlemen, mil
ltary or civil, who were willing to be
friendly, were received in the kindliest
spirit, while others whose instincts led
them to avoid decent people were per-
United, without molestation, to frater-
nlze with Radical politicians black and
white.
These gentlemen have observed no
general tendency to violence, except on
the part of the worst class of negroes
who frequently kill one another and
sometimes kill white people; they find
life perfectly safe every where in the
State except at the hands Of Radical par
tisans, and the rights of property re-
spected by every body but offering ne
groes and white oflice-holders. These
gentleman know whereof they speak,
they DO not avoid association with the
community and take their notions Sec
ond hand from the very originators and
fabricators Of wholesale charges.
How do probabilities stand as between
these two classes of evidence 7 Is there
any probability that a whole State. with
such wonderful unanimity among all |
classes of its white population, high and |
low, rich and poor, good and bad,-the
college professor, the Catholic Priest, the
Protestant minister, the cautious mer-
chant, the thrifty mechanic, the hardy
day lahorer,-would perpetrate or Justify |
snch villainy as is charged to louisiana
that all these people would, from mere
dlsloyalty or prejudice, encourage state
OF things which would certainly destroy
thelrpwn prosperitya-that they would ig-
more all temporal thrift and progress, Just
10 assasslnate negroes and hold parish Of
fees.
The supposition is absurd. The people
at large care nothing for office or office
holders, except where they fear to be plum
dered. They care nothing for political
triumph in opposition to their actual in
terests. Their interests and not their pol
ltlcs give them such intense earnestness in
their opposition to carpet-bag rule 1t is
not that they are opposed to the Union,
or even to Grants administration, or to
keliogg's or any other mans government.
Many thinking patriots would, of course
deplore the triumph Of any chieanery by
which the real voice of the people should
he superseded in an election. But there
wonld be neither snch unanimity nor such
desperation i'll the popular opposition, as
we see now. Common sense will inform
anybody that it is neither politics nor
prejudice, but plumber. downright robbery
which goads oar people into the agitation
manifested by therl.
Give MS good, honest, economical gov
Of any shade Or politics, and our
people wonld-ba only too glad to sustain
It. They would be delighted with the OPP !
oortunity to retrieve the ruin of the past,
md would leave for d more prosperous
lime the nicer questions of party policy
and party triumph. But as it is they are
handed over to the rule of a gang of plum
ierers, AID then accused of disloyalty if 4
hey complaint Morning Star