New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-02-20
TO OUR 0oLoRED LEGISLATORS.

" AsAANe~>~-OO
We address ourselves to you in the in
terests of the race which you represent
| and of the principles to which the REpUB-
LrcAN is devoted. You have, according to
our estimate, majority Of more than ten
thousand votes in this State. You have
had warning that the Democracy will no:
tolerate your political equality. We nave
shown that Democratic constituency
could enact the law Of suffrage when eA-
lists in Republican Massachusetts, ohail
We repeat that law? 1t is this:
I No nerson shall have the right to vote
| CT be eligible to office under the cnns'l'u-
t;on of fhe commonwealth who shat not DC
| obLe to read the constitution IN the EhghSh
| languagc amt to arrite has name.
We have but to cite the labor laws en-
acted by the Democracy in 1861 and
| the revolutions of the White League, to
! prove the danger that this Republican
qualification may be embodied in the
laws of the land. Once driven from politi-
| cal position, and exposed to social and
business prescription, leading white Re
| publicans may exercise the privilege OF
| leaving the State The colored citizen
! viii, be then left to struggle alone for his
rights.
We have heretofore shown that the Mas
| sachusetts Republican rule OF suffrage
would disquality from three to four col
ored voters for one white, SO that the col
| ored majority of ten thousand would be
! reversed and annihihted, nor would the
colored citizen have any legal remedy
against this practical Acknowledgement.
Do our colored Representatives realize
what constitutes the politics of Louisiana:
There are q great number Of persons who,
not reared to any practical industry, sub
sist alone on public office or the hopes OF
office. This large and Influential interest
are comparatively quiet during the inter-
walls between elections. They permit the
colored citizens to pillow and plant, to reap
and secure the crops of sugar and cotton.
To the colored domestics they commit the
duties of almost every household. 1t is
only when the harvest of office, OF salary,
OF spoils and of speculation is rife that
these professional politicians rush forward
to secure themselves in continued exemp-
ton from personal labor. Then they
combine, compromise and divide among
themselves the offices and emoluments of
the State, parishes and city; and then
they attack as unfit for suffrage or office
the colored citizens upon whose labor re-
poses almost the whole subsistence Of So
ciety.
The colorei Representatives must, then,
see that to prese rye the rights, and even
the personal safety, OF the colored citizen,
they should root out and destroy every
yestige of chance for idle and violent
men to live in luxury on the mere pre-
tense Of Office. If it should appear to
them that the Office Of city sheriff was
SO lucrative as to justify the partnership
Of several political partisans, and that
the campaign for this Office may involve
the arming and subsistence Of several
hundred young men, then the colored
Representative should protect the poor
who pay this exorbitant compensation,
and so to that extent relieve the colored
citizens from the danger to which we
have referred. The offices Of State, es-
pecially Of tax collectors and assessors,
the salaries, perquisites and patronage
Of the city government, should be scaled,
scraped and cut down. Let not the col
ored Representatives imagine that any
possible partition Of these offices will bene-
TT the colored politicians as much as any
one else. Let them not imagine that even
il Republican hands this patronage will
avail them. The Democracy will make a
violent campaign even for Offices held by
Republicans, and in taking the chances
to be elected tax assessor or collector
they may overthrow the whole Republican
State ticket.
The chances for the colored citizens to
hold these lucrative positions are not
equal to those of the professional white.
There are tens of thousands Of colored
citizens who do not aspire to more than
lite, liberty and the pursuit Of happiness
by their own labor.
The right to hold an Office is the least
valuable of those which have been so re-
Gently conferred upon the colored people.
Why, then, should they, in pursuing that,
permit themselves to lose sight Of and
imperil those which are paramount?
1t will be better for these people to in
sist on such schedule Of official pay and
perquisites, and a rule of official qualifi-
cation and service as shall take the offices
Of the State and city out Of the politics Of
the State and city. Let, then, the colored
members of the Legislature cut down,
without discrimination the excessive
of every officer. Let
them require thet the incumbents
OF Office shall be competent to the
personal performance Of official duties.
Make and establish this simple rule and
the political rights of the colored citizens
are safe. Leave the golden drawing Of
these luxurious prizes open to the idle,
the INSCRIPTIONS and the desperate, and
the practical loss of political right is pos
sible. The colored citizens can live with
out Office; very large and dangerous
class of the Democracy can not live with !
ont office. The cOlored Ram, sa1,tatixes