The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1903-03-05
THE "BOSSIER BANNER y

Last Thursday the Bossier
Banner entered upon its forty
second year. But, the Banner is
nearly four years older-the first
number being issued on July 1,
1859. The paper suspended pub
LEGATION for about three years dur
ing the War of Secession. There
are but few papers in this State
now that were in existence when
the Banner was started, and many
of the citizens of our noble State
and Parish have also passed away
since then. AS we look back
through these long years we see
few faces of those pleasant and
happy days-most of them have
gone to their final rest. Those
that we knew in our youth, when
we started the Banner, have grown
to maturity and some of them feel
the weight of years, life ourself.
A new generation has come for
ward, and they read the Banner
as did their fathers before them.
Thus, the Banner has filled the
field of journalism in Bossier for
the past generation, and is doing
SO for the present generation
And we hope to so continue for
many years to come.
When the Bossier Banner was
started in July, 1859, this Parish
and State enjoyed a height of
prosperity never before reached
in their history. The country was
on the eve of a Civil War, and, in
afew years, prosperity had chang
cd to poverty, desolation, ruined
homes, and a land once blessed
with peace and plenty was chang
ed to one of mourning. And then
followed an oppressive and tyran-
nical military government, unpar-
alleled in its brutality and corrup-
ton in the history of civilization,
and perhaps unparalleled in the
Dark Ages. The Banner was
born in this bright era of prosper
ity-on the eve before the night
of Civil War, and the dark days
of oppression that followed. It
took the stand that the South had
the right to secede from a Union
which had violated its compact
for, when one party violates an
agreement, it ceases. It held that
the State is supreme-the Union
was formed by the States, and
they had the same right to dis
solve it; and that the right of a
State to secede had never been
abandoned by the States.
Most of the men of those ex-
citing days have passed away,
and to the young generation of
this Parish, the acts of their
fathers have passed into local
history. The Banner Witnessed
these political scenes on the eve
of the war; it Witnessed the de-
parture of Bossier's gallant sons
for the front, and whose names
were printed in its columns; and
when the Banner resumed publ
cation after the end of the war, it
witnessed the so-ealled ssrecon-
.struction", or rather, the political
prescription and robbery Of our
people. And when our long night
of gloom ended, by the united
action of our people, a ray of
light and prosperity penetrated
the darkness, and the people have
continued to prosper. The Ban
ner, in its long career, has wit
messed all of these-sunshine,
adversely, and again sunshine
and has ever advocated what we
understood to be the best inter-
ests of the people of this Parish
and State. 1t will SO continue to
do, and we hope to continue to
receive the patronage and conf
dence of the people of the present,
as we have in the past.
Chvo,voy.or& husIoo ool1oo%:ooo