The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1866-08-16
Miscellaneous.
From the Cincinnati Gazette.
MIR. JOhnsOn's Policy i'm Louis
lima.

President Johnson's course in Louisiana
illustrates his pretensions as defender Of
State Rights, and shows the character of
his repeated declarations that the late Con-
federate States are reconstructed, and are
exercising all the functions, and possessed
of all the rights, of States ofthe Union, and
especially that the United States Govern
mcnt cannot interfere in their State affairs.
Upon the intelligence that the Conven-
ton of 1864 had assembled under the call
of Governor Wells, he issued the following
order:
WASHINGTON, Monday, July 80, 1866.
TO Andre,O $. Heron, Attorney General Of
Louisiana.
You will call on Gen. Sheridan, or who
ever NAV be in command for sufficient
force TO sustain the civil authorities in sup
pressing all illegal or unlawful assemblies
who usurp or assume to exercise any pow
er or authority without first having obtain
ed the consent of the people of the State.
If Chere is to be a convention, let it DO
composed of delegates chosen from the peo-
pie of the whole State.
The people must be first consulted-no
changing the organized laws of the State.
Usurpation will not be tolerated.
The law and the Constitution must DO
sustained and thereby peace and order.
ANDREW JOHNSON.
This order superseded the Governor of
the State, i'm fact, and made this Heron,
pardoned rebel director, with the military
force under his command.
If Louisiana is a State of the Union, by
what authority does President Johnson set
aside her Governor and set up a military
directory2 If Louisiana is in state of
peace, as he has officially declared, by what
authority does he say that the people shall
not assemble? If this Convention had no
| legal authority, it could do nothing. So
| long as it committed no overt act in viola
| ton of law. it was peaceable assembly,
entitled to the protection of the civil au-
thorities. And when the civil authorities
failed to protect the members from riotous
violence it was the duty of the United
Estates military authority to furnish that
lprotection.
According to his own repeated affirmc-
| tions of the status of Louisiana, Mr. john
son has committed a ilagrant usurpation.
And he did it in such time and manner
as to set on the bloody mob to the murder
of the members and friends of the Conven-
ton, and to encourage the Mayor of tho
city in his rebellion against the State au-
thority, and his cooperation in the massa-
ere. - ....
BY what authority does President John
son declare convention of delegates of tho
people of Louisiana, or convention of any
body, an ''illegal and unlawful assembly,"
and order it to be suppressed or arrested
by military force? BY what right does he
say that any convention must first obtain
the consent of the people, and, having pre-
determined that it has not obtained such
consent, order it to be arrested by military
| force?
The constitutional right of the people
peaceably to assemble to deliberate upon
their affairs, is subject to no such limita-
tions. Anybody has the right to assemble
| in time of peace, and to take any style
they see fit. They have the right to pass
whatever proceedings they please, and to
call them by whatever name. They have
the right to make whatever declarations
they please and to submit them to tho
people. If they have no legal authority,
their acts are simply void. When they un-
dertake to enforce illegal acts, then they
break the law; then, and not till then, has
any authority the right to interfere, and
then only to bring them to trial. ...e
| What kind of n State to be represented
| in Congress- is Louisiana, where President
johnson forbids the people to assemble in
convention, and where, at a word, he su-
persedes the State Government? Are we
| to have Congress controlled by members
from States where Mr.. Johnson takes tho
|
who shall and who shall not assemble in
convention? Is this the reconstruction
policy that Mr.. johnson commends?
Mr.. Johnson has in this matter been
guilty of outrageous usupation. He has
shown that the reconstructed States and
Constitution are mere subjects to his caprice
and his hatred of loyal men. He has done
this act in the face of warning that the reb-
el elements were combining for an attack
upon the Convention. Instead of ordering
the military to support the State Govern
ment in protecting the Convention from
violence. he ordered it to supersede the
State authority, and thus give immunity
To the murderous mob The blood of the
slain is upon his hands. And this is ag-
gravated by course which plainly shows
that his policy regards the rebel States as
reconstructed only for hostile purposes, and
as mere provinces under his military pow
ler, in case of their control by the loyal.