The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1876-12-01

tnCtr power. Inc TcNcISt1i |
n annulment OF national election
he violation of the freedom of elections
~ open, iiagr,nt fraud the disorgani-
.ation Of trade and industries, with the
distress and suffering, are
said to be bad aud wicked things,
things to be protested against, to be
denounced and discountenanced by all
good citizens. But at the same time
we are told that any vigorous and man
ly effort of a free people to protect ana
maintain their free government would
be infinitely worse and more criminal.
We are told that the most terrible cal
amity which can befall u republic is
civil strife, and that rather than incur
this, it would be better for the people
to submit to any outrage; to any lnva-
sion of their constitutional rights and
sink peacefully into community OF
Obsequious slaves.
We are told, indeed, that in time The
lawless measures of the President and
his partisans will be rebuked at the
ballot box that we are to have another
election in two years, and that then the
people will pronounce judgment upon
all this wickedness as they did in 1874.
When men have thus learned to glib
Iy utter the language of submission
The President has not butju entered
upon his career Of usurpation. His
order to suhjugate South Carolina is no,
his first lawless act The ballot boxes to
which we are told that we must look
for redress are no longer free ballot
boxes. They are in the keeping OF
troops, and, under the so-called laws,
subject to manipulation by perjurers,
uinions and tools of usurpers. What
did the rebuke administered by the
people to Grant in 1874 amount to:
While the judgment was being pro-
nounced in three-fourths of the States
Of the Union, the Man in the White
House, Indifferent and conte1nptuous,
hastened his troops to this State to per-
pctrate us infamous an act of lawleSS
ness as that he committed in 1872, ana
while the people were pronouncing in
favor of free government, he lifted his
mailed hand and brutality struck down
the sovereignty of Louisiana. We
may reasonably doubt the efficacy OF a
popular rebuke in 1878, when pupuiar
rebuke in 1874 provoked from Grant
contempt, and served only to invite
fresher and holder Outragcs upon popu-
lar rights. What folly for the New
York Sun and Herald to talk ofremedy-
ing the frauds Of the Republican party
ut the ballot box and through the laws!
1t might not be less cowardly, but it
would be more candid to openly advis.
the people to accept the subversion OF
the Government and the establishment
of the one man power. In 1872 Grant
employed the army to enforce the or
der of a corrupt Federal court and The
decisions of the disgraccd Supreme
Court of this State against the legal
Returning Board and the people, under
the preteXt that it was his duty to sus-
tain the courts. To-day he used the
,nme army to sustain the illegal dec!s-
ions of the Board of Canvassers of SOuti,
Carolina in defiance of the most solemn
| action of the Supreme Court OF that
| State. Thus in Louisiana, this man
Sustained the corrupt courts whose de
.crees struck down the freedom of elec
| tions, while in South Carolina he now
sustains corrupt Board of Canvasser>
because their action was in violation OF
the freedom of election, anu threaten;
| to crush the high court which has at
tempted to sustain the laws and protect
| tho most sacred rights of the people
| What his course in Florida will he ma
be judged from his action in Louisiana;
| md South Carolina. He will sustain
| either the counts, or the Board of Can
v;lssers, OF the Governor, as the rover
sal of the election in that State may re-
! luirc him to do.
There does not seem to be any SINGER
ity in the expressions of journals ac-
| luainted with the events Of the pas
few years, and which now tell us that
peaceful acquiescnce in Migrant frauo
and military usurpation will be reward
ii by the overthrow, ut the ballot box
in two years, of the conspirators ag:,ins
| ,ur liberties.
GRANTS DESIGNS.