St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1884-08-09
The Legislature.
Minden Democrat.

The Clarion, published at BaSCrop.
seems inclined to ridicule the idea that
that the present Legislature is in any
| way corrupt, and makes the RustOn Ca
ligraph the subject of its attack for hav-
ing condemned the Legislature as being
the very synonym of rottenness.
Can paper, representing as lntelll-
gent constituency as the clarion feign
| ignorance to the proceedings. OF the
| Legislature, or pretend that their ac-
| tions were in accordance with Its (Ihe
| Clarion's) views of what was right and
Just while during the late campaign,
no paper in North Louisiana was more
| loud in it's denunciations OF the Lottery,
and the penitentiary lease, and other
concomitant evils, than "the Clarion
Does not the Clarion remember that the
abolishing of the penitentiary lease and
| the lotteries was embodied in resOlu-
| tiOn passed by the Democratic Conven-
! tion at Baton Rouge, and was consider
ed as one of the main objects, or the
principle plank in the platform OF the
State Democracy When a Democrat
| ic Legislature was elected, it was ex-
pected that they would conform with
the platform of their party, whether 1t
conceded with their individual views
or not, this they did not do, but on the
contrary, they did everything that
world cause blush of shame to tinge
the cheek of every honest democrat of
the State. We do not condemn all
alike, but when we speak. of the legis-
lature, we mean the majority of it.
If the Clarion cannot condemn the
| legislature as iniqnitOus on the ground
that it prefers to condemn them singly,
and they to be pointed out by some 9TH
er Editor who is better posted than
himself. We will venture to give our
opinion as to those who should be con.
demned. Those who voted in favor of
the Penitentiary lease; those who vo-
ted against the Sunday law those who
voted against License on drinking
houses those voted against Fosters
railroad bill, which was to compel rail-
roads to settle at point of delivery, for
over charges, lost freights, &C., and
several other bills that had they passed,
would have been to the benefit of the
entire State, that would have served TO
chow the moral and intellectual ad-
vancement of the people of Louisiana;
The question that must be decided
is, are legislators elected to reflect the
sentiment of their constituents and car
ry out the dictatiOns OF the party to
which they b elong or are they expect
ed to go into the Legislative Halls to
be influenced by the arguments of more
gifted members who have probably
some pecuDiary interest at stake, and
will work assiduously for the accom-
plishment of their particular aims ! Can
the Clarion say it is not in favor of bills
above enumerated? (? Can it say that the
members who vote against them had
the welfare of the State in sight We
do not think so, as it is hardly probable
that that journal is pleased with the
proceedings of the present Legislature:
We do not raise the cry of Ringal and
Bosses but we think that enough OF
the present legislators are either re-
formed Radicals, elected to encourage
them for their adherence to the Demo-
cratic party or corrupt and unscrupu-
laus politicians, to combine with the
republican vote to defeat any project
for the good of the whole State that
may conflict with their individual de-
sires, that are advocated by the purer
members, who have the interest of their
constituents and the dictations of the
party to govern their actions.