The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-07-14
CIVIL LAW sUPREME."

IN our people it we'll may De- FOR ainos'
o;,,lt 1ears thew have been strangers to those
indisnensable muniments of right and to
chose healthfiil and benefcent conditions OF
neace and prosperity, which are to be found
only in the subordination Of the military 10
the civil authority, of organized force to Or
eanized reason. They nevertheless may well
experience some difficulty in at once verify
ing the announcement by the facts around
them. 1t is needless to point specifically to
the causes of this difficulty. Let us trust
that they will disappear instantaneously be-
fore the order of General Buchanan pro-
claiming the reinstatement of civil attalrs
upon their legitimate basis. Let us all labor
strenuously to fulfill the generous hopes ex-
pressed by the commanding general in relin-
gushing the supreme control which he has
hitherto exercised in this State.
Assuredly every good citizen will heartily
respond to his desire that an era of good feel
ing and ofmutual forbearance, an era of tran
quill and prosperous days, will be the sequel
to the extraordinary transition which his
order signalizes. Nor will any good citizen
fail to appreciate the imperious expediency
which commands us to so act hereafter as to
demonstrate to the world that it is no fault of
ours if our eyes may not yet behold expand
ing the golden gates of the wished-for era,
and if our feet may not yet touch the smooth
| and shining track which ascends its delecta-
BILE mountains
Gen. Buchanan, in the-most public and
| solemn form, declares that "the provisions
| of the reconstruction acts of Congress cease
to operate in Louisiana from this date;' that
military authority will no longer be exer-
cised under the reconstruction acts in said
State" that this event "restores Louisiana to
her former position among the other States,
and to all her rights under the Constitution
and that hereafter his military subordinates
will not "interfere in civil affairs, unless
upon a proper application by the civil au-
thorities to preserre the peace, or under instruc-
tons duly received from the commanding
general"
Thus we have the explicit, unqualified, and
formal testimony. of the authority charged
with the execution of the reconstruc-
ton acts, that these acts, completely
executed, have expired, and that the
State occupies her former position in the
Union, and is Invested of none of her rights
under the Constitution. The declaration is
of tremendous import. If true as a vital
fact not less than as a constitutional theory,
it is the logical center from which to judge
henceforth, the relations of the State to the
federal government. If Louisiana is really in
the Union on her former footing of equality
under the Constitution, then her people have
the same right in respect to the regulation Of
suffrage, the same right in respect to change
of the organic law, as Massachusetts or New
York, Pennsylvania or Ohio.
And if that is actually her position, interior
ence in her affairs by federal military author
ity is admissible only upon those condi
tons which would render such interference
admissible in the case of the State which ha
been without interruption, and without ques
ton. in the Union. The nature of those con
ditions is indicated in article four, section
four. of the federal Constitution, wherein
is provided that the United States shall pro
tect each State "against invasion, and, o.
application of the legislature, or of tn
| executive when the legislature canno
be oonvinced) against domestic violence.
has always been held that such application
for military aid from the United States mus
a necessarily be addressed to the president q
a ''commander-in-chiefo of the army and navy {
the United States, and of the militia of tn
D several States, when called into the actu'
/ service of the United States" Nobody az
v auainted with constitutional law, and wit
a constitutional precedents, will deny that thes
t deductions flow logically from the importar
: declaration by the commanding general TIN
: this State is in the Union an clothed &C 'or'
Q ingly with all her rights under the constit'
i ton.
n 1t is devoutly to be hoped, however, tn
# no occasion will arise for invoking the int
# ference of the federal military authority, G
/ any condition or under any pretext. o.
V people want peace as an indispensable r
o quisite to prosperity. Unless exactions a
p made upon them which are humanity impo
~ sible, unless burdens are heaped upon the
g. which are humanity insupportable, they wi
not think of rghting even grievous wron
a inequality and injustice, save by peacef