The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-05-31

election has lately been held by the
people for the purpose of selecting
persons to whom shall be intrusted
the management of public affairs
The outgoing authorities, instead of
resisting the change of administra-
ton, are extending to their newly
elected successors every mark of at
tention and courtesy. The transfer
of office, instead of causing turbu.
! lence and disorder, instead of almost
provoking civil war, is accomplished
in peace and harmony. The govern
ment at Washington no longer throws
a disturbing element into our domes-
tic concerns. Confning itself within
the limits fixed by the constitution,
and recognizing the power of each
State to manage its own affairs the
National administration of the pres
ent day in no way, directly or indi-
rectly, obstructs the transaction now
going on. The Federal government
is being constitutionally administer
ed. There is, to day, no fear, alarm
or anxiety lest some dispatch or order
may come from Washington thwart-
ing the will of the people or subvert-
ing their government.
Fellow citizens, [ congratulate you
on this mighty change. I oongratu-
late you on the sure guarantee, typi-
fed by the change, that civil govern
ment, through the peaceful agencies
of the law, is still the heritage of
ourselves and of those who are to
come after US. I congratulate you
and all the people of this mighty
Union that the irritation, jealousies
heartburnings engendered by the
strife of more than a quarter of a
century ago, are dying out, and every
thing gives reasons to our hope that
nevermore will the American Union
be darkened by illegal, unjust and
improper interference of Federal pow
er with the domestic affairs of the
States.
But, fellow citizens, the contrast
between our position in 1877 and that
Of to day does not end here. The
re-establishment of our liberties was
but the beginning of our duty. The
INSCRIPTIONS party which for eight
years had dominated our State had
left its affairs in a deplorable condi-
ton. Our bonded debt had been in
creased to vast proportions. An
enormous floating debt without pro-
visions for its payment confronted us.
! Taxation had been so excessive that
the people had been driven to resist
payment. This, coupled with delin-
quency on the part of the revenue
officers and abstraction of books and
records from the Auditors office by
those who fled from it, left the matter
of revenue collection III a condition
that seemed inextricable.
In the parishes and cities of the
State mis- government, profigacy and
corruption had been the rule, and
placed the local affairs of the people
in the greatest disorder.
In spite of the vast mount of trib-
ute, State, parochial and municipal,
which alien adventurers had wrung
from the people, our credit as State
was very low. Our material interests
had been SO long neglected that they
seemed dead. Our levees were broken
and abandoned, and disastrous over
flows had made a wilderness of vast
bodies of our alluvial lands. Ilnmi-
grafton to our Saate had stopped
Our statute books were burdened
with odious laws, enacted for the op-
preston, spoliation and humiliation
of the people. On every hand were
the fruitful evidences of the ruin
which had been wrought by eight
years of radical Republican rule
To rear again the temple of consti-
tutlonal home government, whose al
tars had been thus desecrated and
whose fair proportions had been
marred and almost destroyed, was the
herculean task which devolyed upon
the Democratic State administration
of 1877, and its successors. 1t was
a task which seemed impossible of
accomplishment, but it was resolute-
ly undertaken and carried on, and
now, after the lapse of eleven years
of Democratic administration we find
a condition Of affairs which gives
great hope and promise for the future.
The credit of the State has steadily
improved and has been established
upon firmer basis. A levee system
has been projected and executed with
admirable zeal and fidelity, and our
alluvial lands are almost redeemed
and secured from floods. Attracted
by the material resources of our State,
immigration is coming into its bor-
ders to assist in the development of
its wealth of forest, mine and field.
Under prudent local administration
the affairs of most of our cities and
parishes have been placed on basis
tending to prosperity. The political
l