The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1876-10-26
JEFE BLACK ovHAYEs.

dfeSSed 70 Mr.. Gafneld, IN reply 70 MS
speech in congress in reply to Mr.. Lamar,
of Mississippi, shows what it takes to
make a reformer, and demonstrates very
clearly that Gov. Hayes is not the man,
nor his party the sort of support a re-
former should have. Mr.. Black said:
You would have US believe that Hayes,
if elected, will reform abuses and give us
a pure administration. Your statement,
and that of other gentlemen equally
reliable, make it certain that MI Hayes
bears an irreproachable character in all
his private relations. l do not doubt his
possession of that negative honesty which
it is a disgrace to want. l accord him
those tame household virtues which
entitle him to the respect of his neigh
bors and the confidence of his family; but
he can no more stem the torrent of re-
publican corruption than he can swim
against the rapids of Niagara. His whole
history shows that he would not even
make an effort to do so. He has been
most happily called "a man of tried sub
serviency."
A reformer in these times must be
made of stern material. He must have
no connection with, and be under no
obligation to, the authors of the abuses
which need reform. Above all things,
he must not have consented expressly or
implicitly to the commission of hepublic
wrongs which his duties as a refOrmer
would require him to punish. Where
he come to oppose wickedness in high
places the consciousness that ne himself
is in pari deJicto will make even strong
man as nerveless as infancy.
To show how hard it would be for a
man like Mr.. Hayes to resist the worst
orders Of his own party, l must cite a
case directly in point, and certainly
within your recollection as we'll as mine.
In the case of Milligan, you made an
eloquent and powerful speech before the
supreme court for those free principles
which I, at the same time, supported in
my weaker way. You showed the in
destructible right of every citizen to a
legal trial; you proved that Magma
Ctqrta did not perish on the battle field;
you demonstrated by irresistible logic
that the constitution was as supreme
after the war as it was before; you
spurned with lofty contempt the brutal
idea that law was extinguished by the
victory of the forces called out to defend
it; and you closed with that grand
peroration on the Goddess of Liberty,
which, ifspoken at Athens in the best
days of her "ferce democratic, would
have "shook the arsenal and Illuminated
over Greece" These were not the
words of paid advocate, for you had
volunteered in the case nor the sudden
emotions ola neophyte, for you had
read and pondered the subject we'll.
You spoke the deliberate conclusions of
your mind, and there is no doubt that
in your heart of hearts you believe them
to be true this day.
Yet when the reconstruction law was
proposed you suffered yourself to be
whipped in, surrendered your conscience
to your party. and voted against your
recorded convictions, for measure that
nullified every provision of the constitu-
ton, whereby ten millions of people
were deprived ct rights which You knew
to be sacred and inalienable.
If this was the case, what subseryiency
may not be expected from Mr. Hayes,
when the party lash comes to be laid on
his back You are his superior in every
quality that holds a man true to public
duty. You have been carefully schOoled
in the morality of the new testament,
you have lived all your life in the full
blaze of the gospel, you are gifted with a
logical acumen which few can boast, and
with moral courage farabove the average.
If YOU fell down before the mOloch Of
abohtionism, and gave up all principle
at once, what act of worship will Hayes
deny to that grim idol?