The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-11-19
WAS IT SPOKEN BY THE GARD :?

| Association, In its Sunday issue, in antlcipa-
| ton Of the mission Of hate District Attorney
Leonard is reported to be coming back to his
home to fulfill. We find it hard to believe that
| O. more difference In local politics could have
created SO suddenly o resentment 80 bitter
! and yindictive In the hearts OF such O. respect
| able element of our people as must exist In
order to enlist their sympathy in the whole
sale prosecution of their fellow-citizens, with
whom they have heretofore acted in full &C
| cord.
Until we have better md more authorlta-
| tive proof OF the fact, we must decline to be-
| leve In the existence Of any such atl ocious
| sentiment in the hearts Of the men who led
| or followed tho Citizens movement. Yet the
paper In which this sentiment was given ut
| terance is the duly accredited and advertised
organ Of the Citizens Association, and in the
| article under discussion that organ assumed
| to speak for the association. We cannot per-
NIT such IN article to appear without at least
| challenging the authoritative tone Of tho
paper in which 1t appeared. Did the City Item
speak for the Citizens Association, and does
the article in question represent the feelings
of that organization and outline the methods
| Of Its fight against the Democratic party? It
it did not. and the sentiments expressed are
not those Of the association, they but owe it
to themselves to say SO.
| Certainly. O. more offensive article never ap-
peared even In the old New Orleans Republi-
can. After repeating District Attorney
Leonard's statements in their most offensive
form the organ of the Citizens Association
proceeds to accept them as true, and to add
| ;t, tf, Tpnrorf'a n hcs
tpeople of Caddo with the most ntrocious and
barbarous crimes. and with having "openly
1 carried tho election by fraud and violence"
In this connection the Item says:
| Now for any such conduct there can be no
excuseye Indeed not even the testimony Of Col.
Leonard, o gallant ex-Confederate Off Ger
| though he was, whose reputation for truth
| and tnafliness Is Of the very highest, could
conHince as that the election outrages in
/ Caddo were 50 numerous and dark, were we
not confronted by the Ring outrages com
| mitted here against our most substantial and
worthy citizens.
It Cannot be possible that the good men
and worthy citizens who compose the Citl-
zens Association hold to any such conyic-
tions or are aetuated by any such spirit as
are here given expression. It is the common
belief that District, Attorney Leonard has
come back to this STATE. for. the purpose of
inauguratlng against, our people crusade Of
hate'antt partisan bitterness for purely po
ltica1 purposes, His. tisit TO Washington ap-
| pears to- have had No other purpose than to
Econs1H With The Federal administration as to
the methods Of .procodure,ahd to got instruc-
Etions as to tte corrse he was expected to pur-
sue. Nv hat was the object OF, Mr. Leohard's
mission to Washington or what his purposes
! IN the future may be, we hav8 nc, neanss Of
knowing anthdfItattvely ;sand We shall enr-
tatufy5 u ~ 5othing IN regard thereto tN
| shalLallow himtode1elop his projects AMI
Judge him by his, acts. 81 But whatever his
cort1Bernay be, it ennnot be worse than, that
to1Which he is':inyited by the organ OF the
| Citizens "A Association, HIo. 1,Jt,4.t -aIsII$ ~
| Would We not be wrong in assuming that
that respectable body of cltizdps will; give
theft encouragement and. sympathy to such
an outrage On. THO people, Of Caddo as was
once perpetrated on those OF Grant2 Ietdt
is itst Such d prdctedihg that is believed to
| be contemplated, and to which the HEM Offers
| acknowledgement and Sympathy Such large
and, reputable element of our people can not
lend their eoalhtenance to such q persecution
as this. The laws of Louisiana are ample for
| open and She has strong and vigorous Exc
cutivs.g In Caddo the judge and district at
| torney are both pronounced and bitter Re
publicans. Whatever wrongs may have been
done there can be speedily punished In the
State courts, If they can be punished at all
by legal process. Every. mandate OF those
courts will be enforced. II any such crimes
as it. is charged were committed there during,
| the list campaign were actually Derpetrated,
they should beinYest1gated and the offend
ers punished to the extremity Of the law.
BIT fntit be done there before the Republican
Judge Of Caddo, and at the prOsUUuttii6fa Ct he
Republican district attorney. We all know
too WELL alas, what is meant by dragging cit
liens of distant parishes down here to New
| Orleans. to be tried by the Federal COURTS
/ 1t simply means persecution and the VENT
ing of, partisan malignity and to such pur-
p0ses' we cannot believe that any good
citizen Of Louisiana will lend himself. directly
be thai
thepepple of this State are, contemplating in
the Immediate future the most poftant act
of sovereignty of which a freekpeople are
captableAI1the' formation of constitution, un-
der which society is to be organized, and In
which is to be. given expression to the princi-
pies Ia accordance with which they propose
to live. Divisions among our people now
may go far towards defeating the calling ola
Constitutional convention, which the people
have demanded with an unprecedented una-
nimityi It is of the utmost ina pprtanee tbas
the good people the int ligesd and RESPONSE
bie Glasses Of the State, should not be divided
upon the. eve, Of, such an important event. #
is Of vital consequence that" they should act
together in this matter, that the false
apd unrepublcan features Of the qkasse WHICH
now serves US, by tolerance merely, as our
fundamental latws, may be' wiped out utterly,
and true and living principles Of constitu-
tional freedom, and Democratic construction,
which never had dearer lovers or more de-
voted defenders than tie peopleof Louisiana,
may find windicakiaan and perpetaatien. Let
US layzaside our, differences for the present