St. Landry Democrat

Among the most comical sights that is now being presented to our gaze are the antics of these would-be reformers who are vilifying and condemning the munificent revenue offer made to the State, to educate her children, take care of her insane, build her levees, pay her debt and keep in a state of thorough cleanliness the great metropolis of the South, and particularly amusing does it seem when you hear these fearful anathemas fall from the lips of men who themselves patronize the most immoral walks of life, and yet propose to fight this revenue issue on the ground of immorality. Who are these men? Are they angels or saints that they should suddenly raise up their hands in such holy horror and denounce with so much pretended virtue the proposition to Save our State. Follow some of them in their private walks of life and you will soon find out who they are.

We would ask them whether they patronize coffee houses, whether they drink whiskey, whether they play cards and whether they are pure in other respects, and then we would ask them by what right they assume to tell our people what is pure and what is moral. Do they raise their voices in opposition to the licenses imposed upon drinking houses, in consequence of which the greatest evil known to the world is allowed to stalk in brazen effrontery in our very midst, corrupting the morals, debauching the lives and ruining the hopes of thousands and thousands of our people. Do these reformers wish to discard the revenue arising from this source? They care not to close the doors of these promoters of vice and corruption, on the ground of morality but they raise their crested heads and loudly and lustily denounce the offer of revenue which has been submitted to the people by our last Legislature. Consistency thou art a jewel: and these immaculate men should at least wash their hands before raising their self-constituted banners to lead a people of a great and glorious commonwealth.

They pretend to have two great, and as they contend insurmountable arguments to present to the pros: 1st they say the pros will have too much money to spend, and while they admit that in every election that has ever been had the expenditure of money is a necessary consequence, they complain bitterly now because they fear that in a financial light, they may be at a great disadvantage. Let them, then, either put up or hush up. If it is their misfortune to be poor and always on the ragged edge, they are indeed a poor set to engineer the revenue department of this State. Let cooler councils prevail and wiser minds take hold of this matter, and with a truce to this pretended sentiment deal with this question as a serious and advantageous business proposition upon the acceptance of which depends the future welfare and happiness of our State. None but a darkened intellect, unable either to see or appreciate his country's good can fail to perceive the blessings in store for Louisiana by accepting this generous offer.
What is the cause of two-thirds of the crime that is now rampant in our State? It is the darkness of ignorance that is shutting out the light of knowledge in the rising generation, and preventing them from discriminating between right and wrong, and causing them to fail to understand the obligations of humanity, or the dictates of reason. A blacker cloud could not hover over a State, a sadder condition of things could not exist than the blinding ignorance which now prevails among the masses, and, yet, when a helping hand is offered to remove this cloud and to relieve this suffering, these reformers with political ends in view, and bent on grinding their political axes and on endeavoring to make capital on any subject that may arise, raise their saintly voices and beseech the people not to accept this offer. They seem to think that it is better to let the ignorant grow up in ignorance, to let the falling school houses tumble to the ground, and the half paid teachers seek other and greener pastures than to see the banner of Education planted in the bosom of our State, bringing in its train all the untold blessings arising from the uplifting of the human mind from the darkness of ignorance into the plenitude of knowledge and power. Beware of such men, they are enemies to our State, they are wanting in progress and they should not be trusted in the management of her affairs.
This same class of humanity without a single feeling of kindness or sympathy for that unfortunate class of people whose minds are lost, refuse to accept timely and sufficient aid to relieve the troubles of those poor people whose lives are gradually ebbing away amidst the greatest suffering and distress. They also spurn the offer to pay a pension to our Confederate veterans who bravely offered their lives and, in many instances, lost their limbs in battling for their country's rights. Moved by a like spirit of opposition to all progress they do not want the State debt paid, or the levees built, or the city of New Orleans kept in a cleanly condition, because they say it would be immoral.

If that be immorality we would ask, where is its sting? If it is immoral to accept an offer that places our State in a rapid line of progress and places within her reach so many countless advantages, then, indeed, the significance of the word has lost its meaning and we do not understand its import. These people are obstructionists of the deepest dye, and will ever raise their voices to defeat progress, to keep back civilization and pursuing a rule or ruin policy, will move around like evil spirits, striving to inoculate their venom wherever they can.

We are grateful to know that within the borders of our State there are brave and patriotic men, men who control when emergencies come, who will see that the vote to amend will receive the dispassionate attention of our people and will be voted on without fear, favor or affection. These blatant politicians who are threatening bloodshed and seeking to make this issue a pretext to cause disorder and, perhaps, strife, will find that, when the time comes, they will have but few followers among reasonable men, and they will shrink back into the obscurity from which they came, unwept, unknown and unsung.