New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1877-03-11
SUBMISSION, NOT ACCEPTANCE.

The assassination of Weber, Repub-
lican tax collector, demonstrates that the
men of blood are determined not to allow
Republican officer to live where they
can get shot at him without personal
peril Nothing has saved the life of Gov
ernor Packard from the storm of the State
House but the protection which the Fed
eral troops and his own soldiers have
thrown around him. Does such submits
sion of unarmed Republicans in the par
ishes, does such defiance of Republican
government show an acceptance by the
Republicans of an administration claim
ing under the superior craftsmanship
and drill of its followers? Then the gov
eminent of Diaz, who has driven all
his competitors out of Mexico, and is
now quietly shooting the disatfected ap-
plicants for Cabinet position, is legal,
regular, and accepted by a unanimous
population. The Republican party claims
an undisputed vote of seventy-fve thou
sand voters have been excluded from the
polls by fear of life or deprivation of en-
ployment? Are all these voters dead !?
Are they discouraged with the recognition
of their rights by Congress? Do they
accept the supremacy of force as an
equivalent for those rights which the ma
ton has just accorded them? To assert
that these seventy or eighty thousand
Republican voters, majority of the
whole people, have accepted the usurpa-
ton of Mr.. Nichols, is to admit that the
sway of the assassin and bulldozer is su-
preme over all the parishes in which the
Federal government has no troops. Such
an assertion comprises the charge of in
timidation. To suppose a people who
had just been adjudged victors, had sur
rendered their rights and left the field
to their political prisoners, contradicts it.
self. To assert that the White League
Democracy are superior to the unsrmed
and unskilled Republicans in military
pTowess is to state fact admitted. The
extension of suffrage was not based on
skill or drill in arms. 1t was founded on
the equal and inalienable right of the
weak as well as of the strong. 1t was in
tended to arm the weak with weapon
equal to that of the strong. The ballot
in the hands of Alexander Stephens
was intended to offset the bullet in the
hands of John Morrissey. The Demo-
cracy has repealed the equality of the
ballot by the terror of the shotgun. IN
less man can fight his way to the polls
he can not record his vote. Such is the
Democratic rule of suffrage and tenure
of Office. Now, when every Republican Off
Ger has been driven in and besieged, dis
franchised of every social courtesy and
is subject to ssassination-when every
Republican voter is told that his vote
must be cast as Democracy directs or
that he will not be permitted to labor or
to live, the White League proclaims its
victory and declares that fifty-two parishes
have accepted the administration of Mr..
Nichols. We deny that a single Repub-
lican in Louisiana either accepts that ad-
ministration or submits to his existence
except from inability TO establish and
maintain the government which the Re-
publicans have chosen and the nation con-
frmed. The nation will note the differ
ence between submission to lawless force
and acceptance of illegal rule. 1t involves
all the difference between the equality of
all men before the law and the DONNA
ton of reckless force over unarmed and
unaided right.