New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-07-13
WHO SUFFERS :

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and low price on life that pervades the
country Those who hold property and
rear children in the country. Some
of those who assume to lead the public
mind in Louisiana have assumed that the
federal and State governments have OPP
pressed the citizens of Louisiana, and
have deduced from this assertion that the
citizens Of Louisiana, thereby absolved
from any obligation to obey the law, may
redress their own grievances outside of
the law.
Hence has followed the political assas-
sination Of hundreds, white and colored.
as means of disabling the party in the
majority from electing their choice or
from employing the officers elected in the
duties for which they had been chosen.
Hence has come also the elimination OF
the acts and motives Of all who do not
follow the orders of those who lead pub.
lie opinion. This policy Of violence and
vituperation may by possibility deny to
the majority Of the lawful voters the
rights accorded by the constitution. 1t
may pick off by assassination men obnox-
ious for their ability, or who may consti-
tute the majority of legislative body.
This would be no doubt party and
personal triumph. It will not, however,
be the end. It will have practically over
thrown the authority Of law and insti-
tuted that of armed force. It terminates
the right of suffrage with all who are
timid, feeble and unarmed. The powers
of government will result to the soldier.
Can it be supposed that this right to in
timidate or assassinate the weaker will
cease with such demonstration Of its sue
cess? Will this remedy for the rule of the
majority cease to be employed with the
success of the politicians who have intro
duced it? This would suppose that the
sophistical assumptions of superior recti-
tude would be comprehended by the in
struments employed to nuliify the acts OF
the majority. No. The White Lacquer
who had been armed with the most i'm
proved arms of precision and told to Stay
the negroes and decimate the white men of
the Republican party, would neither give
up their arms nor fosego their advantages
when they had performed the duty as
signed them. The ambitious leaders Of
such desperate men have absolved them
from obedience and respect for the law.
Is it supposed that with the success OF
such leaders every difference would be
composed, and that the country would
settle down in respect for the laws which
had been advisediy nulliied? There
would be divisions among the conquerors
themselves. The assassins and rebeilious
resisters of lawful restraint would be
called into the service of one faction
against another, or would assume them
selves the command of their late leaders.
It has never been otherwise than that
those who first employ lawless element,
have found it impossible afterward to con-
troll it. Fire is useful element so long
as it may be held subject to the govern
ment of safety: once escaped beyond con-
troll, there is no rest from its ravages save
the exhaustion OF every object upon
which it may prey in its devastating
progress.
With the doctrine openly avowed by
the White League element and the deeds
of destruction, defended alone upon the
theory which we have stated, we ask who
is to suffer? Many parishes of Louisiana
are as completely under the control Of the
jayhawkers as Western Missouri ever was
At present they jayhawk in the interest
of the Democratic party. The love OF
plumber and blood is appeased in the
murder of some and the robbing of others.
This source exhausted will the appetite
cease? Will such an element go to work
and obey the law? They are the Co.
manches of society, and can no more sub
sist on labor than their marauding and
predatory examples They will take SER
vice under one or another faction, or con-
tinue their rapine on their own account.
Society will at last combine to capture or
expel them for its own safety, and the
doctrine of multiplying the law will perish
here as elsewhere in the humiliation OF
the agents employed to effect it.
Who then, we ask, are to suffer from
such consequences as We have depicted
With land scarce worth the taxes, labor
demoralized, the villages overawed, and
the highways waylaid by the disbanded
Comanches of the White League, who
would be the losers? Undoubtedly, the
owners of property, and those interested
in the industry or progress Of society. If,
therefore, society shall choose to tolerate
this intolerance and violence because at
the present it may procure the gratifca-
ton Of some political prejudice, it should
not be forgotten that the evil can not be
arrested even by those who have insti-
gated it, and that revolution over the law
has never had but one result, the destruc-
ton of life, property and order, and the
determination of the first cause of the
revolution.
THE CUNNING OF COUSHATTA.