New Orleans Republican

A RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT

By its own judgment the Democrat is
convicted of being meaner than if it
boldly and unblushingly told a falsehood

And what is the most unenviable feature
in this judgment is that it applies with
equal force to the party that it does to the
paper. Last week the Democrat directly
affirmed that ten thousand of the Chinese
would be introduced to supplant the
negroes if they did not mend their political
conduct. Being caught at this game
of bluff, the Democrat now denies it; but
with a singular disregard of its own denial,
the editor repeats the threat in the
very next column:

If the colored people are so infatuated
with their professed friends, the Red Radicals,
they cannot see that while they are inducing
them to quit the plantations and
other fields of industry to attend political
meetings, they are importing Chinamen to
supply their places, they deserve the fate
that is in store for them. The result will be
that colored laborers will soon seek in vain
for employment, unless they quit politics.

What can be plainer than the condemnation
the editor writes of himself? He
has denied our statement of his position,
and before he can give his denial publicity,
his hatred of the negro overcomes
him to that extent that, even while professing
the utmost devotion to the colored
people, he exultantly threatens them with
the Chinese if they do not quit politics

This was what the Republican charged
the Democrat with saying. We protested
against the threat as unjust and ungenerous.
We denounced it as impolitic.

Since the negro is a citizen, accepted and
counted as such by the Democrat and the
Democratic State Central Committee, he
has as much right to attend to politics as
the editor of the Democrat has. Strictly
considered, he has more, for he is shrewd
enough to vote for the party that promotes
his interest. If the Democrat was
at all honest in its avowal of
friendship for the colored people, it
would see at once that all this demand
upon them to go to work and quit politics
is hollow and heartless, for there are
more lazy white men afloat in the South
than there are negroes. And if it was
sensible it would see still further that
when it threatens to flood Louisiana with
ten thousand Chinamen, it utters a more
terrible promise of disaster against the
poor white people than it does against
the colored race. And if the body of the
Democratic party had the same amount
of principle that it has of prejudice, its
members would see at once that the importation
of Chinese coolies is of far more
consequence than any other project now
promoted by the Democracy. And they
could soon satisfy themselves what party
it was and is that favors the introduction
of this class of cheap laborers. Just talk
a minute with the Democrats around you:
just read the Democratic organs, and see
and hear if they are not in favor of Chinese
labor. Only for the Republican party
we should have had thousands of Coolies
here already. And even as it is, Koopmanschap
declares that he has orders on
his books for two hundred and fifty thousand,
to be delivered in the Southern
States within the next year. Every paragraph
that contains a piece of news of this
character is picked up and published in
the Democratic papers with infinite satisfaction.

It is the balm to all their wounds.
It is the hope of laziness. It is Democratic
release from negro labor. It is the
vengeance of society. Even the Democrat,
while printing its hypocrisy, can not repress
its exultation at the prospect that
the few Chinamen who are coming will be
sufficient to keep the colored people away
from the polls. We submit that the organ
of the Democracy had better get a
consistent editor, or a new foreman. If
it changes the player, then the tune may
be consistent; if it swaps off its printer,
we shall not have these false notes coming
out together.