New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-12-17


rights all wrong, and corrects all abuses
will be better to New Orleans than h
own sons have been. Three decade
hence her Late misfortune will be fofgo
ten, and she will have realized the mot
saDguine anticipations ever entertained o
her behalf So mote 1t be!
"As UHe0RUPUL0Us As HE'LL IN POL
ITIO0."
Such il the incredible avowAl of Q Dol
iticiau as sworn to by State officer. tn
appearer and afiant in this case seems {,
be person Of some conseqaence-atle as
in his own opinion since he speaks o
himself in the third person, ~ did Cess,
In his Commentaries. Perhaps he may b.
plantation potentate, or Of much au
thority At some steamboat landing. O
the person alleged to have made the dec
laration which heads this notice, we know
nothing. We do not even know that h
has made the astounding declaration
quoted. Il is . subject Of regret
that the sentiment il not original Il
was founded BY the Democracy Of New
York in the days when the spoils were de.
claRed the property of the victor. It vaa
imported into Louisians by New Yorke,
fresh from the counsels of Van Buren,
and Swartwout 1t has long since spread
from Tammany TO Pliquemines. In which
parish the Democracy once defeated the
Wings BY shipping boat loads Of vaga-
bonds and shoulder hitters to the polls.
We had hoped this imported doctrine
would have never been attempted or
avowed again.
What is politics?
Under other forms of government poll
tics consist in the personal orders of .
monarch; in the intrigues of priests or
courtiers; in the secret conspiracies and
open pronuncismentos of ambitious and
inscriptions chieftains.
Under our form of government politics
consist in fair and free choice of their
representatives by the people.
The political philosophers of the French
revolution took sound distinction be-
tween the obligations Of q republican
people to comply with their own obliga-
tons. and the right of people not party
to government to change that govern
ment by popular revolution. It follows,
therefore, subject held to obey q gov
ernment to whose authority he u no party
Of his own will, may be as "unscrupu-
lous" Of means to overthrow the govern
ment a. q prisoner might be to escape
from his dungeon. Had the Roman re-
public preserved its existence, the killing
Of Julius Cesar would have been murder.
With the successful usurpation Of Caesar
the government was changed. There
were no remedies by which the people
were bound to seek redress. Caesar re-
pealed the republican obligations of /
Brutus, and the deed that would once
have been stigmatized as assassination
has come down as An act of desperate
but of justifable patriotism.
1t will be seen, therefore, by those who |
the nature Of our republic, |
that its citizens are honorably restricted
By such means Of reforming or changing
the government of their own choice az
heir own voluntary and honorable en-
yagement has bound them to abide by.
L one man may be as ''unscrupulous as
'ell" in carrying precinct, other men
nay exercise the same Internal discretion
n carrying State. With the doctrine
hat an object, assumed to be good by
hose who seek to profit by its attainment,
Vill justify any means to effect it, there
} really no more bourne or boundary to
be means proper for employment than
ave in past centuries received the sane
ion of religious and political authority.
he repeal of the guarantees of Nantes,
ae massacre Of st. Bartholomew, were
egarded as "unscrupulous as hell d.
J politics" in the belief of those
no suffered from their treachery. The
peal of monarchy, aristocraoy and hier- q
:chy in England and France were no q
oubt regarded IS "unscrupulous as hell" '
? those who lost power and prerogative {
? those acts, in our opinion alike lawful q
I'd indispensable. Ia
Passionate partisans do not reason far il
lough or clearly enough to perceive the q
Of their own doctrine turned c
ainst them2 Suppose fanstical Com Z
unist, believing that property was rob- G
~, " and claiming the exclusive right in j,
. soil to those whose labor titled the v
], could have in the parish Of Plaque p
mes the right to execute his own n
ctrines7 How many barrels Of rice a
hogsheads of sugar would be o.
pped in the name end to the &c
dit of the grower9 Under what law sc
uld the armed laborer be dispossessed tt
the arpents he might call his own2 al
9 astounded and outraged owner would 81
'ounce the fanatioal Communist as ''un- IN
upulous as hell" in holding on to that III
lch the proprietor correctly, under the tn
'rantee Of law, regarded as his own. q
would be. undoubtedly, welcome to OF
opinion, but Ne fanatical Communist be