The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1868-07-25
The Senators from Louisiana.
THEIR FUTURE COURSE

The telegraph informs us that Messrs.
". ?. Kellogg and j. S. Harris have
been "seated" as Senators from Louisi-
n in the United States Congress.
We presume that there is now no
means whereby they can be unseated,
and we breathe somewhat more freely.
These gentlemen have been elected un-
der circumstances which place no respon-
sibility upon Democrats for the course
they may hereafter pursue but it may
as we'll be said here, that to the election
Of these gentlemen the Democrats con-
tributed most materially in the only
way which has been found of much avail
with this Legislature.
A very common and useful, but not
very admirable or lovely domestic ami
NAL, is well known for his very great ill.,
disposition to be either led Or driven.
But if any one who understands that
animal will attempt to drive or pull him
in the direction in which he should not
60, he will inevitably resist, and 60
where you wish that he should. So the
Democrats, knowing the impossibility
of electing one oftheir faith, apprehend-
ing that men might be elected, whose
course in Congress would always be
Radical in the extreme, finding that
there was great dissatisfaction with the
caucus nomination Of Judge Kellogg,
and hat it might be overthrow, gave
it such opposition, as secured it the
most unanimous and well clenched sup
port Of the majority.
Judge Kellogg is doubtless a Repub-
lican, but he is exceedingly conservative
in. his tendencies, and has carefully kept
aloof from the whirlpool of politics which
has drawn SO many into its vortex du-
ring the past year or two, in which he
has been in our State. There was good
excuse for this, in the fact that he was
a Federal officer; but he was an excep-
ton in this respect, in both modesty and
moderation, if such were the cause of it.
There was better excuse in that he had
not yet announced himself to be a citi-
zen Of Louisiana, whatever might have
been his intention as regards a change
of domicil. Yet We prespnfa the real
reason was that he felt no such ardent
partisanship for the Republican side that
he should shout forth its slogan.
With Mr.. Harris there was less &C.
q%uaintance but all that was known of
him was favorable to a very moderate
course on his part. During the first part
Of his residence in Concordia, which be-
gan during the war, he was known as a
sympathiser with the distresses of the
beleaguered "rebels," if not with their
cause. The "aid and comfort" he gave
was not, indeed, to the rebellion, as such,
but it greatly assisted those who were
suffering from the necessities which non
intercourse, decreed by the Federal au-
thorities imposed upon them. When,
after the war, people began to divide in
to parties, his moderate views caused
him to be regarded as a Democrat, un-
til, when the reconstruction laws having
passed Congress, he announced himself
Republican, and as such was elected,
n. to the convention, and then to the
81 Senate, and in those bodies proved
be the mild ind moss temperate
kepublis kgh representing a
B%Rstrict i9 Eaters were almost
Ase gentlemen the
e6Te all the partisans
Eomising Radicals as Du-
rant and nand such violent new
lights as McMiffe4 Lee. into a hol-
low square of resistahts@ the Demo-
cratic skirmishers, who threatened them
with divisions, the Democratic party can
not fail to look hopefully forward to the
future course Of Messrs Kellogg and
Harris as Senators from Louisiana.
1t is now altogether probable that at
the election which is to take place in
November next, the Democratic party
will, by the united voice of its white Pc
pulation, and of a moiety of its colored,
resume its sway over the State, despite
the fact that, by the legerdemain of the
past, its Legislature "A State officers,
with many of these in the parishes, will
be for a while in the hands Of their enc
mics.