LOUISIANA. 



477 



colored elements to bitter political and commercial 

 proscription; and as abundant evidence is to be 

 found in the tone of the press and in speeches that 

 the sole object of the Democrats and Keforiners is a 

 political overthrow, and to this end they are subor- 

 dinating the presidential and other questions: 

 therefore 



.Resolved, That in order to save the State from 

 Democratic rule and to perpetuate free government, 

 it is highly important that all Kepublican elements 

 in the State should be united upon a ticket to be 

 composed of true and tried Kepublicans, and to se- 

 cure this end we recognize and tolerate existing dif- 

 ferences of opinion upon material affairs. 



Resolved, That we condemn the action of the Fed- 

 eral officials in this State in attempting, through ar- 

 bitrary and illegal exercise of power, to interfere 

 with the right of the people to peaceably assemble ; 

 to overturn our State government, and through 

 combinations with our political enemies to over- 

 throw the Kepublican party. 



Resolved. That we recognize in Governor War- 

 moth an officer who has combined with an efficient 

 discharge of public duties an unimpeachable fidelity 

 to the principles and the policy of the party by 

 which he was elevated to his high position ; that to 

 him the Kepublican party largely owes whatever of 

 credit may be its due for and the fulfilment of those 

 obligations which it assumed toward the people of 

 the State in carrying out the principles of justice and 

 equality, which are the basis of its organization; 

 that the public owe to him chiefly the preservation 

 and maintenance of public order, in spite of perils 

 which were surmounted only by the exercise of ex- 

 traordinary wisdom, courage, and discretion ; that 

 with his powerful conspiration the State may hope 

 for a deliverance from many evils, the existence of 

 which cannot be disputed, and the continuance of 

 which would be disgraceful to the Kepublican party ; 

 and that he is our first choice for the office of ^ Gov- 

 ernor at the next election, that we present him as 

 our candidate, and urge all other Kepublican organi- 

 zations to indorse and support him. 



Resolved, That in our honored fellow-citizen, 

 Lieutenant-Governor Pinchback ; we have a valuable 

 and manly leader in the Kepublican party, one who 

 can be trusted in the future with its interests as he 

 has been in the past, and that we indorse him and 

 declare him to be our first choice for Lieutenant- 

 Governor, and we present him as our candidate, and 

 urge all other Kepublican organizations to indorse 

 and support him. 



Resolved, That all true Kepublicans are devoutly 

 desirous of averting the dangers which beset their 

 party, and of reuniting that party for a common 

 purpose : therefore 



Resolved, That when this convention adjourn, it 

 does so to meet at Baton Kouge on the 19th of June 

 next, or at such other time "or place as may here- 

 after be indicated by the State Central Committee, 

 for the purpose of making an effort to assure a union 

 of all Republicans. 



Governor Warmoth declined to be the can- 

 didate of the party represented in this conven- 

 tion, in a letter in which he says : 



It now appears to be the intention of the majority 

 of the members of the convention, on its reassem- 

 bling at Baton Kouge, to attempt an alliance with 

 the custom-house party, which is to meet at that 

 place on the same day, for the purpose of reuniting 

 with those whom I consider the most dangerous 

 enemies of the country and the State, with the arro- 

 gant, dictatorial, and corrupt Administration of Gen- 

 eral Grant, and with the party which, under the 

 leadership of his followers and agents, would subject 

 this State to a continuance of a rule of ignorance, 

 venality, and corruption, unparalleled in the history 

 of any other community. The success of General 

 Grant at the ensuing presidential election would be 



a calamity such as cannot be contemplated without 

 alarm. It would be the perpetuation, perhaps the 

 permanent establishment of personal government in 

 its worst form. It would be the commencement of 

 imperialism in politics, and the utter and hopeless 

 degradation of political morality. It would be the 

 continuance of an odious executive and legislative 

 tyranny which tramples with equal indifference upon 

 the rights of persons and communities ; which over- 

 turns all the muniments of public liberty, and drags 

 thousands of peaceable citizens to the common jail 

 on a false pretence of secret conspiracy ; which uses 

 the bayonets of its soldiery to overawe a convention 

 of the people, and prostitutes the courts of the coun- 

 try, and the officers of the law, to the service of an 

 audacious attempt to overthrow the government of a 

 State. 



It was in order to avert these evils, and to join in 

 the general protest against these infamous acts, as 

 well as to save this State from the further depreda- 

 tions of the ring of Federal officials who have per- 

 sistently used their personal and political power to 

 suborn and corrupt the Legislature, that 1 went to 

 Cincinnati and participated in the nomination of 

 Greeley and Brown. It is with the view of assisting 

 to prevent the triumph in this State of a party whose 

 success would fill the Legislature with the repre- 

 sentatives of organized ignorance and unblushing ve- 

 nality, would cause irreparable injury to our com- 

 merce, would irretrievably ruin our credit, and bring 

 contempt and scorn upon" even the beneficial results 

 of Kepublican policy, and upon the whole scheme of 

 Kepublican reconstruction, that I have resolved to 

 devote all my energies to the service of the Liberal 

 Kepublican party, and the allies who may act with it 

 in this contest. 



The Democratic Convention reassembled in 

 New Orleans on the 3d of June, and the Re- 

 form Convention met in the same city on the 

 following day. The former remained in session 

 six, and the latter five days. There was a deal 

 of discussion in both bodies owing to the con- 

 flicting views of delegates, and the attempts 

 which were made for cooperation . The Demo- 

 cratic Convention appointed delegates to the 

 national gathering at Baltimore, while the 

 reformers declared their purpose to be to con- 

 fine themselves wholly to the interests of the 

 State. In the former body, there was an inti- 

 mation, at first, that certain delegates were in 

 sympathy with Governor "Warmoth, but, if this 

 was true, -they were in a hopeless minority. 

 On the first day of the session, the Democrats 

 appointed a committee of eleven, tb confer 

 with "any similar committee that the Reform 

 party may see fit to appoint, looking to a union 

 with the Democratic party." These overtures 

 were met by the appointment of a smaller com- 

 mittee on the part of the Reform Convention. 



Both conventions received a communication 

 signed by a sub-committee of the "Liberal 

 Republican State Executive Committee of 

 Louisiana," a committee of "the German Lib- 

 eral Republican Committee of Louisiana," and 

 a committee on behalf of "the Executive Com- 

 mittee of the Greeley and Brown mass meet- 

 ing held at the St. Charles Theatre," asking for 

 "an interchange of views in the interest of an 

 ultimate coalition of all elements of political 

 strength of this State, by the nomination of a 

 proper fusion ticket that will restore honesty 

 and intelligence in the administration of State 



