The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-07-28
SENTIMENTAL POLITICS.

Recently q correspondent of one of the city
papers, after reviewing the retrenchment
features Of the amendments, held that they
covered all needed reforms and sneeringly
remarked that the demand for constitutional
convention was based upon purely sentiment
tai grounds.
The correspondent referred to is laboring
under a sad delusion. The amendments have
been skillfully framed to impress the people
with this belief But the convention press
has exposed the cheat and shown that the
amendments, II accepted, will perpetuate the
worst features of the judiciary system; that
they will taCitly affirm the irrepealibiity of
the charters Of the monopolies which bleed
the people to the amount of over million
dollars annually while they debauch our
legislatures and coarts; that they will ratify
the Infamous articles Of the bayonet edict of
1868. enforcing mixed schools and thus give
the binding force and effect Of law to proyi-
sions of that constitution, which, sooner or
later will involve the community In strife.
break up our public school system, or deprive
the poorer white children of its benefits.
The convention press representing now, be-
Democrats OF the State, has further shown
that there are wide differences of opinion
amongst the people as to the value, or pro-
priety, or practfcability OF many Of the other
amendments. Hence it Is evident that, If the
amendments are adopted as a whole, their
adoption will ratify the worst features Of the
bayOnet edict, and give new life and vigor to
the worst evils in the State; that on the other
hand, il the people attempt to designate
what they approve in the amendments and
reject what they oppose, there will be little of
them left; that there will be little improve
ment upon the edict as 1t now stands; that
we will have Endorsed that wicked instrll-
ment, while we will be left without even the
meagre constitutional reforms these poor
amendments, born of an illegitimate compro-
mise with lottery swindles, rings and Radi-
Gals, offers us.
We dispute therefore, the assertion Of the
correspondent of a contemporary that the de-
mand for q constitutional convention is based |
solely on sentimental grounds Yet II those |
who charge that we are advocating o conven- |
tion and the rejection Of the amendments on |
sentimental grounds, mean that we are adj |
vocating these measures because the consti- |
tuition of 1868 was framed by the enemies of |
of the commonwealth and forced upon the |
people at the point Of the bayonet, and that |
the scheme Of the amendment was as gross an |
act of usurpation as that by which the present |
constitution was framed and adopted, then, |
though, as we have already shown, they
have not enumerated all the grounds on |
which we make this demand, they have struck
upon the very highest and most important In
the list.
1t Is just such sentiment as this which con-
stitutes the life of free institutions here and
wherever else they exist It is just this sort
1f sentiment which inspired the English revo-
ution Of 1645, the American revolution of
L776 and the French revolution of 1885, ct
arose in the mystic depth Of mems souls, and
lew like hallowed fire from heart to heart,
Until all We're purified and illuminated by it,"
Wherever this sentimentalism has consti-
5uted the dynamic force in politics the pro-
yress has been from despotism, ignorance and
poverty, to liberal government, enlightenment
IND the improvement of the condition of the
masses of the people. Wherever this senti-
nentalism has ceased to influence govern
nent and has died out of the hearts of the
people, there has been @ retrOgressiOn from |
rec institutions to despotism and degra-
lation. 1t was not the imposition of an insig-
lificant tax which cost Charles I his crown
md head, and provoked the uprising which I
rave animpetus to the great movement which =,
las made England the freest, richest and most I
prosperous nation on earth.
If the gentlemen who are now crying out !
gainst thesentimentaIity which demands that :
orc
us work shall be repudiated by the people OF {
louisiana had lived in the time Of Charles [, Z
hey would have appealed to the English =
'eOple to submit to the exaGtion of ship money :
IS too insignificant matter about which to :
istract the country and disturb the course +
4 business. They would have denounced !
ydney and Hampden as impracticable and q
dangerous agitators; and, had they succeeded. q
he Star Chamber would never have been r
polished, nor would any of the despotic in y
titutions of that time have ever been swept d
ut Of existence to make way for the present 6
rider.
II these anti-sentimentalists, who hold that
he only principle involved In making con- n
titution is dollars and cents, had lived In the Y
me OF Caesar they would have joined in with i,
ne monOpolies and rings to offer him the 9
rown, and commended, as the inspiration of 8
and love of order, the seryileness h
people who dared not resist the empire. "
The great men Of our republc-the men u
tho organized and made it great and G
lorious-were moved, in all their great pur-
oses, by the sentimentality on which the con- D
demand a new constitution. "The II
rst object OF free people," said Mr.. Web ~
ter, sis the preservation Of their liberty; and T
berty is only to be preserved by maintain 7
lg constitutional restraints" +
What would "the Great Expounder of the 7
constitution" have thought Of the nennle of q TT