The People's vindicator. [volume] (Natchitoches, La.) 1874-1883, 1877-08-25
LOUISIANA.

n Inc following tribute to his natl,
State is from the pen of Major II.
r llcars"y, the brilliant, but no les
i gallant and mcritorious editor of II,
: New Orleans Democrat, written to hi
paper from tie White SulrhurS r;us
! of Virginia, where lie is Summc,inc
We publish them because they vj|
. find echo in the hearts of every tru
, Louisianian:
| wish that the people of ever,
State would cultivate ;his pccuIiarit,
Of the \irginians. I wish cspecia||,
that the people of Louisiana wonl,
become LcuiSiuniuus as the Nlruiuian
are 'HVini0ns.
But Virginia, I am answered, has ;
past to be proud of, while Louisiana
has none. True. the whole histor,
of Virginia has been grand drama :
but the history of no people is illus.
tratc1 by Il noblcr or more per,
slstcntent devotion to the principles
of constitutional liberty than that of
Louisiana during the past nine years.
When every other State, as if paralv-
zcd By dcfrar, quickly submitted to
Tie shame and bondage ofrcconstrnc~
ton, the people of Louisiana lifted
up the banner Of the constitution
overhcr waste places and their ruined
homes, and they never lowered it.
They began the fight in 1868 and
never in any canvass did the swarm
of adventures, thieves and negroes
carry a general election in Louisiana.
Other States, with immense white
majoriticS, surrendered almost with
out a blow but Louisiana, with her
vast negro population, organized by
he abIcst and most unscrupulous of
the adventures who cursed the
South, never faltered in the struggle.
In 1SGS the Louisiauians carried
their State for the Democratic party,
but its vote was thown out by the
Republican Congress in 1870 they
carried the State again, and War
moth and his emi>saries falsctied the
election and counted in the Radicals
in 1872, mdismayed, the people of
Louisiana again rallied to the polls
and triumphantly elected McEnery,
but the army and navy were called in
to overthrow the election and install
the men defeated at the ballot box by
the people. Was not this enough to
djsbcarten any people not inspired
by heroic devotion to their rights?
The past story of 1874 and of 1876 is
too familiar to need recital. Those
two campaigns have filled the history
Of Louisiana with days sacred in the
calendar OF hcroism, and the proud
truth is, that, from 1868 to the trium-
phal installation of Gen. Nichols, the
people Of Louisiana never ceased
tat in siYsE&S aS2nft rd R1 SGG2E Wai
an hour when, if Grant had removed
the bayonets Of the army from their
throa's, the people of Louisiana
would not have risen up as one man
and spert Kadicalism with it's crimes
and infamies from the face Of the
earth. In all that time there is moth
ing of which our people have to be
ashamed. If the glorious record
seems in any part to bear stain, re.
view the facts and it will he found
that that stain is the work of plotting
and short sighted politicians whose
work the people rejected or deuounc-
ed.
The world affords no granlcr it,
lustration of the devotion of a poo
pie to constitutional liberty; no more
heroic and unyielling opposition to
public cl;mc that Louisiana has Civ
en-. She is Justly entitled to the glo'y
or the shame of being designated
"the stronghold Of tho Bourbons,'
for during that sad and evcutful
eight years; subjected to plumber,
humiliation and su!tcrings such as
few people have endured, she never
forgot single principle of constitu-
tional liberty, nor learned even the
alphabet of that new political science
which makes alliances with infamy,
compromises with crime and coun-
sells the commencement Of POLITICAL vii.
lany. And here under the shade of
these grand old trees, and in the
shadow of these ancient mountains,
dreaming of her broad and sweeping
rivers, her sunny skies and wilder
nesses of flowers, of her wide fields
and happy homes, my trust is that in
that brighter future which all orr
hearts tells Us is dawning upon her,
she will cling with renewed tcnacity
to those Bourbonistic ideas which
made glorious the period of her bond
age and suffering, and placed her first
among the States which have signa|i-
zed their devotion to the principles of
the American constitution.