Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1878-04-13
Communicated) vi.
CHARLOTTESVILLE. VA, March 30, '76.

lana frOm the standpoint OF an
"outsider,' there are but too evident
traces of the deep subtilty of radical
ism striving to undermine the whole
state. It is very evident to o casual OBJ
server that the month OF March, of last
year, was not the critical point in the
affairs of the State, which was to dec de
whether grand old Louisiana, the battle.
field of Andrew Jackson, should he in
tho future haven of all'villany and
vice, and the mass of rot.onness and cor
ruption which she had been for the past
seventeen years, or whether she should
resume the high position among the
States of the Union which she once held
in the golden ago of the Republic. Now,
now, is the crisis, and the storm over
shadowing the State can only be averted
by the combined and persistent efforts OF
all of Louisiana's true and loyal sons.
Last year Radicalism, or, should more
properly have said, villainy personified III
the Radical party of Louisiana, suffered
terrible fall. Then it seemed that the
last day of their political life, unparal-
leled in the history of the world in cor
ruption, had surely come. The party
| fell, it is true, but there was left seeds
enough to terminate new villainy, and
be now perverting the minds OF tho
| whole State Of Louisiana.
| The Radical party is doing this by Sc
cretly undermining tho works and infiu-
once of the Legislature, which recently adj
journed, and which is well known to
have embodied more sober honesty and
| firm justice and prudence than any as
sembly which has eyer guided the Ship
| of State At tho results of the sessions
of this model Legislature the petty news
papers in the State are filled with COM
plants, and the people are disappointed.
1t seems that the Legislature was eN-
pected, in two short sessions of sixty
days each, to wipe out and entirely OBJ
lite, ate the traces of the viilainy which
it had takcn seventeen years to perfect.
Is it possible that there is any man so
foolish as to suppose that in two years
tho whole State could have been
completely revolutionized France
was revolutionized in y few weeks, but
the stains of unisrulc were washed out
only by rivers of the best blood of the
nation. In Louisiana the change from
| good to bad was one which it had taken
Yankee keenness and sagacity yearsto ac-
complish and yet, with this very fact
before their eyes, the people of the State
evidently expected the Legislature to
eiface forever the remembrance and traces
of this age of vilainy and corrnpti"n.
When Il man has been suffering from a
| long spell of sickness he has to rccuper
ate gradually. Gradually must tho di-
sease in his system be supplanted by
health. So it is with Il STATE It's health,
50 to speak, must be changed from bad
to good by degrees, because it is absolute
ly impossible to revolutionize, in an in
stant the minds of 4 whole people. The
| members of our last Legislature were
men who gave up their business, homes,
and all, and made every sacrifice 70. the
good OF the State, and now, when the
State should be sending mp, as the voice of
one man, u shout of gratitude that would
ring trop, boundary to boundary, it is
strewef with murmnrers murmurinG
against the Legislature. This is. as l
said at the beginning of my letter, the
underwriting of Radical villainy. The
Radical party in Louistn has seen that,
with this as IL lever, they may regain
some of that power which seemed so IL
retrievably lost to them a year ago.
They have seen that they may possibly
persuade some of the people of Louisiana
that their Legislature has ;leceivcd them,
has disappointed their hopes, "and," they
add parenthetically "a Radical Legis1a-
tire ,ciU do BETTER" So far they have
certainly had the most encouraging sue
cess. Without firing the reader with a
long account of what the last LeSisla-
turc did, vii ! simply state the fact that
the bill fixing the mileage and per diem
of the General Assembly is a measure
which will save the State thousands OF
dollars which heretofore have been
thrown away On mercenary Legislators
that the New Orleans PA clfic Railroad
Bill is a measure which alone will MAKE
the State of Louisiana. I forebear ia
mention any others only because time
and space do not permit; and yet not.
withstanding all the good measures
which the Legislature has passed, all the
iniuuitous laws which it has repealed
and all the good amendments and laws
which it has added, the Ra ideals, tol
no one else is at the bottom of ally are
stirring up strife in the State and per
verting the minds of our peoHle. Aud
now is the time for all true Louisianians
| white and black, Democrat and Repub-
| fn
against these villains to flock together
round one common central point, our grand