The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-08-20
THE ELECTION LAW.
Condemned by Business Men in All Sec
lions of the Country.

! condemned by Business Men in All Sec
lions of the Country.
AS q general rule, we think that bust
ness journals should not interfere in
partisan politics, but there are political
measures which are so Intimately :a,so-
| ciatcd with the welfare of the whole
country that it becomes the duty OF
I every business man to speak out and let
himself be heard upon them.
At Appomattox General Grant said to
General Lee: 'Tell your men to take
their horses home with them to help
them make their crops" and afterward
uttered the immortal words: "Let US
have peace"
The people of the South accepted their
defeat in good part, and went earnestly
| to work to retrieve their fortunes, with
result which las challenged the adj
miration of the world; but just as the
! New South is emerging from its darn
ness, with it's labor contented and its
resources developing by union of
Southern effort and Northern capital,
certain politicians, actuated by the
same spirit which General Grant re-
buked, now come forward and for parti-
san purposes seek again to stir up strife
between the North and the South by
proposing what is popularity known as
"the force bill" a Federal election law
which Lincoln, Grant and Gar field, the
great leaders of the Republican party,
if alive to-day, would unhesitatingly
condemn, and which every fair-minded
man must pronounce as unwise as it is
unnecessary. Even intelligent colored
men are already found protesting against
it as sure to result in detriment to their
race.
The conditions at the South are such
that until the colored people have grown
in intelligence, liberation and virtue,
the white race must necessarily be the
dominant race. Northern Republicans,
who visit the South and see for them
selves, admit this. The property of the
South i, being taxed to educate the col
ored people, and in time they will rise
to the responsibilities and duties of cit
izenship; but to attempt to employ bay
onets in regulating elections in a Repub-
lican country 4 quarter of a century af-
ter the war, is a step backward that "the
common sense of most" will not indorse,
and that the dominant party will find to
be as bad policy from Republican party
point of view, as it is untimely and un-
just.
Among the first to condemn it will be
the men in blue, who fought against the
men in gray, and who sympathize more
with the sentiments of their great lead
or than they do with those who seek to
speak for the Republican party to-day.
At any rate, it is time for the business
men of the United States to protest in
the name of the country welfare against
such legislation as the force bill, and
that they aeW protest earnestly and Wig
orously the leaders of the Republican
party will find out in 1892, if the.r do
not before. American Grocer.
Senator Allison for good while
has been getting ready to strike an at
tractive attitude as tariff reformer OF
parts, but Mr.. Secretary Blaine now APP
pears to have raised the Iowa statesman
out of the game. Perhaps it is begin
ming to dawn on the bland gentleman
from Dubuque that delays are danger.
puS.-Chicago News