The Opelousas courier., 1894-06-23

Baton Rouge, June 12.-Capt. Thomas
Scott Adams has issued the following
racy letter to the Alliance, under date
of to-day, on ballot reform
Notwithstanding years and bad
health invite ME to repose. With
pleasant anticipations [ look forward to
the day when | may lay aside official
duties and cares retire to the quietude
of my farm and spend the remaining
years God ~vouchsafes in the bosom of
my devoted family. The just, the
generous, will indulge my pardonable
pride in the past achievements of the
old Alliance and the abiding hope l
entertain for its future glory. For this
end l now make this appeal. You may
yet leave a monument to your posterity
worthy Of your tradition wherefore |
counsel unity of action in a supreme
effort to save our common country.
Unite on the broad and liberal basis
of ballot reform.
Needless it were to recount the causes
that imperiously urge you to this step.
Consider present conditions. The late
civil war not only cost thousands of
%chivalrous lives and millions Of money,
but also left in it's wake the corrupting
effects of reconstruction. 1t debaucbed
politics it created the political tricks
ter, the ward hummer ; it put a premium
on deceit and treachery !; it emphasized
the baneful lesson that a mans success
was measured not by his ability mol his
integrity, MOI his devotion to the inter-
ests of the people, but by his cunningly
devised mbinations, and applauds
him for successful jobbery. 1t has been
even thought to have battered the
sacred ermine Of justice for political
power, and it is teaching u children a
degrading lesson that their liberties are
to be perpetuated by fraud:
For all these evils which are open,
gross and palpable, the good people OF
the State are responsible because they
We must return to the primal principles
of republican government and permit
the people to elect, by intelligent ballot,
their entire officers par0chial, State and
national, or patience will cease to be
a viEsue, and free government will be
jeopardized, if not lost in revolution.
You must destroy the corrupt election
machinery Of the State, and the pa
ternal appointing power, or they will
destroy you.
Against this theory a subsidized press
and servile politicians will declaim, be-
cause these retainers know, like Othello,
their occupation will be gone. "No
longer may they crook the pregnant
hinges of the knee that thrift may fol-
low fawning."
Pardon personal ailusions when | say
l speak advisedly of the corrupt politi-
cal methods of the State, since l have
been its victim. But silently wearing
the iron in my soul, / am comforted
with the thought that l shall leave to
my children the untarnished legacy
that l sacrificed my ambition rather
than sacrifice what | conceived to be
the honor of my State. We are not yet
so lost to a sense of honor that intelli-
gence fails to remember, and patriotism
to appreciate, the noble example Of
Washington, who having all, renounc-
ed ALL to ave his country.
Let the old members Of the Alliance
heed my warning, and not forget that
it is now within their power to organize
on a high plane the strongest party in
the State, a party composed Of the best
elements Of citizenship a party of lib
eral views; honest in purpose and
founded on the eternal principles Of
justice /; a party Of home rule and ballot
reform. Fraternally yours,
T. S. ADAMS.