New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-10-08

that moment CnO00o000 OF men VINO nave
never opened their eyes till then, begin to
educates them to do their duty. Oace in
| the political ocean, it makes aR agitation
whicn is felt in all the eddies and Swallows
| of society.
Mrs. Livermore tells us how the women
of Chicago went last year to the mayor OF
that city and said, Wont you enforce tne
law to shut up the grOgshops on Sundas.
he replied: mo, ladies, l will not. 1eP-
| utation of brewers has just LETT me. I5ey
came to ask me not to enforce me ouh hass
law against the grOgshops. They nave
votes. and you have none, Ihey mauo "v
! MAYOR on purpose to keep the saloons open. -
IL eeemed an incident speech. but look at
| H. Who made him mayOrf Not Emerson,
not the Sermon on the Mount, but votes.
Would you have the creature DEFY his Gre
atorf
Fortv years we have argued the temper
ance cause. Now [ don't come here to-
night to argue about temperance. You may
be right and / wrong. But when two gen.
erations have discussed it, ought we not to
be able to settle it at the polls! We are q
smart people and know how to get things
done. We say We will have prohibitOry
law-you say no. Let us 60 to the Legisla-
ture with it. If they decide against you
time to decide this question OF woman suf-
frage. We have discussed it TO rags. Our
arguments have not been answered. Now
we are going to the Legislature to have our
opinion carried into . statute. That is
Democracy. If you don't like it, 60 to
Germany where Bismarck rules, or to
Russia where the Car is supreme. They
have ridiculed Mrs. Livermore, and laughed
at Lucy Stone, and hooted Mrs. Foster, but
<ho- \ "a xo ,ax,ar a onauop bo
arguments
Some of you men who hear me have no
property and pay only poll tax, while
there are women, in Boston alone, who paw
taxes on over $9,0O0,000. You force these
women to paw hundreds of thousands Of
dollars without their consent for purposes
they have never approved. AS individuals
you would not do 80 mean and unjust q
thing. But as Legislature your repre-
would dare to do go mean a thing.
This is peculiarly the time to press this
question. We have finished the century.
We have closed it with an accomplished
work SO grand that no other race has ever
elualed it, No other people ever succeeded
in keeping q republican government alive.
We CAL boast that for the first time we have
Q church without bishop and State with
out king. And we are stronger than ever.
maintain y republic when another hundred
years have elapsed9 Many doubt it. l do
not. God never scooped out the valley of
the Mississippi to be the grave of liberty,
nor poured ont Niagara for its requiem.
The Tag that floats hundred years hence
will be the flag of a people whose govern
ment is supported by the votes of every
person over whom it waves.
But men doubt. The clouds come down
1T
We provide for this dark futurel Every
mans coat that you put your hand under
shelters q bride; every pocket into which
you put your hand contains government
money. Al Washington there seems Eothing
but corruption, there is a horrible state Of
things, our public men have been cheating
everybody. Many people are frightened.
and want to hide their heads. l do not. l
grant the corruption. Our fathers sought
to make the free ballot box a safe place;
they established tree schools, they abolished
primogeniture; they planted institutions
which have saved democracy. The clouds
hang dark. But l do not think that Wash
ingt0n is any worse than other places.
grant you that One-fifth Of our cfficehOlders
are rogues. Sag one-fourth, if you please.
ole the bank presidents from here to
San Francisco; are they more honest! As
semble the merchants of America; are they
Ely UeulcIs Livery slinS duultcrdieu. NOC
an honest drug to be cured with. Assemble
azy class of our citizens and see if you do
not find Belknaps among them. The fault
Is not alone in our politicians. If it were,
our corruption would be only pimple-
only skin deep. The disease is deep down,
lower than that. The Senate and the Sec
rotary are the exact representatives of the
people under them. 1t you dip quart of
vinegar out of an ocean you find it very bit
ter. The American people is the ocean;
Belknap the quart. Seven-teRths of every |
America is q dishonest nation. This vast |
eAven Of corruption does not exist alone |
Z the cuEtomhOuse, in the postotfice, in |
be departments at Washington. There |
8 Tot honesty enough in this great coun- |
~ to manage its moneyed institutions. |
This is q broad statement-an extreme |
ne-but who can deny it! say this not
BECAUSE l wish to libel America. Who
8 Tweed9 You say he is a Democrat.
ave been any better. Tweed was not mere
= an individual stepped in corruption; he !
vas the result of corrupt New York NUM-
ipal life. At one end were 10000 grog-
hops, at the other q man named Tweed.
A voice: Tell US about Ben Butler while
our hand is in."] All right. If Massa-
husetts does not include him in her con-
delegation there won't be much
rains in it. If the seventy district should
Low him to remain at hoI.s, Wade Hamp-
IN won't need much opium to get himself
, sleep. Take what Sam Weller called
. hextra, double-re tlecting. six million
agnifying microscope" and see if you can
nd a man in the eerenth district wh0 will
Dte against General Butler
The difficulty is organic. You must pro- !
q in Of IN ~ l
ider, stronger, deeper. You must enlist
le res erved force in human nature. Now,
cd has left us reserved force, moral
acting on public affairs
ong with man. l appeal to history.
'herever man has done anything alone,
ork and workman have deteriorated.
'herever men and women have worked to-
,ther, work and workmen have improved.
ow is it in literature9 You can not read
'phocles or Shakespeare aloud in q mixed
ldience on account of their vulgarity, but
~ can read every line of Dickens or Ten
son. Contrast the vulgarity of the one
it'll the crystal purity OF the other. Yet
ese last we're not better men. Why is it2
ecause Sophocles and Shakespeare wrote
r men readers only, Tennyson and Dick ,
10 for these and their wives and daughters I
so. Take our modern sculptOrs-POwers, ,
fillmore, Harriet Hosmer-all may look on
cir work. But at Naples there is bronze
'or Of the choicest sculpture, 80 indecent :
at no woman is ever permitted to see it. :
ow, when sculptors carve, they remember :
at fathers will bring their daughters, hus-
lnds their wives, to see the work Rogers, ,
ho has immortalized the war Of the rebel
IN by his admirable casts, has carved no ,
atue that is not fit for church. So it is in ! ,
ciety. Your parlor, where men and wo. ,
en- meet as equals. cultivated, hopeful and :
piring. is only 300 years old. The parlor !
honest and pure because men and women
9 in it. The caucus where these very men
alone is o trick and a fraud. 1t is
ace where 8 man who knows how to play