St. Landry democrat., 1890-05-31
The Louisiana State Lottery,

le Or this subject the hue and cry is still
corruption rein on every hand an
among all classes of the people, TIL
company has been in existence IL
4 about 81 years and in active operatiu
il under the sanctions of law.
II 1t Its cOrrupting tendency and in
!. fiuence be one-tenth part 50 great as il
!. antagOnlzers would have the peopI
v now believe, we are utterly at q loss t
= understand what morals, what purit
a are left amOug the people to make sue
:. IL fuss about.
1t what they urge with such yche
influence Of the lottery, it is not possIbl
that there can be any morality left. WI,
ls 1t that the next twenty five yea1s o
Its proposed existence will be 50 dis
+ astrous, 1t 1t be not equally true that the
. hrst tWenty-One years have already in
, Jected It's leprosy into the morals of the
, people?
The press, so far as it antagonizcs Mr.
Morris proposition, and the speakers
who so cOnspicuousIy pose as oracles
endowed with prophetic vision, assume
that they are purer and wiser than the
people. They plainly show them un-
Willingness to trust them so far as to let
them speak for themselves. One paper
says, the people have already spoken.
They have already declared the lottery
TO he IL gambling scheme of diaboIlcaI
features and attributes, and that having
spoken, they need not be heard again
Well, we may not be up in logic, but it
does appear to us, ii this be sound rea-
sonlng, the Constitution of 1912 should
never have been changed. The Olixl-
nal Constitution of the United StaIes
should never have been amended, In
botf instances the people had spoken.
ana they were not entitled to any sun
sequent expression of their will, If, sucl,
tantarOnade be sound reason.
We are very ignorant, indeed, cou-
cerning what constitutes democracy. if
1t means that the people should not be
trusted with the ugnL aud power of
volclng what they wish just as often as
they like.
Who are Governors aud Legislators
out representatives - servants of the
people! On what meats do they feed,
When placed IN office, that make them
better, safer. purer, less corruptaLle and
wiser than their creators? Placed there
to represent the people, does it become
them to say they rW not trust them, be-
cause they tedr their lack Of discretion
AMI morality! Such is not our demo-
cracy. This ls the peoples government,
ana II they see proper 10 Charter IA
Devils home office, aud pledge hlm the
protection of laws made by themselves.
they have the right and the Inherent
power to do it. But whether they have.
or not, thelr representatives certainly
nave no rlght-no power to say to them,
when as people, they propose to exer-
else their rIguU Of sovereignty, thus far |
mayst thou go and no farther.
W,th the people, is founded on their uiU
good of the whole, deriving its iust
powers from the consent of the gor.
ernedr '0
They are the judges of what is good,
or not good, for themselves; they deio-
gate power to their representatives.
anu, OF course, they can withdraw il
whenever IN their sovereign CAPACITY,
they sec tit to do so. They consent or
decline to consent to whatever affects
thems elves as body polite. In 1875
they elected Governor Nichols. lie
was lnaugurated in due form in the tiIst
lays Of January, \. d. 1877. He au-
pointed bis Supreme Court Judges aud
many other officers. He was elected
or term of four years, but, in 1879.
he people, exercising their Inherent ana
ndeleasl0ie sovereignty, changed their
tate CONSTITUTION, thus REMOVING the
'liiar "iiich supported the government,
'hd all the pride and pomp of power
no pfefogatlve Vanlshed Into nothing
less, aud an entirely new edifice- arose
ut Ut the will and consent of ihe neos
lie, with but one fragment of the nre-
xlstIng government left iu it, and that
'as Burke,
lhe neople have the right to speak for
themselves on the lottery ouesfi"n ,ia
Governor, and his supporters of What.
'er positlon have no instructions which
iey may not withdraw.
LII eiectlnS him and them to office NJ,
ehsors were created aud no servants
lth ah lrfevocable sovereign prer0ea.
We OF dispensing or Withholding snVer-
gn rights from the penple.
Ii the influence of the lottery has pot
ready corrupted them, what is il that
'ouses such dreadful apprehensjons s as
its future effects on their morals
aklng dispassionate view of the nro.
'sltlon made by Mr.. Morris, We incIine
the bellef that the people are as in l..
rruptloie as their representatives. Ie
liae tney are sgfer repositories of
Wer. Ihese Mentors seem not to
ecelVe that, whilst they would alarm En
=: people 10y depicting the power
nicn tue lottery company might WELD,
ey are themselves assuming az mnch
themselves. A'" @
All the stir being made is, in our
lnion, ill-timed, for it will be time
ough to caution and advise the nen-
when they are called upon to vote
the question. All of the noise now -
sde ls addressed to their representa- {
'es, as though they, of right, should -
ny the people the right to speak on
subject for themselves through the
Hot box. We think they should de- II
le the question for themselves. and erl
1t their representatives have no right Si'
power to decide it for them.