The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1878-02-13
La. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1873.
Whittier Are We Drifting.

During the period IN which the,
controlled this State, the Radical!
party completely changed the char
acter Of its government. They more
than doubled the number Of office
holders; they doubled and tripled the
salaries of existing Offices; they in
vented new and extraordinary
schemes for plundering the treasury
and filing the pockets Of the army OF
officers, such, for instance, as the act
creating constructive mileage; the,
sold out the franchises Of the people
to rings and monopolies; they created
extraordinary taxes, invaded the
rights Of towns and cities, and actu
ally converted our republican form Of
government into 40 absolute despot.
ism which governed according TO the
will, first of Warmoth and his re
tainers, and then OF Kellogg and the
rogues he assembled about his usur-
patton.
The grave question now arises,
how far the Democratic administra-
ton has gone in eliminating those
evils and abuses from the govern
mental system? What, in other
words, has the present Legislature
lone to destroy the pernicious prac.
tices and institutions which Radical
ism has bequesthed to us, and which
are as deadly to public prosperity as
ii they were the robe of DcjaI ira
stepped in che poisonous blood Of the
Centaur? The revenues of the State
have been honestly administered, and
some indirect burdens made lighter
or abolished. But if the work of re-
form has gone beyond this we have
seen no evidence of it. What mum
her of the vast multitude of new Of
fcials created by Radicalism have
been abolished? To what extent has
the 141 mills tax, established by
Kellogg, been diminished? What
monopoly has been abolished2 What
salary has been reduced? What
practical measure is there before the
Legislature calculated to convert this
into a cheap government, such IS a
people impoverished BY four years of
desolating war and ten years of rapine
and oppression ought to have?
We ask these questions in no spirit
of fault-tinding. Weknow that many
of the reforms demanded are impos
sible of accomplishment under the
existing constitution; but the Demo
cratic party went inta the canvass Of
1879 upon the largest pledges of re-
form, and so confident were the PEG.
pie that their representatives would
sweep from the face of the earth
every evil which the malevolence
and rapacity Of their oppressors had
planted in the government, that
their earnestness we'll nigh convert
ed the canvass into revolution
They will, demand, therefore, of this
Legislature q strict account of it's
stewardship. They will ask the very
questions We have propounded; and
they are already asking whether the
State is to be reformed by the Dem
ocratic Legislature, or Democratic
practices are to be vitiated and de-
based by Radical methods. We
speak, therefore, in the interest of
the Democratic party when we ad-
monish Senator'S and Representatives
that the people are growing impa-
tient at the slow progress that is be.
ing made toward cheap government.
God forbid that it should be said that
no party has been equal to the Dem
ocratic party in loud and boisterous
professions of reform and in substan.
tial extravaganza and corruption.
Nearly one-half of the session has
passed and little or nothing been
done. We are told that the Commit.
tee on Constitutional Amendments
will report 10 few days. We hope
80. Not 80 much because We believe
that anV Rmpnnmant NJ val ;.ns