The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1878-11-12
LET Us REASON TOGETHER.

tlOn OF an opposition ticket to the public
the Citizens Conservative Association, an o.
ganization composed Of many eminent and il
iuential citizens and old and tried Democrat
The National or combined Radical and Natv
American ticket was also In the field Ih
straight Democratic or Odd Fellows Ha
ticket has been returned elected by d larg
plurality, and some Of It's candidates by de
cided majority.
| The issue between the Citizens Conservs
| tive Association and the straightout Demo
Gratis became greatly heated, and the Associa
tion, charging that gross frauds were perpe
trated in the registration and counting @
votes, are taking, SO we are informed, vigilan
and active measures to contest the election
IF this policy Is pursued to its utmost end b,
the Citizens the result will be permanen
| split in the Democratic Conservative ranks
which may leopard the election in this Stat
In 1880.
| No greater calamity could befall this State
nay the South-perhaps the whole Union. Il
the recent elections in the States the Demo
cratic party barely held Its own. In
| deed, though 1t has lost no positive
ground, the results have tended to inspire
the bloody-shirt element Of the Republican
party with q courage, hope and vgor it has
| not felt since 1872 and already Grant is loom
ing up as the Republican candidate for the
Presidency In 1880. Conkling has swept New
York; Cameron Pennsylvania, and Robeson
the plunderer Of the Navy-Grants Sec
retary Of the Navy-has been elected to Con.
gress from New Jersey. Mr.. Potter was
nt,o oirsv1n nFt tn and {<,,
and yet Republican has been re-
turned to Congress from his district while
by the general results the Democratic ma
jority has been, upon the whole, reduced In
the National House of Representatives.
Hence 1t Is obvious that the onward move
ment of the National Democracy has been
checked, and that, IL there be not hencefor-
ward harmony In the Democratic ranks, we
may see Grant or Conkling elected President
in 1880, with Republican House of Repre-
sentatives, and the reign of fraud and corrup-
tion, and possibly, in the South, of bayonets
revived. Such o result will be the forerunner
Of military despotism which neither this
nor the succeeding generation will be able to
subvert.
In view Of this outlook, wisdom and patriot
ism, 1t seems to us, should prompt the Demo
Gratis and Conservatives of this city and State
to bury the hatchet, smoke the pipe of peace,
accept the situation as it is, and join hearts
and hands for the great contest of 1880, which
is to determine whether the Republic is to be
restored, or mongrel despotism, composed
of the money power, the brood Of Federal
officials and q military aristocracy, is to be
established over us.
We do not allege that no frauds were per-
petrated in the late election. Frauds will be
practioeti in elections until elections are done
away with or until human nature Is radically
changed and men are made as pure and disin-
terested as angels. But it is improbable that
frauds have been committed all on one side
and of SO gross q character as to change the
pluralities and majorities Of the Democratic
candidates. And unless it is evident, clearly
evident that such Is the case, we ask our
of the Conservative AS
sociation Ii this is time for us to wash
our dirty linen In public and throw mud at
each other, to such an extent, that future CO.
operation together for the sake of. New Or
leans and Louisiana will be impossible
We submit these views to the calm and Dr.
'riotic consideration Of our fellow-Democra
md Conservatives of the Citizens Associa-
ion. We ask them to consider them, not
rom their standpoint Of defeat, but from
heir standpoint as Louisianians and South
'rn men.
The bloody shirt element Of the Republican
,arty is in the ascendant; Grant or Conkling
will be the Republican candidate in 1880; the
Southern policy of Hayes has already been
discarded; q mighty effort, already inau-
,urated, will swell into fearful proper
ions to array solid North against the De-
and no desperate measure will
'e spared to organize movement to ride
|Own the South and crush the Democratic
'ote Of Its people In that fearful canvass which
8 approaching us. II we permit dssensions
ow to divide us; If one faction of our people,
omposed of such representative citizens and
Democrats as those of the Citizens Associa-
ion, disputes the election in this mighty
tronghold Of the Democracy and drags into
ublic view all the tricks and frauds perpe-
rated by ward politicians and political vice
'orkers here as everywhere else, bad blood
yill be engendered; there will be contention |
nd recrimination; the Republican press will
Ike up, circulate, exaggerate and venti-
Ite every charge until, by our own showing,
70 will stand before the country In the char
cter Of buldozers, perpetrators of election
'auds and instigators of villainies greater
IAN those of the Returning Board. What
ill be the consequence
Whom the canvass of 1880 opens the Federal
will appoint vast multitudes of
nited States deputy marshals to superin-
md the election in Louisiana; they may
ot be able to send the regular army here
) they did from 1868 to 1876; but they will
md trained bands, in the guise Of civil Off
ors, who will overrun the State and organize
le negroes and their white allies against us.
an our fellow citizens and Democrats Of the
ssociation, interested perhaps more deeply
ian any other equal number Of citizens, In the
elfare of Louisiana, afford, for the purpose of
Sposing few stereotyped frauds, or even of
If that be possible, the election of q
w city officials, give the bloody shirt Repub-
cans an excuse to subject us, in the next eIec-
On, to rigid and tyranncal Federal surveil-