The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-02-17

Haits existence-railroads, canals, teiegraPne,
banks, education, manufacture, etc. This
! iA the Paternal, as distinguished from
the Democratic, System. And the Pa
ternal government, it must be acknowl-
edged, is the better one where the people
are deficient in manhood. They are, then,
children to that extent, and must be con-
troled like children, no matter how civil
lied or intelligent or even learned. 1t le
true that such men when learned are not
exactly like children but they are like
women. There are many learned women
However, we are not discussing forms of
government. We are looking up the de.
fects of Democracy for the purpose of
showing that there is room for another
party. What is, then, the defect of Dem
ocrscyi We take another paragraph I'M
which to give an answer to this question, !,
and here it is.
RAT-IsM.
Ratism is a new word and we, therefore,
give it's meaning. 1t means the tendency
to fall under the control of that class of
citizens called Rats. These citizens are
nearly unanimous in being Democrats, and
being also of an enterprising cast they
naturally take charge of the party if allow
ed to do 30. Supposing Democracy to bel
good in its place, in has its extreme, like
any other good principle. and its extreme
o something like rowdyism it is an
undue consideration for riff-ratf ele
ment that should be barely tolerated. 1t is
the occasional control of the party by THE
class which is the bane of Democratic rule.
On the other hand, the tendency of anti /
Democracy, or Paternalism, is to aristocra
10y. AS party it naturally falls into the|
hands of its ablest men, its sympathies being
with the great, and its tendency being to-
|get under the wing of somebody. And III
would be idle to deny that there is strong|
element of this kind in our white popula
Ition. That element has hitherto, by for Gel
|of circumstances, been obliged to ally
itself with Democracy, but those circum-
stances are rapidly disappearing. AM
effort is, indeed, being made to revive
Board prosecutions, but it seems destined
Ito failure, and in that event Federal inter
ference in our local affairs may be consid,
lered as finally abandoned.
AS soon as that contingency shall have!
become definitely assured, the bonds which,
bind the white people into a combinationI
for mutual safety will be dissolved andI
parties must assume something of theitI
normal relations. Men who are naturally
1anti Democratic will no longer rank asI
Democrats but will form an opposition
party. They will no doubt be few at frst |
but they will be men of high character and
general intelligence. They will probably
also be supported by large proportion of
the colored vote, thus making their party al
power in the State.
This will be happy day for Louisiana
The people will then at least enjoy the right
of franchise which is now virtually prohibit
ed to them. At present there is no choice
One is bound to vote for the Democratic
nominees, no matter how unwillingiy. To
do otherwise would be to do worse. But
let another respectable party. ariee, and
we'll disposed citizens can select among the
candidates II the same enterprising youths
who now concoct their tickets in the re-
cesses of corner grocery still keep charge
of the Democratic party, they will find
that the public has some discrimination to
make in ratifying their nominations.
~E