Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1892-05-12
AN HERCULEAN TASK.
A Review of the LOttery's Over
throw.

complished in this State III the las
two years, and only those who wer,
leading in the struggle are aware o
the tremendous efforts which wer,
necessary to accomplish the result
which has been achieved. People in
other States cannot form even the
faintest idea oft.
! The State was in the grasp of a giant
corporation-one dealing in business
reprobated by the civilized world, but
which had familiarized itself to the
people of Louisiana by sufferance OF
long years. A corporation possessed
of unlimited wealth. with absolutely
no seruples as to how it used it in the
accomplishment of its purposes. A
corporation which cared not for the
opinions of the world, and which was
as careless of the regulations of indi-
viduals as it was of its own. A cOrpO-
ration which had theory that every
man had his price, and which acted
upon that theory. A corporation with
no conscientious scruples, no political
preferences, and apparently no fear of
God, man, nor devil. A corporation
which stole the mantle of charity to
cover its brigand's dress, and which
erected churches in the service of the
devil, and doled out aims as blind to
its robberies.
More than twenty years of power
had made it the master of the people
| 20 such an extent that when few
men, alive to the disgrace which rest
ed upon their State and determined
to wipe it out, took the field against
| it, they were looked upon as fanatics
and fools rushing blindly upon ami
hilation. 1t was weeks before they
could get recruits, and it was months
before people were willing that they
should be publicly known as members
of the Anti-Lottery League. Men
who faced death upon the battlefield
without tremor, and who had led
forlorn hopes with dauntless courage,
spoke in whispers when they discussed
the lottery.
But confident that the right would
prevail in the end, and relying upon
the honesty of the people, and feeling
assured that when they were informed
they would rally to their support, the
men who opened the war upon the
lottery persisted. They believed,
with Lincoln: ''You can fool part of
the people all the time, and all the
people part of the time but you can
not fool all the people all of the
| time."
Strong in this belief, they never
gave an inch. They contested every
foot of the ground with the lottery (;
they fought it in the House of Repre-
sentatiyes; they fought it in the Sen
ate they fought it in the court they
fought it at the primaries they fought
| it at the general election and at last
they won. At every point the lottery
met stubborn resistance. Often it
triumphed and forced back the band
which opposed it by sheer weight OF
numbers but it never routed it. II
found that band in the next parallel
as ready for the fray as it was the first
day it organized always stronger
than it was before. Each day it grew
stronger, for as the people were en-
lightened, they were converted. II
was only necessary for them to know
the facts for them to swear hostility to
the arch-foe of Louisiana and to enlist
| themselves under the banner of its
enemies.
In the contest the lottery was very
| Proteus. In the two years it took a
different shape with every change of
the campaign. 1t first came out as a
lottery, pure and simple, asking for a
recharter as matter of course. Then
it took the shape of a public benefac-
tor, and scattered its largesse with a
liberal hand to the flood sufferers.
| Then it came in the plain guise of a
business man making business prop
osition, having nothing to do with
sentiment and dealing only with a
matter of dollars and cents. Then it
appeared as the sympathizer with the
unfortunate and afflicted, with its soul
wrung with pity for the unfortunate
uneducated children.
Then it took the shape of the cham
pion of true Democracy and white
supremacy, and threw itself between
the people of Louisiana and an imag-
mary danger of negro domination. 1t
constituted itself the ministering
priest of the temple of Democracy,
and offered to sacrifice all of its ene-
mics upon the altar of ssthe will of the
people, Foiled in this, it then Sc
cretly became the friend of alleged
Republicanism, and was the go-be-
tween in the bargain between the ne
gro cohorts of the Leonard faction and
the renegade Democrats who we're
willing to sell their party, their people
and their State for thirty pieces of sill
YER.
But at every turn it was met and
foiled by the anti-lotteryites. No po-
sition seemed so impregnable that
they feared to assault it; no disguise
was so perfect that they did not pen
Ietrate it no subterfuge was SO subtle
| that they did not circumyent and ex,
pose it. They routed it in its at.
tempt to get new charter directly
/ They defeated it in its attempt to geI
control of the Democratic party
They exposed and nullified its com
lpact with the negroes. They pre-
vented it from getting possession o
the Offices of the State. They hay,
crushed and overthrown and destroy
led it.
4 None but those engaged directly ii
the task ever can or Will appreciat,
/ its magnitude. Few can appreciat,
4 its danger. The men who fought th'
lottery fought, as it were, with rope
around their necks they staked al
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