New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-06-02
s0lrE olr1N0Us ISSUES,

SOME 0NIN0Us ISSUES.
The assemblage and action of the Re
publican State Convention has met with
the unqualified approval of the party, and
affords evidence of q harmony acquiring
favorably for the future. We may be mis-
taken, but we attribute somewhat Of this
unity to conviction that in the ensuing
combat-for we can call it little else-the
sole safety of the Republican party will
consist in discarding personal or local
prejudices, and banding to bring every
Republican voter to the polls. All con-
troversies thus adjourned may be reopened
after the election if the Republicans are
successful, or dismissed forever if they
shall be defeated. We adopt this con-
struction of the conventional action chiefly
from the speeches Of representative men.
Mr.. Pinchback reported, as from corps
of observation, that he found the Demo-
cratic enemy in force and in position, with
no purpose to treat for peace on any other
terms than conquest:
He referred to his declaration at Nash.
| Vile that there must be q division OF the
white and colored vote, that final end
might be put to the condition of affairs in
the South. He had waited in vain for re-
sponse, but instead, there was ridicnle and
| intolerance, and the idea was epurned. He
believed, though, that violence must END.
| If the whites pursued that policy they
would not only suffer in loss OF commerce
and capital, but labor, for the poor down
trodden and detected blacks must be pro-
tected or they must Leave. They could not
giue battle.
The remarks of Mr. Packard were in the
same vein. There was an indispensable
necessity for harmony. "Our opponents"
he said, .'can not win by fair means"
Such was the basis of the unity declared
in the convention, by leaders who have
been regarded as re presenting somewhat
antagonistic interests.
There was another undoubted indica-
ton evinced in the action of the conven-
ton. It was the demand fer high STAN
dard of moral and intelligent nominations.
Mr.. Pinchback would say to the colored
man that there must be higher standard
of public integrity and ability" Mr..
Hahn, who has stood in the public coun-
ellis unscathed in his personal reputation,
remarked:
But the victory was not to be easily won.
It must be gained by a ticket that could be
adrOcGted sciih respect, on the stump. IN the
press, IN private, socia! and public life.
Good men must be selected. Both parties
all over the United States had discovered
this, and each desired to put forward it's
and unswerving Republicans should be re-
nominated, and no outside or private in
fuence permitted to control.
Here, then, is the issue; a fight on the
race question on the one side. defense
for right and life on the other. We find
renewed reasons for the position taken
by the REF uBL1cAN in this testimony.
The past deeds of the Democracy in
Mississippi and Louisiana have been but
skirmish. They will attack and at
tempt to carry the Republican position
by force of arms. They will be as
sisted by the Northern Democracy
with arms and ammunition, or with
money to purchase them. A military
election would be as readily carried against
all the unarmed colored people in the
United States collected in Louisiana as
against those who inhabit the State at
present. In the next election the best
Democratic qualification for suffrage will
be to ring the bell with the revolver.
The only use for paper will be for car
fridge wrappers The vacant fields and
idle homesteads of Louisiana will surely
follow this campaign of violence, and
the colored constituents of Mr.. Pinch
back may have to determine whether
they will renounce the folly of suffrage,
subside into serfdom, or follow the exam
pie of the Spanish Moors who abandoned
their native country, its possessions and
its industries, and plant themselves in
some land where the right to live and
labor may be assured them.
The colored race has not only acquir-
ed from the whites revealed religion, the
language, education and instruction OF
the American people-they have been
taught to realize another fact That when
the inalienable rights Of civilization have
been denied people once free they will
sever the ties of country and of blood,
abandon their property, cross an ocean,
confront the savage and the wilderness,
and hew out for themselves a home in
which they may worship their own God
and possess their own earnings.
Let this not possibly be regarded as
chimerical, as was once the idea Of eman-
cipation. Such a body of labor, SO
skilled, SO docile, so productive, was
never before organized. Such control
of tropical and semi-tropical products was
never before offered in exchange for peace
and labor.
The notions of the South would
compete for this industry. The Empe-
ror Of Brazil has granted freedom to all
He has given to immigrants the owner
ship of the richest lands in the world,
the most productive Of the great specie
staples. He offered these inducements
to the Confederates, hundreds Of
whom accepted the offer at the
price of exile and the sacrifice Of
their property at home. The policy of