The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1885-01-10
DnstaraIy Isepublscans.


Washington Post.
Since the election of President
Cleveland the Republicans of the
Blaine stamp have been devoting theiI
energies to two points. They have
been trying to persuade mill owners
to shut down and turn their hands
adrift, and have been predicting all
sorts of prosecutions and suffering for
the negroes of the Southern States.
Fred Douglas thinks the return of the
Democracy to power means "the po-
litical death of the negro" Other
less intelligent Republicans are foolish
enough to assert that it is the first
step towards the re-establishment Of
slavery.
1t is evidently the wish of some
Republicans to disturb the peace and
damage the business interests Of the
country as much as possible for the
purpose of discroditing the Demo
cracy. That was the object Of the
long delay in admitting defeat, These
disappointed politicians are indiffer-
ent as to the injury they may infict
on business or individuals so long as
they can make it appear that disturb
ance and distress result from Demo
cratic success. ...
Manufacturers will soon find that
an honest Democratic policy is far
better for them than the unhealthy
favoritism of Republcanism for which
they have had to pay very dearly. As
to the colored citizens Of the South,
whose rights are entirely safe under
the Constitution, no greater blessing
could have befallen them than the
overthrow of the Republican party.
Designing persons have taught them
that they had some great advantage
to expect from the Administration at
Washington of which the Democrats
at home deprived them, and this has
served to keep them restless and dis
satisfied With this deception ex-
ploded they will settle down to the
consideration of their real interest and
the intelligent exercise of their politi-
cal rights.
Democracy seeks to make people
enlightened and happy. 1t raises the
oppressed, instructs the ignorant and
protects the weak. Democracy would
not have conferred the franchise sud.
denly on millions of negroes sunk in
ignorance, but since they have been
invested with the privilege Of citizens,
Democracy seeks to make them capa-
BILE oc using them inteIIigently.
The negroes only study their own
good when they resist the attempt of
the Republicans to hold them as po-
litical chattels and vote as their own
judgment dictates. The interests of
the citizens of State are identical,
whether their skins are black or white,
and it is quite natural where ma
jority of the whites are Democratic a
majority of the oolored citizens should
be the same.
Four years of Democratic pule will
dispel all the Illusions raised BY parti-
san unscrupulousness for political
effect. The South will be "solid" in
the future, because Ignorance will
gradually disappear and the negroes
will learn that the white residents of
their own States have naturally more
regard for their interests and are more
honestly concerned for their prosperi
ty than Republican partissns, who
only enfranohised them because they |
believed they could use them for their
own purposes, and who, to-day, if they
could, would reduce them to condi-
tion of political serVitude only little
leas degrading than the bondage from
which they were released by the war.