The Opelousas courier., 1896-06-06

The Election cf McEne1Y.
N. o. TimcS-DemOcrat.

The senatorial struggle is over. Sam.
uel Douglas McEnery, Louisana's ia.
vorite son, tho stalwart champion Ol
Democracy, a man among men, has
| been chosen to represent Louisiana i'll
| the United States Senate.
| 1twas a memorable contest, and in low
ering his colOrs to McEnery Mr..
Denegre may justly feel that he
has been defeated not 10y the
States administration, whose own
candidate they had driven from the
field, not by IL make believe Democrat,
to whom principles are nothing and
Office aud the spoils of Office everything,
but by Il gentleman W Tho in every
critical emergency since the civil war
has been true to his party. true to his
State and true to his own conyic-
tions of right.
which to the unthinking may seem to
be victory for the State adniDistra-
ton, is to it really a scathing rebuke
and an overwhelming defeat. When
the State administration gathered to-
gether its forces after the most disas-
irons campaign in the history of the
Democratic party in this State it found
itself confronted by an opposition SO
strong and determined that it was ut
terly unable to carry out the prear-
ranged programme of electing MIR.
Blanchard to the Senate. Every ruse
known to political strategy, every in
tiuence that could be brought to bear,
all the patronage ut the disposal of the
Governor, all the persuasive promises
that could be made were unequal to the
task of saving the administration from
crushing defeat at the hands of the
Citizens League of New Orleans. The
situation grew from bad to worse, from
disorder to panic, until Tuesday last
when 66 ballots were cast for Denegre-
the administration stood face to face
with defeat.
In the midst of confusion, worse cop-
founded, it suddenly occurred to Gov.
Foster and his friends, like an inspira-
ton from heaven, that there was one
man in the State to whom they might
turn for salvation. Standing aghast
aud despairing in the very shadow of
defeat, some one whispered the name
of Samuel Douglas McEnery. AS a
drowning man wildly clutches at a
straw, so did the feeble hands of
sinking administration stretch ont in
implOration to the one man who might
yet pluck victory from the very jaws of
defeat aud save them from a humiia-
ton which would have been iutoler-
able.
There was no time to be lost; min
utes were hours, and hours were ages.
AS Caesar, battling with the muddy I'll
ber, sang out, Help me Cassius, or |
sink,' so Foster, in this critical mo-
ment of his fate, implored assistance
from McEnery.
Truly does the whirligig OF time in
evitabIy bring his rcveDges. Think of
it, people OF Louisiana, Murphy j. Fos-
ter appealing to Samuel Douglas Nc
Emery. The man for whom a great
wrong was perpetrated in 1899 appealing
to the victim OF that wrong for assist
ance. And in the grand magnanimity
91-bis soul, McEnery, sinking every per-
abnal feeling and resentment, seeing
tnly, as he regarded it, tho danger to
the Democratic party, ressHnded, as he
ever responded to what he Iaieved to
be the call Of duty aud of patriotism.
His appearance upon the battlefield of
Baton Rouge changed at once q routed
army to a victorious host.
Let it be UNDERSTOOD, once for all,
McEnery was not the nominee of the
State administration he was not the
choice OF the State administration he
had nothing in common with the ad-
of Foster, as far apart from him in his
political views as the poles themselves.
The one is bimetalist, the other a
goldbug; the one a white supremacist
above all things, while the other aban-
doned white supremacy for office.
McEnery's was the one clarion voice
that throughout the late campaign rang
out in eloquent demand that the prin-
ciples of the party and platform be ad-
f,ered to. He was the one Democrat on
the hustings in all that turbulent and
exciting time with the courage of his
convictions, He preferred to see the
banner of the party trail in the dust of
defeat rather than that the immortal
principles upon which Democracy is
founded should be sacrificed for office
or to crafty the personal ambitions of
the candidates of the party. No, he was
not the choice of the administration, he
was the necessity of the situation, the
one man whose personal magnetism and
whose personal popularity, founded on
irrepl Oachabe honesty aud unswerv-
able patriotism, could be depended upon
to rally sufficient support to save the
day.
The State administration will never
theless claim the election of McEnery
as victory for itself, but there is one
picture which will not be readily ef-
faced from the memory of the Demo-
Gratis of this State, the picture of Muir
phy j. Foster pleading with the ear
nestness of.despair to Samuel Douglas
McEnery to "save from annihilation
the party" which he himself had we'll
nigh wrecked.