The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-07-11
ACTS OF UsURPATIoN.

I
In exposing and denouncing the constitu-
tion of 1868 the Democratic State Central
Committee saw very clearly It's dangerous
tendencies and declared that, abuses under it
would "be limited only by the exigencies of
the party In power and by the vlndictiveness
Of accidental rulers" The events Of the eight
years of Radical domination have shown how
clearly the "bayonet edict" of 1868 was under
stood at the time 1t was formed and forced
upon this State Subsequent amendments
have not restricted the power of corrupt or
VindiCtive men to abuse their authority and
use the machinery Of the government to pro-
mote their own personal ends or to thwart the
will Of the people as they have done hereto
! fore. The Democrats are In power to-day;
I the several departments of the government
are filled by citizens of probity and ability
who conscientiously serve the State. But in
the mutations of parties the Democracy may
be defeated; or, II 1t be not, less honorable
men than those who now represent 1t In office
may succeed TO the large and dangerous
powers against which our committee protest
ed In 1868. In either event, we may be- in o
year or two, relegated to ring
of of1ice-holders and politicians as cor
rupt and proiIigate as any which
have ever plundered this State. It will then
be too late to talk OF remedying the evil
through constitutional convention: the OPP
portunity and the power to reorganize our
government upon correct principles will have
passed away and there will be no remedy, I'M
til. again incensed beyond endurance, the peo-
pie rise up and we pass through another po-
| ltiCaI revolution such as those of 1874 and
1876. And during the present administration
| If the call for constitutional convention be
defeated, how can we hope for relief from
political agitation and evils of unset
tied civil conditions There is GER
tainly large, intelligent, patriotic and ag
gressive body Of the people who believe that
the honor and interests of the State demand
o new constitution, and the re-establishment
of our government upon firm and UNI
questioned basis. II this large and intiuen-
tial element OF the people are defeated
at Baton Rouge, or in New Orleans In the
next Legislature, beyond question, they will
continue the agitation of the subject. The
| issue, therefore, cannot be evaded; the voice
of so large body of the people demanding a
convention, and upon such just and unassail-
able grounds, cannot be quieted or ignored.
The convention movement may be defeated
next month and again next year, but 1t can
not be suppressed or crushed out of existence,
and the conventionists will keep the question
before the people until they have carried their
point.
These agitators belong to the men who pre-
vent free institutions from falling into decay;
who hold parties to their principles and pre-
vent them from degenerating into factions
and miserable personal followings, and who
resist the tendency of false, selfish and
cowardly conservatism, to acquiesce In any
evils which may have fostered themselves
upon the State, and which it may be danger
Gus to attack.
The conventionists therefore, cannot and
ought not to be disbanded. They understand
the necessity of preserving the principles of
our government intact, and they will refuse
to the last to acquiesce in the military meas
ures and institutions of 1868, by which the
highest sovereign right Of the people-the
notwithstanding power-was suppressed.
The whole theory by which free institutions
are preserved in their integrity is embodied
in the admonition of Junus to the English
people: LET me exhort and coniure you, " said
he "never to suffer an invasion of your polti-
cal constitution, however minute the instance
may appear, to pass by without deter
mined, persevering resistance One precedent
creates another. They soon accumulate and
constitute law. What yesterday was fact to-
day is doctrine. Examples are supposed to
Justify the most dangerous measures, and
when they do not suit exactly, the defect is
supplied by analogy" Without changing
single sentence or a single word this warning
might be addressed by the conventionist OF
to-day to the people of Louisiana. The man
ner in which the convention of 1863 was
called was violative of the constitution
of the United States and Of the then
constitution of the State The object
| of the constitution of 1868 was to OPP
press and plumber the tax payers and in
dustrial classes for the benefit of q political
party hostile to the Commonwealth. 1t was
accepted at the point of the bayonet by peo-
pie whom it had DISTINGUISHED. Here were
several instances of the grOssest and most
scandalous invasion of our political oonstitu-
ton; instances so gross and so aggra waited
that the indignation they excited at the time
ought never to have cooled and should exist
to-day in all its intensity, exciting in the peo-
| pie temper to spit upon and spurn the edlct
of 1868.
| But if this act of us urpation on the part Of
aliens and enemies of Louisiana deserves our
denunciation, should we acquiesce in an act
of usurpation on the part of our own Legis-
lature not less glaring? The Legislature Is
not the constitution making power. It is not
elected for that purpose, and when the Legis-
| Int,, n rafII 10 npl1 q
convention, or to submit the question to the
people, and undertook itself to reconstruct
the bayonet edict of 1868 and make almost a
new constitution Of it, that body not only did
very bad piece Of work, but it was
guilty of a gross and objectionable
act of usurpation. 1t was Edmund Burke
we think, who said that "rights long sus-
! nendnd aTn In danger ef being totally abrO-