The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-12-03
DEMOCRACY'S TRIUMPH.
The Peoples Protest Against Spoliatio
MiSruip and Tyranny.

The Peoples Protest Against Spoliation,
NIisruie and Tyranny.
The people have spoken. Little is
wanting to add emphasis to the express
sion of their will. The earthquake voice
of discomfort with the dominant party
was followed by the tidal wave which
swept away that party's majority in the
popular branch Of Congress.
The issue of these elections has sig
niticance which reaches far beyond party
lines. 1t is triumph of popular gov
eminent 1t is new vindication of
Democratic rule, not in the mere parti-
san sense of the term, but in the
broader meaning of Government by
the people and for the people. Thepeo
pie have demonstrated again their
capacity to protect themselves from the
seltishness of individual greed and the
madness of party spirit.
Never, perhaps, in our political an
nails has there been surer, swifter or
moro striking popular condemnation
of the delinquoncies of political
leadership In spite of the sophis-
tries with which the Republican
leaders sought to befog the issue,
in spite of the countless misstate-
ments by which the Republican press
has tried to mislead the uniformed,
the people knew that the KcKinley bill
was an utterly indefensible measure,
viewed from whatever standpoint they
might select They preceived clearly
hot ~ 1f +ho
necessaries of lite and added to the
burdens which they had cheerfully
borne when there was need, but which
they wished to lay down when the ne
cessity was past. They saw with a
clearness that no specious fallacics
could obscure that there was no public
reason for these new impositions. They
could not fail to see, and they
did see, that this measure WAS
but the payment of a political debt
which Quay and others had contracted.
and for the payment of which they had
assumed, without authority, to lay a
mortgage upon the property of the peo-
pic OF the United States and to put in
pledge the future earnings of labor.
Against this colossal nsurpation, this
autocratic assumption, this arrogant
and insupportable tyranny, the freemen
of America revolted, and they knew
how to make thatrevolt etfectual. They
spoke their will in words plain enough
and terms loud enough to exclude all
i disability of mistake
The new tariff law was provocation
enough for popular uprising, but there
was something more. Behind the giant
spoliation stalked the sinister spccter
of force. The Lodge election bill was a
menace to the tranquility of the coun-
try, a needless menace, gratuitous
disturbance, an insolent defiance of
public sentiment, born of political reck-
lessness and boundless greed of power.
When we say it was defiance of pub
lie sentiment, we speak advisedly, for
the country wants peace. We have had
enough of hate, enough of recrimina-
ton, enough of strife evoked and fos-
tered to smooth some ones path to the
honors of place and the emoluments Of
Office. The people of the different sec
tons need rest from strife and dis
turbance. that they may learn to know
one another better, to do justice to the
sterling qualities that are found among
the inhabitants OF every division of this
magnificent country, and to join their
endeavors to build up the waste places,
and vie with each other along the path
way of development and progress. 1t
is to destiny such as this, it IS to
achievements of this kind, that the vic
tories OF the 4th instant unerringly
point; and it is to this spirit that we hail
them as harbingers of hope, as cheer
ing and auspicions omens, not merely
for tho Democratic party, but also for
all the people of the grandess Republic
beneath the heavens. Cour-
ier-Journal.