The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1896-12-26

II they could have better officials and
ptrer elections by DISTINGUISHING me,
then I hay patriotism would make me
submit In TIT mad rush Of politics, IN
tke greed for Office and power. many
have LOST sight Of purity Of honor and
manhood. I have no respect for any
man who would 60 into Office when he
Anew fraud got him in there. He Is as
mean IS the corrupt gang who put him
IN. as a rule. Most men have a moral
conscience, but few men have political
conscience. Anything to beat Grant
has been translated to read anything
to beat my opponent and get the Office
for myself" II is a notorious saying
low that good men do not seek for Office
so much; that they are not willing to
enter into the dirty scramble for it. It
IS a sad day when virtue and manhood
dare not enter a race because the UNI
scrupulous rascal can pull his wires and
work his heelers and defeat an oppon-
emit who is his superiorin every sense.
I know we have good men in every
legislature in tsis union. know if they
will fight for the right with the tire
less energy and lndefatigable effort
with which the evil men in the legisla
lures engineer their schemes and push
their ballots they will conquer; for
right is might. Right h%assnever losta
battle where it had q champion equal
to the emergency. And at last this
differentiates a statesman from a
politician. Clay was q statesman. He
could rise to an emergency for the
right. Abraham Lincoln was a states
man. He met every emergency when
right met wrong in his career. To be
q Law maker and q law-breaker both at
the same time is the acme Of meanness
and the last retreat of q rascal. There
are not enough Of the ex-membersofthe
legislatures of this country in the peni-
tertiary, / dare. believe. When look
over the pages of history and see how
men who champion the right loved
their country moro than they loved
their own official positions l see what a
benedictfon they were to their day and
generation, and / feel their influence for
good though they may have been dead
a thousand years. Their lives were a
blessing and their death a public
calamity. And then when look over the
same pages Of history and see how lit
tleness and has had its re-
ward in peridy here and in damnation
hereafter, / say it pays to do right be-
cause It is right. It is bankruptcy for
both worlds to do wrong. Congress
itself needs more moral character and
more moral backbone. Every legisla-
ture in the United States needs more
moral backbone and less ~iack-assical
iaw-bone. When men go into office
through fraud and ~rascality and then
while the legislature IS in session the
liquor dealers Of the capitol city keep
their rooms at the hotel or Boarding.
houses supplied witha variety Of wines
and whisky and cigars, that sort Of a
little rascal is ready for anyldiEy work
man or devil wants done; and ! don't
see what the devil himself could do with
such fellows unless perchance he has a
soap factory in hell; and then I don't
see what he could have to deodorize
i their carcaase with.
AuhaI to every pure, upright man IN
congress- or in the legislature Of any
state! If there be any other sort in the
legislatures or congress thedevil will get
them, but thank God he won't get
much. SAM p. JONES.