The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1879-05-16

the authors Of violence, discord and
crime than the men of substance in the
community. This needs no argument,
and the investigating committees of
this House have shown not by the tes-
timony of others, but out of the mouths
of this alien and nefarious spawn of
despotism, that they are all that is
wicked and base.
Who that loves liberty has forgotten
the dark days of Republican rule in
Louisiana, when the representatives Of
the people were driven by bayonets
from seats in the Legislature to which
they had been duly elected, to give
place to ignorant and brutal plunderers.
But a new charge, or rather new
count of the old charge against our Peo-
pie is now being made. 1t Is said by
mendacious presses, and re-echoed by
equally mendacious persons In TINS
Capitol, that the colOred man Is belng
driven from Louisiana by oppression
and political persecution.
Nothing is easier, Mr.. Chairman,
than for the Imagination to build on
isolated cases theory utterly false in
fact. At every corner of this city, able
bodied c0lored men stretch out the hand
of mendicancy with pitiful tales of dis
tress. There are more negroes begging
their bread between the White House
and the Capitol than between Arkan-
sas and the Gulf of Mexico. Are these
cries of suffering in these streets real
and genuine? if SO, is it not the duty OF
those gentlemen who are alluring the
negro of Louisiana from his homo
where he can make a subsistence, even
if 1t be n poor one-to attend rather to
these cases before their own eyes, ut
their very doors? On the other hand,
if tho daily testimony of these beggars,
their oft-repeated tales Of woo, are fic-
tions, why should there be attached
more credit to the echo of reports from
distant unknown persons, generally
given ON hearsay, self-contradictory,
and as stupendous in fabrication as the
Arabian Nights?
We had a system OF labor which with
all its faults, secured certain large eco
nomical results and most of the bene fits
ofcivilization. War and philanthropy,
whether real or pretended, swept 1t
away. We did not stop to weep over
the destruction of the slave system, but
set to work to re-establish order in So
ciety, to rebuild its foundations by pa
thence and industry; but tho United
States Government was in the hands
of men who knew nothing except how
to demolish.
Reconstruction was worse than the
destruction and havoc of war. There
came an army of licensed thieves
among us, tricked out in tho trapping
of tho law, paid from the public funds,
and labeled on the statutc-books as
governors, judges, attorneys, or mar
shals. They robbed us and demon
allied our labor systematically and then
organized by their own wicked devices.
We admit our poverty and our dis
organization, and they will not depart
from us until we arc rid of Republican
| InisgoVernnlent. Even now while we
arc struggling to restore our fortunes,
at the very moment our people were
straining their credit, are pitching their
crops, great agitation is produced in
the laboring class by tho scattering OF
lying circulars among the most ignor-
ant to induce them to desert their
homes and seek new land Of Canaan.
Fortunately for the colored man this
movement is not likely to assume
large proportions. If it were so, I
should shud2er at tho possible fate of
this unfortunate class of laborers, seduc-
ed from fields OF toll to which they arc
trained, and accustomed to localities
where they will seek to earn their
bread at every possible disadvantage
and be exposed to the keen COMPETE
ton of the most industrious and cncr-
eetic race in tho world, before whose
competition they are doomed to hope
less defeat and the beggary and vicc
which have always followed their
unsuccessful competition with whit c
labor in northern communities.
In such Il contest they must go to the
wall, and none know this better than
the political leaders in this city, who
for personal and party ends have in
stigatcd this negro exodus.
| Sir, it has been my intention t. dis
cuss to some extent the broader issues
before this committee, but they have
boon already so widely and SO deeply
| argued that it would be useless for me
to occupy the time OF the committee in
doing SO.
The question is resolved into Il nut
shell. 1t is this: Shall we repeal the
test oath and have Il law that will
give us fair jurics? Shall wc repeal an
act passed by II Congress authorizing
tho uso of troops and an unlimited
army Of deputy marshals and super
visors to be appointed by tho party III
power and to be used ut the polls? o.
in other words shall VIC have fair juries
and free elections as in times past? The
| voice of the nation demands that we
. ~