The Opelousas courier., 1893-08-05
Elective Police Juries.

ThibodauX Sentinel.
"Taxation without representation "
is to all true Americans o most odious
doctrine, and its actual practice in any
form of government is justly classed as
usurpation. 1t was this species Of usur-
patton, more than any other sort OF OPP
preston by the British Crown, which
led our forefathers to raise the standard
of revolt against the mother country,
and to proclaim their independence
from British rule, and to assert and
maintain that independence with the
sword through Il long and dreadful
war.
From the declaration of Independence
to the present time, taxation without
representation" has always been held
in peculiar adherence by Americans,
and in whatever instances we find that
they have temporarily submitted to it,
it was to avoid what seemed to them
for the time being to be greater evils.
Here in Louisiana we have patiently
submitted for the last fifteen years to
" taxation without representation" in
our parocllial government. For that
time our police juries bave been given
us by the Governor; and while they
have the power TO tax us at Il higher
rate than the Legislature itself, we have
bCtiI VI III L "a pLCIo-
gatiye OF choosing them.
When this ~undemocratic system was
lnaugurated, the people quiescently sub
mltted TO IL AS II means of ayerting
greater evils hen confronting them.
just emerging from the saturnalia of
radical miSrule and the tyranny of the
reconstruction times; 0ur elections still
dominated by federal interference; our
parishes ali deeply plunged into debt,
by irresponsible police juries foisted
upon the people, by the enemies of the
South with many parishes still under
the control Of the ignorant freedmen,
dominated by unprincipled white men;
it was impossible to rescue their parO-
chlal governments from misrule except
by substituting an %appOlntiVe for the
elective system.
The eXpedient proved successful in
accomplishing the ends for which it
was devised, and as long as there was
Il necessity Tor It's existence, the people
quietly submitted to this system which
denied them II of their most sacred
rights. But the necessity which gave
birth to the appointlve system has hap
PLY passed away, and the system itself
should be abolished, and IL return to the
elective, the true American system,
should be had us speedily as possible.
There is no longer any reason to persist
in the %appointive system of Police Ju-
rOrs.
White supremacy has been establish
ed throughout the. State; the Federal
Government no longer lnterfeTes in our
State elections; the Force Bill hassbeen
killed beyond resurrection; the races
are at peace, and thes negro begins to
understand his true position in the spo-
litical economy, and has lived long
enough to realize that his rights are
equally secured under Democratic as
we'll as Republican administrations and,
as a consequence, he has lost his inter
est in politics. The misrule and reign
of spoliation, to avoid which the ap-
pointlve system vas created, are no
longer to be feared in this State, if
p%arOchial home-rule be re-established.
The people know this, and knowing
it, it gals them to see themselves de-
prived of home rule. They are FESTIVE
under the continued deprivation of their
rights, and unless the present legisla-
ture restore them their valued preroga-
tive at its coming session, they will
make themselves heard at the coming
election.
The press can do much by agitating
the matter. toward securing an early re-
turn to the elective system of Police
Juries.
Let the demand be for Il change to
take place at the next general election
do not interfere with the present order
of things.