The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-07-23
THE WORST OF COMPROMISES.

fruits Of one Of the most extraordinary an
illegitimate compromises ever made by an
representative body. compromise whio
we trust the Democratic party will prompt,
repudiate and rebuke The right of the Leg
islature 10 suggest amendments to the con
stitution Is, and It ought TO be, restricted to
very narrow range. It does not and 1t ough
not to extend beyond the suggestion of amend
nents to supply an accidental omission of 1
constitutional convention; or to perfect th
symmetry of the instrument; or to NEE
some new and special necessity of the State
When great radical changes in our socia
and political relations render it necessary fol
the general interest 30 completely remode
the organic law. the Legislature has no au
thority TO attempt the work through mul
titude Of amendments, either well or ill-pre
pared. So great a work should be RENTED tC
| the great body of the people, who will consider
every change required, who will choose dele
gates to represent them In convention ex
pressly for this purpose and who will enter
upon the business of their election thoroughly
informed Of the interest and wishes of their
constituencies, and, out of their deliberations,
will arise work symmetrical and harmonious
in all its parts and adapted TO the purposes
for which 1t was framed.
But The members of the late Legisla-
ture persistently ignored this well estab-
lished theory of our government; they
closed their ears to the clamors of an
emancipated people for a convention and
new constitution; they usurped the high
est power Of the State, and, with an AFRO
gance which should be resented, dictated the
constitutional reforms they were willing to
accord the public, they presumptuously as
sumed that the people OF Louisiana had been
SO long in bondage that they were incapaci-
tated to exercise the sovereign power of
framing an organic law; that the fierce pas
sions which had been so long pent up under
Radical domination, in a convention would
blaze out in fury TO strike down the rights of
the negroes and to incorporate In the new in
strument the most violent and pernicious
partisan provisions. All the temperance, Wis
dom, moderation and public virtue 1t was in
timated to us, had retreated into the minds
and hearts of the members Of the Legislature
and 1t was their duty, as they were best oapa-
able of Judging to remodel the constitution
and protect the State from the ignorance and
fury of Its own citizens.
And how did this wise body Of statesmen
perform their self allotted labor? The amend
ments, as we have said, are the result Of an
extraordinary and illegal compromise. Dem
ocrats, Conservatives, Radicals, lottery men,
white men and negroes combined in deter
mination to defeat convention and to carry
through the amendments with fraternal
cordiality which must continue to excite the
greatest establishment of the public. A bill to
a fire company could hardly unite
so homogeneous asupport as did those twenty
one amendments radically changing, in many
of its most important features, the organic
law of a great State.
But these amendments themselves indicate
the cohesive principle of the combination
which was organized in their support. We
find that while something has been conceded
to reform, concessions have been made, and
principles OF the highest Importance aban-
doned, in the interest of the combination.
In the first place neither an act of the Legisla
ture was passed nor an amendment submitted
to the people for repeating the charter Of a
single monopoly. It Is provided indeed that
no monopoly shall be created in the future-a
brave concession, indeed, to a suffering public
but all the existing ones are permitted to
continue their pernicious existence.
This was the condition on which the lottery
and its allied rings gave the support of their
tools in the Legislature to the amendments;
or rather we should say this was the basis on
which the scheme of the amendments was
for the lottery and the rings appre- |
hensive of the people, devised and worked
up the job Thus, though slice has been
taken off the salaries Of a few officials to
please the people, the lottery and other mo-
nopoles are left to flourish and fatten on the
taxpayers and the credulous dupes who are
iieeced for their support to the amount Of over
a million per annum. Happy, triumphant
The most obnoxious articles in the bayonet
edict Of 1868 were left untouched, for the pur
pose of conciliating such of the Radical ne
groes as the lottery could not control. The
clauses enforcing mixed schools still remain
intact in all their force and beauty to become
a subject of strife whenever designing and am
bilious men among our own people shall or
ganize an anti-Democratic party and attempt
to enlist the support of the negroes by calling
for the enforcement of this obnoxious
provision of the constitution. 1t is
folly to urge that this question
has been settled and will not be reopened.
1t will be reopened and that before the cleo
ton in 1880. Indeed, if the negroes and Rad
ioals in the Legislature, to command whose
cooperation articles 1876 and 1876 were left I'M
touched, did not attach great Importance to
them, why were they not obliterated from the
constitution? 1t was against these very arti-
cles that the Democrats of Louisiana, in
1868. protested, in the name Of Almighty God,
and which the more decent Radicals of
that time denounced in unmeasured terms.
We know the strife and Generalization
these articles have created in the past, and we
know that when we again have two parties in
this State, as we will have soon, each strug-
Cling for the negro vote, pledges will be
made by the candidates of both TO carry out
these articles, and that then there will be
amongst us more powerful and certain ten