The Opelousas courier., 1883-06-16

made the existing contract with John
McEnery.
H"W the contract has been executed
is another question. The abuses al
legged TO have been pcrpetrated under
-lt appear to be enormously exaggerat-
ell. When the matter was first opened
we were told in the most pathetic and
heart stirring terms that our sacred
battle fields were to be gobbled up, that
private properties were to be cOnfiscat-
ed and all the titles IN the State unset
tied IN the carrying out of this contract.
Even the cemeteries were to be invaded
and the sacred repOse Of the dead dis
turbed by the greed of John McEnery
and his employees. None of these dire
events have occurred, nor are they like
ly to occur; but such inflammatory dis
cussions of questions which demand just
and judicial consideration are to be de-
preciated as misleading to the public
and injurious to the Democratic party.
The charge that, under this contract,
there has been an over-issue of scrip is
more serious, aud should receive that
judicial or legislative investigation
which it certainly will receive on the
assembling of the next Legislature,
elected fresh from the people and when
all the facts, pro and con, may be
brought out and made public. But this
wrong, if, indeed, the wrong has been
done, must be laid at the door of the
contractor, aud not at the door of a
Democratic administration. In like
manner any abuses perpetrated by the
PA CT Of kha I orl nA1no coot 1p,
his head, since it appears that so soon
as the Governor was made acquainted
with the fact that that official head sub
stituted scrip for cash sent him with
which to enter land, he requested him
to resign. There is no law prohibiting
the transactions in which the Register
engaged, but nonsthelsss such practices
have in the past, and will always, in
the future, lead to gross abuses, and
they should be condemned and prohih-
tied, and the present. Governor appears
to have taken this view of the mat
ter.
We believe that these are the two
specific abuses or wrongs charged to
have been committed under this act and
contract. The responsibility for nei-
ther can be fixed npon the Democratic
party, OF upon q Democratic admins
tration. AS for the act itself, some of
the best aud purest men in the State,
fully acquainted, as we have shown,
with it's scope and purport, yot. d for
and made it law. Indeed, the sup
porters of the bill, many of them, were
Democrats way back yohder, when, to
be a Democrat in Louisiana, was to be
of prescribed class-when our esteem
ed neighbor, the Picdyuae, under its
present propristorship, though differ
ent editorial management, was doubt
fol quantity in Louisiana politics, and
though it was the richest and most
widely circulated journal in the South,
the Democrats who fought out the battle
and finally Wrssted the State from ths
thieves, usurpers and negroes, who CON
trolled it, found it necessary to raise
money and establish Democratic jour
nal to assist them in their apparently
hopeless struggle. We do not believe
that these men gave their votes for an
infamous and corrupt measure; they
may have made q mistake, but they
did not commit crime against the peo-
pie.
For the effect of tue denunciations OF
| the Picayane and other joarnals on the
political fortunes of individuals we care
nothing. We are supporting neither
Gov. McEnery nor Gov. Nichols, moi
any of the other parties whose names
have been brought forward fol- the
gubernatorial succession. We are fol
the Democratic. party alone, for the
preservation of its unity and the domi
nation of its principles in both the Fed
eral and State Governments. We fol
lew no man except in so far as he is the
standard bearer of the Democratic par.
ty, and we vindicate no mans record
except in 80 far as that record touches
/ the fair fame of the Democratic party.
| NoTE.-The above article was pre-
pared for the press yesterday afternoon
In the Times Democrat this morning
we find an editorial covering substan
TALLY the same ground.
i