The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-07-01
THE STATE CONSTITUTION REPUDIArED.

in the State legislature have placed them
selves, by importing the test oath in the Or
ganization of the two houses, is simply scan
dalous. The effect of this proceeding is to
unseat the minority members for the time
being and to deprive their constituencies of
representation for an indefinite period. And
the motive of it is to be found in its effect
as We purpose to show. The radical major
ity profess to regard the new Constitution,
since its ratification, as the organic law of
the State. They practically recognize it as
such by organizing @ quorum of the Senate
and a quorum of the House, according to
distinctions which are prescribed in it, and it
only They take for the Senate the presiding
| officer provided by the Constitution; and in
the House they exercise the privileges con-
ferred by the same instrument in regard to
choosing chairman, secretary and other
officers. But here they stop. Here they re-
/ ject the obligation of the charter by which
| they hold their Legislative tenure, if they have
any; and exact qualifications for membership
utterly foreign to that charter, and altogether
! different from the qualifications which it ex-
plicitly and precisely specifies. They do this
under no compulsion, physical or moral.
| The enormity is perfectly hagitious in being
perfectly voluntary. There is no power to
compel them to set aside or suspend any part
of the Constitution from which alone they
derive legislative existence, if they are legis-
lators, except the United States military au-
thority; and by this authority they are earn
estly advised to apply this Constitution in its
integrity and TO impose upon members no
other oath than that which it prescribes.
This advice they spurn. Think Of it These
Legislators of Louisiana-so-called-wil not,
unless compelled, vindicate the dignity and
independence of State Legislature by taking
the State Constitution as the charter of its
existence and its prerogatives. To be
sure, they point to the reconstruction acts,
and say that civil supremacy in Louisiana is
still in allegiance until'the fourteenth amend
ment has been ratified by its legislature and
its senators and representatives have been
admitted into Congress. But it is not their
business to adjudge or to execute these acts.
They are not called to perform judicial, ex-
ecutive, or military functions. Their legiti-
mate capacity, if they have any, is that of
State legislators, and the supreme law for
their guidance is the Constitution of the
State. Nothing can excuse them from con-
forming in every particular to the require
ments of this Constitution, except the CO.
ercion of exterior and superior force. But in
this case, as already remarked, no force of
this sort is applied. On the contrary, the
sole power by which such force could be
exerted, not only abstains in an express man.
ner from using it, but interposes all the weight
of its moral suasion to induce these men to
follow the mandates of the Constitution of
the State which they pretend to representand
serve as a constitutional Legislature.
What may be expected of this radical ma
jority in the General Assembly, when their
first act is to pack the two Houses, by means
ofan unconstitutional oath, for purposes trans
parently partisan, selfish and proscriptive?
If they repudiate the constitutional guarantees
of the rights of the minority now, they will
certainly not hesitate hereafter to break
through, if they can, any restraints of the
Constitution which may stand in the way of
their designs. But in what attitude are they
placed by the step which they have already
taken in this direction? The Constitution is
not divisible. 1t must exist as a whole or
not at all. If the sanction or the prohibition
of one part is good for nothing, the prohibi-
ton and sanction of every other part is good
for nothing. There is no act Of Congress,
there is no military order, constituting
hOJx
find no sufficient sanction for sitting and
transacting business in that capacity else
where than in this same State Constitu-
ton by one of the most vital provi-
sions of which they refuse to abide.
This knocks the bottom from under
them as an assemblage claiming to be the
legislature of Louisiana By their own act
they are outside of the Constitution of the
State, and are estopped from referring to it as
the source of their legislative validity and
vitality. Having, then, repGdiated the sane
ton of that instrument, and being without
sufficient sanction elsewhere, what are they
Simply pack of petty usurpers, who have
imprudently seized and are bent on unscrup-
ulously using the halls and insignia of State
legislation for their own aggrandizement Let
no one suppose that they really wish to be rid
of the supreme presence of the United States
military authority whose advice in the matter
Of the test oath they have so insolently re-
jected. Still more cowardly than insolent
they tremble at the thought of the final
restoration of State affairs to the Consti-
tuition, and laws, and people of the State;
and it will be for them day of terror,
and bitterness, and despair, when the mill
tary interference of the central government
against which they are so ready to protest
when it distur5s their selfish schemes, is per-
manently withdrawn, and they can no longer
play fantastic tricks in the hollow of its ex-
tended hand.
10 these times of stagnstion OF trade it is truly
refreshing to meet with gentleman who has the