New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-07-09

WHICH 10 u6y wipe DIS T0O uhuue we eA
alt his code, which is at half cock, over al
the prescripts framed by the wisdom o
legislative assemblies. We reDudiate ii
practice what We profess zeal fOr-to con
serve the body polite. There is certainly
muscular public opinion in Louisiana whloi
absolves law-breakers and determines tn
shade of an offense by the color, or money
or social position of the offender, which is
in fact, an untamed hostility to legal con
etraints. Its politicians dare not admit this
but its sway 10 none the less vigorous be
cause they wave flags of false truce or issu,
amiably phrased bulletins ct periods o
4 party contest Sir, an element that acquitl
4 and read0pts the worst offenders, that con
sents that my spleen against you shall be {
4 valid mortgage upon your life, that does no
bestir itself from its moral sloth to vindi
4 osfe the affronted laws, in grand juries and
c6hrts. has something of that peculiar
Iyraint of barbarism which, Buckle remarks
''makes men prefer occasional disobedienct
to systematic liberty"
And so far a. this vice is political in itf
bearing, let me ask, was AppomattOx NOR
ally surrender of the musket only, not Of
sidearms nor of the man behind the mus.
ket' II was Q submission to national
authority or it was not. and when tina,
man with citizenship and overridden to re-
sent the citizenship of others, there is q
bald exhibition of bad faith which it be.
hooves the honor of this people to forbid.
1 admit that this common wealth has been
afflicted with Gypseys, with many itinersnt
peddlers in politics, with men who seek
Office as CROSS road to intercept and levy
upon the citizen, who are squirming, ready
Wallets at either party's hire, whose infu.
can be their only benefaction to Louisiana;
but disastrous - these political highway
men and usurers have been, even they are
harbored by law from pursuit save by the
processes OF law. Yet because in l718 Gov
ernor Bienvills, of Louisiana, sent party
OF convicts to clear from the swamp = site
for New Orleans, it in nowise follows that
secrated as an asylum for rogues.
When with a loud voice the people of
Louisiana shall revoke the ruffian's tacit
license, and denOunce his hideous assump-
ton in this professedly Christian age that
assassination is o meet while irregular ex-
precision OF law against an offender, or
oftener Of partisan hostility to loyal men,
then. and not till then, may she deserve the
blessing that we ceremOni0usly implore on
Sundays and forfeit by discharity during
tne residue of the week. God Is Just God,
and He reads deeper than the mellow dis
avowals to congressional committees, of q
social rumOr that often conmends violence
in public prints, and yet oftener in private
conversations; deeper than the sermons of
our clergy whose function seems too often
to be delicately to poultioe our minor sins;
deeper than our professions of honor as
citizens and as men; and down at the core
esteem for human life, public opinion that
is not jealous of the laws it should unceas-
ingly emphasize, nay that practically &C.
credits the political outlaw, since it does
not interdict him. A man who is not your
fel!ov-partisan is no less His creature, with
life given by him, and to which He alone
has titls. Let us remember that God has
framed His moral retributions to gibbet .
whole people before to-day. The pent
heart OF large element in L0uisisna is, so
to speak, powder magazine, but for which
bullets could not fly over her area. In
sterling honor every political bullet was
surrendered in 1865; every man who
fires one now enjoys bis restored
citizenship under false pretenses, and
every man who persistently forbears
remonstrance Is an accessory before and
after the fact. A partisanship that 10 not
rooted IN humanity is barbarian. Let me
say, also, that no men here are invested
with police power to challenge the right of
him Of Oregon or Maine to dwell in Louisi.
ana. to anchor to his acre, to defend it in
politics and svow his opinions. His citizen
ship is his sovereignty, and he may declare
wherever he goes and in the teeth of all
sullen partisans, as declared Fitzhugh Lee
last year at Bunker Hill, II am here because
have right to be here" To the American
freeman the whole Union area is Bunker
Hill. It is to be remembered that North
Carolina and Georgia we're represented by
s''oarpet baggers" in the Congress that put
forth the declaration; the former by q Mas
eachusetts man, Virginian and Jersey
man, the latter by Virginian and Con-
necticut man. l am not unmindful that
tenders of good fellowship especially be-
seem this day, but l conceive that it de-
wolves not upon me to accost an element
that averts it's face, holds its hand at it's
pistol belt, clings to its old cankering opin-
ions and refuses to think the robust and
catholic American thought.
There is not q more pathetic remembrance
than that of the kindliness exhibited by
Lincoln upon his return to the capital
from spent Richmond. There was none of
the coarse exultation of q man who saw
four terrible years flare forever, like so
American history; nothing but gracious
projects of amnesty and reconciliation.
Looking says Draper) at q photograph of
Lee, he forgot the foe and extolled his
''urbane and benevolent linesments." Lee
was no longer foe, he had left tho field,
thanking his victor. When those who &C.
claim Lee as an examplar forbear to re.
cruit camps in politics, and honestly accept,
as did he, the peace to which they, like
him, were pledged, they will find that the
Union, like her Lincoln, will rejoice to
greet amity, and generous fellowship quick
en- IN their faces. But that We should
should search up along Q gun barrel for .
kindly face at the stock, is an unprOmising
invitation. And when bear in mind the
vast number of white, unschooled children
that are maturing to manhood over the
State. to swell the number, already large,
OF ignorant white citizens, forecast
clouded future, if her present stupor be not
arrested, and q new vitality be not
awakened by more liberal development of
her moral, Intellectual, agricultural and
commercial forces,
SAID Mr.. Wheeler, of New York. now q
vice presidential candidate. after visiting
Louisiana last year: ''The fact that there
are whole counties in Louisiana in which
there is not solitary schoolhouse is full of
eugsestlon." 10 be mere bigots with mar
row jealousy ior section, not patriots with
o liberal ambition for whole republic ia to
render Louisiana, if not rescued by better
influences, a mere torpid, decsying Ameri.
can Spain. Let US insist that the intellect
of man as q factor of public opinion is par
amount to the growth of the sect, that the
kno Wedge that explores. sits and win
nows faiths and traditions, not the oredul.
ity that accepts mucid tenets rather than
explore, is the essential need and health of
o civilized people. To eyne down and
dwarf peoples intellect is the greatest
and most impious of sacrileges. Washing
ton, Jefferson and Jay were especially so
|lcitous for popular education.
IN Ii Louisiana is to reveal sound health and
be raised from her decrepitude, it is not to
and holding her violently braced upon her
feet against the wall. The two colors are