"the right given them by the Constitution and bear arms in the defense of their right and their liberty"

Home Rulers Bulldozed.

   After all the boasts and predictions made by the great city dailies and some of the prominent citizens that the Home Rulers would carry New Orleans by a large and a safe majority, come the news that the Regulars, robbed the election, that they bulldozed, intimidated and even kicked the Home voters out of the polls, that they falsified the duplicates and stuffed the boxes and in this way carried the election, and the Home Rulers were left unprotected, and at the mercy and rough handling of the Regulars.

   And during all this time the Mayor and Police of the city who were in sympathy with the Regulars refused to offer any protection to the Home Rulers.

   The Home Rulers had boasted that they would have a fair and honest election, and proclaimed that every voter could come to the polls and cast his vote unmolested, and claimed that to do that they would resort to the right given them by the Constitution and bear arms in the defense of their right and their liberty.

   And yet, while they were being robbed, bulldozed and kicked, they had 175 men armed with guns and a revolvers at the Home Rulers headquarters and these men were not called out to protect the Home Rulers who were being made the victims of so much abuse at the hands of the Regulars.

   The Messenger had predicted just what happened, and unless the Home Rulers had the courage and determination to get their gun, and be at the polls instead of being at Headquarters, and use those guns if necessary. It was ridiculous for them to make so much noise and be run out of the polls without using their guns.

   If the Home Rulers had the courage and the manhood they claimed they had, they should have maintained their right, as they proclaimed, regardless of consequences.

[The Weekly Messenger, St. Martinville, LA., Saturday, November 12, 1904. Vol. XIX. No. 40. Pg. 2]