The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-11-04
A STARTLING PROPOSITION.

| Conservative Association. That address,
which we print in another column forfeits all
claim the Association may have had to the
confidence of the voters Of New Orleans.
Indeed 1t must excite the gravest alarm in
the minds of cool and temperate men, and all
such will withdraw from the support Of @
movement the incorporate leaders Of which
have resorted to such desperate and cues
tionable methods of accomplishing their
| ends.
! We have read and now discuss this address
more with apprehension and sorrow than
| with anger 1t is not document for right
| thinking men to grow angry over; but 1t is
one, coming from the source it does, which is
! full OF promise of evil and strife. The passage
Of the civil rights bill by Radical negro legis-
lature under Warmoth's administration never
excited any fears. The principle Of the bill
was obnoxious, it is true; but the birth and
| blood of our white people, their pride and
prejudice of race, was q bulwark against social
equality which no laws enacted by such q
| body as the Warmoth Legislature could pos
sibIy break down Or weaken.
| But when the object for which the civil
rights bill was passed finds advocates
amongst our wealthest citizens and Is pub
lcly announced IS that Of a new political
party composed Of the representatives of the
wealth and highest social life of the city, we
are overwhelmed with establishment, and we
confess with apprehension. We shall not re-
view the nonsense which constitutes the chief
staple of this address; that Is harmless and
Is its own best refutation. The portions Of the
address which have arrested our attention and
should command that Of the whole commu-
nifty are not wiser Or more practicable than
the great mass of 1t, but they embody prlnci-
pies which are calculated to breed strife and
turmoil and consequent commercial and in
dustrial disaster. We refer to only two brief
paragraphs of the address, but brief as they
| are they contain the seeds Of social disorgan-
| ization and strife. Here they are. Let every
white man In New Orleans who earns his liv-
| ing by his labor read them:
| We pledge to you 1.-THE negroesJ a fair pro-
| portion, not only OF the political patronage,
but also q liberal representation in our COM
mercial pursuits.
Come with us and we will lead you on to
equality, responsibility and prosperity.
The doctrine of social equality has never
been more broadly presented or so prac-
tically advocated. The gentlemen who issued
the address are all wealthy men, and most
of them merchants and employers They are
all honest men, holding high social and bust
ness positions. 1t must, therefore, be conced-
ed; 1. That they are entirely sincere in what
| they say: that it is their purpose to give, as
far as they can, the negroes full share of the
political patronage of the State and full
share of their individual patronage as mer-
chants and manufacturers. 2. That being
wealthy merchants and employing large
numbers of clerks book-keepers. mechanics
and laborers, they are able to fulfill at least
their promise to the negroes to give them
50 liberal representation IN our commercial!
pursuits
Now then what does this mean? Does any
one suppose for q moment that the gentlemen
of the Citizens Association propose to admit
the negroes to whom they make this appeal
to social Or business intercourse and equality
with themselves? Certainly not. What then
does it mean? It means simply the alliance
Of the money power with the negro rabble tC
oyerpOwer the great mass of the white voters
who are working men, and to control the des-
TIMES of the city and State in the money in,
terest.
When the Citizens Association have Won
their fight, if they have spoken truthfully
and they are honorable men we all know
they will distribute their private patronage
equally between the blacks and whites. Hun.
dreds nay thousands of honest, industrious
hard-worked men, clerks, bOOkkeepers, ware
housemen, mechanics and laborers, will be
discharged and negroes employed in thel1
places. The white employees who may be Sc
fortunate as to be retained, will be brought
into daily hourly and intimate social and
business intercourse with their negro asso
ciates.
Repugnant as it may be to them they can
not, they dare not escape the association. Il
they revoltthey will be discharged, and turned
out without money to feed their wives and chill
dren They must stand it. They must become
the companions and associates OF negro clerks
book keepers, mechanics and laborers. In
plain and unmistakeable terms the negroes
are invited to "equatity, responsibility and
prosperity" Then their children must be edu
Gated in our public schools on an equality with
the whites. Thus with the negroes admitted
to liberal representation in our commercial
houses and their children to schools provided
for white children, we shall soon have an Or
der of society composed of those of the peo
pie who have to work for their living il
which will be COMPOUNDED blacks, whites
mulattoes-in brief, the working people of al
of all races and colors; and over this order
will arise vulgar and arrogant aristocracy
of moneyed men-wealthy merchants, CAPT
talists, monopolists and ring-masters.
This is not clap-trap. The money power In
this country has long been steadily and relent.
lessly organizing against the masses of the
people. The representatives of that power are
possessed by holy horror of the free ballot
Of the workingman and the taxpayer, whom
1t is crushing, and they are ready and anxious
to make any alliance or combination with the
rabble to vote down the middle classes OF
the people. In this city the money power
has organized under the name of the Cit
liens Conservative Association. 1t has
promulgated no platform; it has made
&c ;-1o