The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-02-11
THE SITUATION.

will of the people is to be deliberately set
aside by the will Of three or five men the
paid tools Of the dominant party. Better that
Louisiana should offer to the world the spec
tacle of State overpowered and ruthlessly
oppressed than take part in performance
which can end only in solemn farce or On
awful tragedy.
We believe the Radicals are sincere
when they declare they will never
consent to give up the Returning Board.
They regard it as their salvation
and cling to it with desperation born of
despair. We believe that the determination
TO maintain this obnoxious and most unre-
publican feature of the Election law springs
from an assurance which has been given by
the United States Marshal, S. B. Packard,
that Grant and the Radical United States
Senate will suppress any and all attempts to
interfere with the usurring government OF the
State. We have not ourselves seen the au-
thorization to Kellogg and Packard to call for
and use troops, but it has been seen by
responsible gentlemen, and it is useless for
us to blink at the fact.
We learn also from a prominent Conserva-
tive citizen Of this State, who has recent
~ returned from Washington, that the
Radicals have determined upon an aggressive
policy; that in scorn Of right and decency
and justice they propose to seat Pinchback, to
confirm Billings, and use the troops in Loui-
siana and Mississippi upon the slightest
provocation, with the view Of carrying both
States for Grant or Morton, as the case may
be. he states it as his opinion
also that the Northern Democrats in
the House Of Representatives view the situa-
ton in this Safe with alarm, as they fear |
some act of the Louisiana Democracy may |
affect the interests Of the party at
large, and he does not believe they will COM
nit themselves to anything looking to ag-
gfessive action against the usurpation in this
State. This is the opinion of clear-headed
and close observer, and of one who has had
opportunities for making obser-
vations, both in Congress and in the Northern
States, very recently.
This is not encouraging, we admit; it dos
lot accord with either our ideas Of right %
With our long entertained aud earnest hopes,
,ut it behooves us to look the fact squarely in
be face and prepare TO comport ourselves in
he coming struggle as men and freemen. 1t
5 our right to know what the National Demo-
racy intends to do in this supreme crisis of
he fate of our beloved and almost crushed
tate I. is the duty of our friends, and the
Of Louisiana. in Congress to
emand that the policy Of the :
arty as regards our people be
inundated quickly and in no uncertain
erms. We demand to know if this State is
D be left to battle single-handed against the
ohors of o tyranny which has held them in
grasp as relentless and aaterrible as that
wing Poland.
Let the Representatives of the National
emocracy speak out plainly, and declare
the Party which owes 50 much to
ouisiana has nothing for her now but
lence-no advice to give her but to
lffer and be still. We have suffered and
ave borne patiently wrongs that should have I
,cited the sympathy Of every man in this
,untry, whose heart is not dead to shame;
1t there is limit to human endurance, and A
were well not to goad an angry and injured Ii
,ople to despair. al
The people Of Louisiana demand that Con-
ess shall speak, let the enunciation be what r.
may. If the President is 70 be permitted !,
use the military of the government to once
the National Democracy proposes to stand