The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-06-07
A NEW LINE OF DEFENSE.

| and the civil courts, seems to be reOrganiHins
It's lawyers, spies, informcrs and henchmel
| generally, for a desperate effort to recover i'll
! lost ground Honest courts, q fearless press
and an organized public opinion, 1t has dis
covered, cannot be ruthIessIy ridden down
| even with the aid of perhaps one of the abIes
brigades of lawyers which could be ORGANIZED
| in any city of the Union; nor with captains 0
police portions Of the judiciary and money anC
means without limit. The lottery has Iea3net
n bitter lesson in the last few weeks, and i
! now wears q less naughty and defiant front
| than hag been its wont. The lOrdly man
ager of that dcbasing institution has less
| faith than heretofore in the supreme power
| of the fractional currency he has gathered il
| vast quantities from the vain and pteOus
| hopes of poverty and the pGcuations of mer
and women made thieves by his delusive
schemes and gaudy advertisements. He has
likewise lost faith in the utter compatibility
Of the courts and learned that,under the pres,
emit regime those tribunals are not the mere
tools and adiUnCts of his gambling monopoly
1t has therefore been determined by the lot
terry managers to change their tactics and
adopt different line of defense
Neither Recorder Smiths obstinate sub
serviency nor Judge Whitakers in
genuous but sophistical decision has been
worth anything to them. Outside of those in
tereeted in their institution, they have
scarcely supporter in the city. Public 0pin-
ion is solidly arrayed against them, and the
five civil Judges of the city sat In company to
resent and rebulko the effort to violate the
writ of habeGs corpus in their interest. The
old line Of defense therefore, is hopeless, and
they have just started upon the new
Their new plan Is to cultivate, cOnciliate and
win over to their support public opinion and
enlist the columns of the Independent press
in The defense of their franchises and charities
This new plan was inaugurated last Sunday
through the columns of tho PiCGyttne and
Times. A communication appeared in those
journals on that day. and was reproduced by
them on Monday, signed Lex" defending
tho Lottery Company against the at
taCks made upon 1t In the DEMOCRAT
and in the courts. The same CORES
pendent printed q second communication
in those papers yesterday morning. These
though signed Lex" are as
empty of law as the Louisiana State Lottery
Is of bona Jfde prizes. They are simply
TRADE against the Cubans and Spaniards who
sell Havana lottery tickets, and panegyrc
Of the Howard lottery and its wonderful
charities. The only legal proposition the lot
tery's law correspondence attempts to establish
Is, that the Supreme Court, in the Geale case,
declared act No. of 1874 constitutional.
We have reviewed that decision in another
column, and If our readers will peruse the
iGCfsOn itself, or our review of it, they will
see that the statement that the
supreme Court decided a2t No. 9 constitu
ional is an audacious and utterly unfounded |
on the part of Lex"
This correspondent displays almost as much |
ingenuity in twisting facts out of their natu-
al shape as he displays ignorance Of the law !
)ne, from reading his communications in yes !
erday's Ptcdulne and Times, If ignorant Of
he real nature of this controversy, would |
uppOse that all persons adverse to the Lou
sana State Lottery Company were in the |
interest of the Havana lottery dealers, and |
we're attempting to establish an unlicensed !
rade in lottery tickets. Presenting the con- |
roversy in this unsghtly aspect, Lex" finds !
happy opportunity to ridiCule the OppOsi- |
ion to the political power. debaSing in |
luence and swindling schemes Of his client; |
o abuse the Cubans and Spaniards, and to |
lefend the policy and character of the Louis |
ana concern.
The premises of Lex" are utterly false |
md ridiculous We have no interest in deal |
RS in Havana lottery tickets. We are OPP
posed to lottery schemes of all classes and |
init ho do
)asing species of gambling. That we regard |
he licensed sale Of Havana lottery tickets as |
ess pernicious than the schemes of the Lou |
siana concern, is true. The grounds of this |
conviction we will give at another time. But |
We believe that the lottery business can be |
and we think it ought to be. |
Il not, then the business should be |
licensed, and all who are willing and able to |
conform to the conditions Of the license should |
nave an equal right to prosecute it. Be-
yOnd question, this pernicious business ought |
lot to be free and unrestricted trade In |
Iced, so far from thinking that the sale of
ottery tickets should be unrestricted, we re-
gard the business rather in the light of a mis- |
iemeanOr II not crime and we believe that |
t ought to be prescribed and punished as |
such. But in framing laws to suppress it the |
provisions of the constitution should not be |
nor any act passed violating the |!
lights of the citizen. Neither do we be- |
ieve that these laws should be passed |
q the interest of a gigantic corpora
ion with a monopoly privilege for COM
hitting the very misdemeanOr or crime it is
proposed to destroy or restrain, and neither
should the prosecutions for attractions of the
aw be prosecuted in the interest of such corpo-
alton In short, reprehensible and democrat
zing as We regard the trade in lottery tickets, |
We regard it as less pernicious, less danger
)us, less repulsive to an Anglo-Saxon civiliza-
ion than the enactment of such brutal, IN
and anti-republican laws as act
No. 9 of 184-particularly when that act was
passed by corrupt means not to suppress
he evil or crime it denounces, but actually to
encourage, fortify, nourish and build up in
our midst that very iniquity.
The difference between LEX" and the DEM
,rp n ia thaf EET ay" hoo ,1r, 10 ION