The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1878-07-02
THE CANCER OF LOUISIANA OIvILI.
ZATTON.

Adversely may render State poor and
miserable; but the decline OF public spirit
amongst it's people can alone render it con-
temptible. During the long and disastrous
period which intervened between the assem-.
| bling of the convention which. framed the
bayonet edict, miscalled the constitution OF
Louisiana, and the Inauguration of the pres.
ent State administration, Louisiana was sub.
iected to every description of oppression and
spoliation, but the persistent and heroic re,
sistance Of her people to the shameless tyr.
amy Of the emissaries of her conquerors con.
stitutes the most glorious chapter of her
history. Throughout the whole of that pc.
riod the spirit Of her people remained un.
broken, and before its fierce resistance Radi.
calism and military rule gave way and once
more legally chosen government was estab.
lished within our borders.
| And now eighteen months have elapsed
since the first OF January, 1877, when the
| Democratic-C Conservative Legislature assem-.
bled in this city. Two sessions of that his
toric body have been held, and It's members
have gone back to the people who elected
them TO render an account OF their work. Has
Legislature fulfill the mission for which Ii
was chosen2 Are the people satisfied with It's
record2 We believe not
| That there were some important reform
measures passed during the long and troub-
lous session Of 1877 cannot be denied. We
candldIy concede that, and we are not disposed
to detract in the least from the merit of those
proper measures Indeed, we are positively
certain that session Of the Legislature did all
that was possible to be done under the peculiar
circumstances. But here must end its praise.
The session of 1873 was not only tarren of
good works but actually fruitful of evil,
and it has left us nothing but discomfort
disappointment and disCord.
We do not propose now to review the ugly
business of that session; we have time and
again done that, and we have never seen any
defense of it that placed it In O favorable light
When we inaugurated our present admins
tration in 1877, we had only established basis
upon which to reorganize our government
and on which we could lay the foun-
dations and build the shapely edifice
of reform and constitutionaIism. And
unhappily there the representatives of
the people stopped. They could not be urged,
or persuaded, or forced to bulge one step
further. Immediately new power was or
ganized within the Democratlc-Co Conservative
party; the great majority Of the horde OF
Offfce-holders, who, necessarily, under the
present constitution, came In with the new gov
ernment, naturally desired to keep things as
they were and still are. They looked with
Indifference, II not with selfish favor on the
vast multitude Of remediable evils and
abuses in the governmental system Radi-
calism had framed and perfected to destroy
the industrial classes and taxpayers for the
emOlument of officeholders and politicians,
and which it had surrendered into our hands.
Their own interests convinced them that
things were we'll enough as they were, and that
it would be unwise, inexpedient and danger
GUS, "iust at this time" or in the NEAR
future" to attempt to better them. They
did not seem to understand, or they suddenly
forgot, that government must be capable of
growing, expanding and adapting itself to
new conditions of thought, or of society, and
that it is subject to grave diseases, which can
only be remedied by vigilance and prompt
ness" This was the theory upon which the
people for eight years had fought to expel the
Radical party from power and deliver the
government of the State into the control of the
Democrats and Conservatives. The people felt
that new social and political conditions were
necessary; they realized that grave diseases
we're preying upon the vitals of the body poll
tic, and they struggled and fought to establish
those new conditions; to eradicate those pes
tiferous diseases; and when they had won
A. a,uIE h,l
right to hope, that their representatives
would Immediately take the proper steps to
enable them to SO alter and reconstruct their
government as to free it from disease and
adapt it to the new conditions.
A few of the officeholders thoroughly sym
pathized with the people. But the great body
Of them looked at the situation through the
medium Of their own interest, and they be-
lieved the people were fools, revoutionists or
ignoramuses. And then power greater than
the officeholders rose up against the people to
maintain the old and so well established and
so well tried order of things. The rings and
monopolies which had been, and still are, IN
directly bleeding the people of this city to the
extent of hundreds of thousands of dollars
per annum; which are powerful in our poll
tics, and which sprung, peSt1terOuS brood,
from the teeming womb of Radical corrup-
ton, desired no change, no reform, no further
triumph of the people; and so they combined
their money and their influence to prevent
any change or reform or modification of the
system to which they owed their being and
under the influences of which they believed
they could alone continue their perniciGus
existence.
Thus has passed away two sessions Of the
Legislature under the new order of things,
and no step has been taken to call a constitu-
tional convention to enable the people to reor-
ganize their government upon constitutional
basis. In many parts of the State we notice
that strong movement is being made to re-
turn new Legislature which will indorse the
policy of the last and force the people to sub
init two years longer to constitution which
was formed by enemies and aliens, and against