Year: 1872

ST. FRANCISYILLE, LOUISIANA,


We pondered seriously over the
qustion, what idea you meant to con-
vey by your words, and could find
no other setlse than the above. But
as regards the good you intended by
those insults, we are utterly incapa-
bic to comprehend you must sup
port our feeble intellect with your
gigantic sagacity, and admirable So
gacity that penetrates eighteen CEN
turies in onegrand flight of thought.
We were thinking you intended to
caution the world against the dan
gers lurking before every door, that
a race so apt to stone prophets and
! cruelty redeemers might one day
abuse all the liberties being granted
to them, fall back into their histori-
cal disposition, and again stone the
prhphets and cruelty redeemers. No
danger, sir. AS long as men like
you shape Or at least express public
opinion, as long as the scepter is in
your hands, no prophets will be
stoned and no redeemers cruci6ed,
not only because there will be none,
but also OH account of your sublime
regard for civil and religious liberty
which, do you not sec (?) is evident
ly and conclusively demonstrated by
the slander you hurled at the Jews
merely from religious Or rather ire
ligious motives. Hence that could
not be your intention.


Then we WIRE thinking, you spoke
these words for the sake of acquir-
ing historical celebrity, as having
been the first Senator of this great
republic, from the days Of indepen-
dence to the time of the Republican
regime, the very first Senator who
thus far forgot his own duty and
dignity, to say nothing Of the impor-
tance Of the place, yes, the first Sen
ator who dared publicly and official
ly to insult his own fellow-citizens,
his own constituents, his next door
neighbors-to insult tribe, a peo-
pie who for many dark centuries had
suffered under the weight Of preju-
dices, superstitions, fanaticism, igno-
rance, and just now, as it were, re-
wives from q lcug sleep, approaches
again the family Of man who abused
it shamefully, to be rep1lsed again
by the frigid scorn of Mr.. Wilson,
But, sir, although you are the first
Senator of the United States who
assumed the role of Haman or Rob-
crt Inglis, still you have not attained
historical celebrity, but Il lamentable
notoriety, and this certainly could
not have been the cause prompting





you to so small piece of abuse.


Then we thought you might have
done it for the sake Of effect. We
do not recollect to have seen your
name very prominently before the
public in any work Of literature, art
or science, or even in the politicnl
literature of the day. You snatched
we thought, after some popular
phrase to excite laughter as you can
not produce admiration. In some
places it is fashionable to ridicule
the Irishman, laugh at the Dutch.
man, cast out a hint or kick against
the Catholics. In the society in
which you moved it may be quite
popular to cast a slur on the Jew
and so for the sake of effect you
made an innocent joke in the Senate
Chamber of the United States.


If this was your motive, you made
a mistake, in the first place, because
we can assure you, the American
people despise such small sentiments
if uttered by rude stump speaker
in some country tavern !; but If ut
; tered by q Senator in the Senate
Chamber, every heart that beats to-
liberty and equality revolts against
so impertincnt a misrepresentation
of American sentiment and Ameri'