New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-01-30
JOURNALISTIC COURTESY.

| LILO AWteS utIo1S OAo VI us Ic1AAOAs
philippics against the Senator from St
Landry under the courteous sobriquet o.
"Tom Anderson" In this disparagine
epithet seems to CONSIST the whole power
of the censure, as the equivalent of the
St. Landry "Gyascutis" seems to compre.
bend the acute point Of its wit.
We suppose it matters little to the
Senator that he should be referred to in
terms which disparage the body to which
| be belongs more than it can possibly
affect him personally. There is and should
be nothing under our republican form
of government to protect persons in Office
from any language that may be applied to
them personally. In all such cases the
ofense given is left to the redress which
is given by law to every citizen. The
earliest organization of the Republican
party was to repeal the sedition law,
which subjected to prosecution any person
who applied contemptuous and defama-
tory language to the Chief Magistrate of
the nation.
The theme Of the Times seems to be
the mysterious popularity of Senator
Anderson. 1t is deemed suspicious that
any man should secure the votes of the
Democracy without deserving them. The
Cadiens, as the Times satirically mis-
calls them, are supposed especially SUBJ
ject to this sort of deception. We agree
with the Times that to secure the patron
age of one or both parties while belong
ing to neither, is q difficult task, and We
might put the Times itself on the stand
to prove it; but it would take a much
longer residence among US than some of
our morning journals having the ''largest
circulation in the Southwest" can pre-
tend to, to explain how q long
residence among people, with the
intimate business relations of planters
and merchants, can so commend citi-
zen to the confidence of his neighbors
as to command their confidence without
regard to his party associations. If a man
be found upright in all his dealings and
kindly in al his relations with the people
among whom he has dwelt for q quarter
of century; if his property is taxed or
his rights invaded with these men, it is
not unnatural that he should be
trusted abroad as well as at home. It is
no new doctrine that people should be
allowed to. choose their own representa-
tives without having to come to New
Orleans to learn from itinerant politicians
how to cast their votes.
We can not help remembering that the
reference to the constituents of Senator
Anderson is even more contemptuous than
to the Senator himself He is Tom An
derson. They are Cadiens. He is said to
inhabit his ''native jungles." His con-
stituents are simple aborisinals They
are the "average rustic Of the French
habHans. We have rarely seen more
open assault upon the intelligence of
constituency. With all that has been
said and published in all the languages,
dead and living, to prove Senator Ander-
son Republican, and with all the Gefama-
ton which that name implies, one of two
things must be certain:
l. That the numerous journals, each
having the l.rgest circulation in the
Southw est, with all the local parish jour-
nails published in foreign tongue, do not
possess to the popular mind that faith in
the popular heart to which these journals
assume.
2. That the Cadiens, as they are con-
temptuously termed by the Times, have
not the &C pacity to read these instructive
vehicles of correct opinion.
There is certain civility due to those
with whom we differ. Obloquy is always
an unfair weapon. Its use admits that
truth requires the aid Of prejudice. An
argument which would convict "Tom An
derson" Of wrong would be equally fatal
to the reputation of Senator Anderson,
while the proof that the people of st.
Landry were TRUSTEES" ''aboriginals,"
living in 'jungles' and in the GLOOMY
caverns" of an alluvial parish, would he
equally effectual if predicated upon the
citizens of the parish of st. Landry.