Year: 1876

Duties and Wants Of the Hsur.
EDITOR REPUBLICAN,:


At this particular juncture would pre-
sumo to say q word through your widely
read columns in behalf of the general vel
fare; and, considering my long personal
acquaintance and familiarity with the con-
dition and wants of Louisiana and of
the entire South, l trust this Will not
be deemed amiss or out of place.


Then allow ms to say that, in my opinion,
the first great duty of Louisiana and Of the
entire South is to harmonic and unity
with the nation-become in unison and har-
mony with all the other States of the
Union in the common contest for power,
wealth and gre atness. Let the whole South
at once acknowledge that our system OF
government was finally shaped and estab-
lished upon the idea of nationality,
rather than upon the plan of
confederacy: was shaped and estab-
lished in the recognition of the absolute
necessity of q central, if not centralized
power, supreme on all leading questions
concerning human liberty and the great
ness and duty of government, such as the
vindlcation Of the flag of the common coun-
try and the sovereignty of citizenship, and
not upon the abstract and destructive
theory of an impetent and irresponsible
agency, composed of delegated or loaned
powers from q community of sovereign
States or separate nationalities. This lat
ter dogma has cost the American people an
immense amount of blood and treasure
which might we'll have been avoided, and
still breeds strife and blood, and ruin,
wherever asserted or attempted to be vim
dicated and ever will; while the former
theory of our government has become, as it
was evidently intended by the wisest and
most patriotic and far-seeing Of the earlier
American statesmen and heroes. our chief
glory, as it is our chief, if not only, safety.


In my opinion, the most that the South
wants-all that she mainly needs-is to at
once fall into this great and grand idea of
government, and reap her share of the COM
mon reward hich must await the continued
vindication of our matchless and invincible
nationality. Indeed, this idea of American
government must continue to triumph, or
all our greatness as people, and all our
liberty and safety as individuals must soon
pass away and settle down into the chaos
of anarchy and perpetual prosecutions for
local differences of opinion.


Then l would say, in all candor and
earnestnese, let all personal and sectional
hate and spite be buried forever, for the
common good and the common safety, and
let the dead past os error and wrong be per
mitted to bury itself in the tomb of forgive
ness and, if possible, eternal forgetfulness.


And let us here in Louisiana, in our pres
ent Legislature, proceed to legislate for the
common good of the whole people, and not
stop to clamor and bicker in the interest Of
and cliques. We want no more strifes and
no more hates, but we want and need, as
great State in this great Union, harmony
and love, in the interest of that prosperity
to which we are entitled, and prepared by
nature to realize and forever foster, but
which has so long been neglected in the in
terest of both party and personal hate.
Will the Democrats in the present Legs
lature meet the Republicans in this spirit
and for this purpose, and will the Repub-
see.


But most of all, what the South does not
want-what Louisiana especially neither
wants, needle, nor with any degree of safety
can tolerate, is q renewed political leader
ship OF self-resurrected fossils and dry
bones, carping in the interest Of long and
persistent, but now defunct claim to the
mean right to rule or ruin-a claim which
the live and now ruling masses of the fertile
and ever truly conservative State should
exhibition of which lingering and pre-
sumptuous claim was lamentably, but none
the less laughably exhibited on the occasion
of recent mixed and smothered political
convention in the city of New Orleans.


And again, the South does not need
does not want-nor especially does Louisi-
ana either need or want any fresh importa-
tions of strife and confusion, to keep alive
hates and animosities which must ever be
detrimental to the common welfare. Let
our newspaper press become truly con-
servative, as it has been gradually tending
for the past two years; to the end that it
may truly conserve the interests of the
whole people.


l claim that when q party ceases to
conserve, or even attempt to conserve, the
best interest of the entire masses; ceases to
shape its policy, or even attempt to shape
its policy for the greatest good of the great
est number, it should no longer be trusted
by people claiming the right and capacity
of q proper self-government. And for this
reason the ultra Democracy of this country
has been put out of power, and for this rea-
son should be forever kept out of power.
The best good Of Louisiana, and Of the en-
tire South, and the entire Union, requires
this; as it requires alec that the corrupt
and scheuing elements of the Republican
party throughout the land should be kept
in the background.


w. JASPER BLACKBURN.


January 8, 1876.


Whose soul is go dead, or whose heart 80
debased, that glass of good old wine, such
as is imported by Paul Gelpi g. Brother,
does not enliven and elevate9 ''Dry Yer
zenav" pops good cheer into your yerv