Page:The rising son, or, The antecedents and advancement of the colored race (IA risingsonthe00browrich).pdf/502

 business in his official chair, few men in the country have been his equal.

But the greatest characteristic of this man was his downright honesty. In this he stood almost alone, for while the legislature of Louisiana was charged with being a stock-jobbing concern, and its members, one after another, rolling in their new-gained wealth, Oscar J. Dunn was not only above suspicion, but actually died a poor man.

He was a calm, vigilant sentry for Louisiana when she dreamed it least. Firmly resisting temptations to sin, which too often beset official station, he could never be made an accomplice with others against her. His inflexible integrity was in itself a mighty protest against the shams of the state administration, and commanded such candid respect even from the Democrats, that of late the authors of those shams, in their recourse to Democrats for the fresh lease of power denied them by Republicans, were constrained to revive a prejudice for a pretext, and to charge him with instigating a black man's party. There existed not a fact to justify the charge; but a lie was a fit auxiliary to new projects of fraud, and unhappily, there were "itching palms" to subscribe it per order.

His views were most catholic on the question of class. He wanted amity, not jealousy, between the colors, for he recognized all in the political society as brethren, not as rivals. He felt that injustice to any one citizen, white or black, was, if unredressed, a menace to all; that our interests were in common; our ballots, honestly counted, our common consent; and our influence for good, our common basis of endeavor for Louisiana. His aims for his race were too