The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-09-14
THE WHITE LEAGUE.

tory Of every community, when by the vigo'
Of Its action and the power Of It's vitality. II
must demonstrate it's fitness to survive Us q
living organism. Such a time and sucl
u conjuncture occurred In Louisiana or
tho 14th Of September, 1874. The foui
years of fierce conflict which ended In
1856 had not destroyed the spirit Of civi
liberty. The victors did not attempt tt
hold and govern the vanauished by the naked
and undisgused hand Of military force
Vice paid such homage to virtue, despotisn
showed such Difference to liberty, as TO clothe
military reconstruction IN the garb and form
of civil government. The image Of civil lib
erty was set up--a mere automaton- which
was made to bow and grimace and stalk
about and proclamate as the iron hand at
Washington should touch the wires In 1863
nm INSCRIPTIONS adventurer was placed In the
chief seat of power and influence In the State.
surrounded by following, rapacious and sub
servient to his will.
Under the forms of statutory enactment. he
gathered all power TO himself His fingers,
touching the secret springs and double bot
toms of the ballot box, made popular cleo
lions mockery and snare. Having no re-
sponsbility to the people over whom they
rulcd-upheld by an extraneous force--and
having none Of those moral restraints that
control the lives Of honorable men, these po-
litical harpies gave way to the widest license
of debauchery, and with insensate prodigality
wasted the substance Of the people. The
Treasury and present resources of the State
were soon exhausted. With greed that knew
no limit they issued in the name of the State
millions of Understanding bonds ut forty
years maturity. BY means Of these, in the
language of another, their felonious fingers
were made long enough to reach into the
pockets Of posterity and rob the children
whose fathers are yet unborn" Our young
men and boys were growing up accustomed to
see the moral and social outcast elevated to
the highest positions of honor trust and
power. Vice and crime were rewarded with
the most glittering prizes. Virtue hid her
diminished head In shame. Some of those
who had been loved and honored by Lollsi-
ana and who In days gone by had led her
sons to glory and to victory, walked arm in
arm, sat at the same table, drank from the
same tanlsard, and shared in the spoil with
her oppressors. The ermine that had been so
spotlessly and honorably worn by Martin,
Porter, Eustis and others, was draggled In
the filthy pools of the lobby of a venal Legs-
aature, In order that the wearers might share
In the loot. Justice was sold on tho street,
and judgments were hawked about by curb
stone brokers and gutter snipes. Life be-
came insecure and all property-al the re-
wards of industry being consumed and
destroyed by the vultures which battened on
Lac carcase of the PROSTATE COMMONWEALTH |
0Again, and again, the people had Defeated |
the spoler ut the ballot-box. Every peace
able measure of relief had been exhausted in |
vain; fraud and force had triumphed over |
liberty and law, The sphinx at the White
House. dreaming OF hereditary empire and of |
despotic sway had laid his tentative hand on
the liberty and life of Louisiana. The first |
step to throne and the imperial purple was |
taken. when In December, 1879, the armed CO.
horts of the incipient empire seized the Capt. |
tol of Louisiana, and prevented the Legisla-
Lure from assembling. If Louisiana, long &C
to wrong and oppression, quietly |
without q protest or a struggle |
and meckly bowed her neck to the yoke; then |
one State after another would have been en-
shaved and absolute military power would |
have rapidly extended over the whole coun-
try, and civil liberty and self-government |
would have gone down in shame and ruin.
Thoughtful men In our midst had long fore
seen and predicted that the rule of the rob-
Der would never be destroyed in Louisiana,
except by an armed force too powerful and |
dangerous for them to resist; those whom no
motives Of patriotism, or of justice, or of
could control were only to be re-
strained by fear. So long before as 1872 those
noble and unseliish patriots, the lamented
Hugh McCloskey--now gone to his rest and
his reward-and Mr.. Archibald Mitchell at
tempted the organization of a military force
at the Iron House meeting. The time had |
not yet ripened. The necessity for such
was not yet felt by the masses.
Again, on the organization of the Commit
tee of Seventy. early in 1873, in circular
letter to each member, its first chairman
urged armed organization in the following |
language: eve must first unity and organize |
our people for protection and defense, estab- |
fish two, three or four organizations in each |
ward, each with a recognized leader, and we'll |
prepared for emergency with the means Of
defense in their houses, with places of meet
ing or rendezvous agreed on. If this had |
been done long ago the present usurpation |
would not have attained foothold We |
know not to what lengths mob-tyrants may
not go, and our people should be prepared |
This would also unity them in sentiment and |
object. and give them self-reiance and cour-
age"
Gradually this idea spread, and it became
rooted in the minds of men that it would be
only through the use of force that we could
restore freedom and f-government: that
our ballots must be stuck on the points of
bayonets to have them counted
Then commenced John G. Angel, patient.
and intrepid, with the aid of other
noble sons of Louisiana, to gather together
md secretly organize the battalion that was
It first called the ''Y. Nj. c. A." Young Mems
Cooperative Association. so often mistaken
~ the uninitiated for the Young Mems Chris