New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-01-11
LOUISIANA POLITICS DISCUSSED
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS
Federal Officials Condemned

Federal Officials Condemned
| The st. Louis Democrat narrates the pro-
! gress OF affairs, the convening Of the Legis
| lature III extra session, and the election oi
| MIR. Brewster as Speaker, and adds:
| At first the United States officials at New
Orleans were known to sympathize with the
Carter side, and made some militia demon.
stratOns apparently to counteract those of
the Warmoth police and militia But when
it came 70 the pinch, and the latter took the
bold initiative above described, giving the
opposite side the choice of attacking or
backing down, messenger from General
Emory informed Warmoth that the United
States troops would assist tie Governor S
forces, under his Excellency's direction, in
maintaining order. This result was reached
in consequence of dispatches from Wash
ington; and all concerned, which phrase in
cludes the whole country, are to be CON
graduated on the wisdom of these dis
patches. The government at Washington
properly sees that the main thing at present
is to preserve the peace, and it is profoundly
to be desired that this policy will be rigidly
adhered to.
Warmoth holds the reins, Judi.
cial and military; his grasp upon them is
firm, and he draws them skilifully. But the
condition is, nevertheless, one of tull-grown
civil strife, pregnant with deadly peril.
+ Should the intrepid Governor maintain his
advantage, keep the peace, and settle in
law what he has snatched his
success will be something wonderful. The
situation requires the keenest vigilance from
the government at Washington, and prompt
and just decision in whatever emergencies
may arise.
The ant,-Carter journals Of New Orleans,
received since the above was in type, charge
that the arrest, on the fourth, of eighteen
members of the House, was a trick to so re-
duce temporarily the Warmoth strength as
to enable the Carterites to unseat enough
WarmOth men to give themselves perma-
nent control. This statement has a strong
colOring of tr1th. The arrest of legislators,
when about entering upon their duties, is
most extraordinary act, inviting the sever
est scrutiny. Admitting the persons so ar
rested to have been fully entitled as meni-
bers, and that the charge named is true, it
was grossly iniquitous proceeding, and
can not fail to receive the heaviest condem-
nation. 1t would go far toward justifying
the action of the Governor.
The st. Louis Republican has an editorial
on Two Lessons" from which we extract
the following:
The other lesson is given to the people of
every State-if they choose to take it-froIn
the action of United States commissioner
in New Orleans. Whatever may be the
facts regarding the scandalous squabble at
New Orleans between the WarmOthtes and
the Grant or CustomhOuse Radicals, the
constitution and laws of Louisiana, and the
court which acts under them, are doubtless
competent to decide as wisely as any such
petty magistrate as United States commits
sioner, whether otiense against the peace
and dignity of that State has been com
mitted. Should events take such revOlu-
tionary shape that two governments will be
established there, each claiming to be legiti-
mate las happened in Rhode Island on the
occasion of the Dorr rebeilon), the applica
ton of either for aid would place the Presi-
dent of the United States in the predica-
ment of deciding which one he would recog-
nize and support by federal bayopets. Our
federal constitution contemplates that in
such deplorable condition the people of a
State are entitled to a decision of their fate
by no less than the very highest function
ary in the Union, his action 4self being also
subject to revision by Congress as soon as
II assemblies. ?
The st. Louis Republican thus sums up
the result in this State, from information
received up to the fifth instant:
THE NEW OkLEANS BUSINESS.
The Presidential game has been played
too strong in Louisiana, and the result is
that the President is compelled to abandon
his friends there and disavow their conduct.
The Warmoth faction have, through the
madness of the administration party, tri
umphed over the President so completely
that the President himself is forced to take
the side of his victorious enemies. The
federal guns that were brought out to in
timidate the Warmothites have been turned
against the Presidential faction. Speaker
Carter and the administration members of
the Legislature have been thwarted, and
forced to take the attitude of boilers in an
opposition body, and the United States
marshal, Packard, who arrested the Gov
ernor and several members of the LegiS-
lature, is to be called to account for his
lavSessness. The President found it neces-
sary to declare, in q note to Senator West,
that the doings of his marshal are 'eXtra-
ordinary" and that he has ordered an i'll
vestigation.
The President rarely abandons his posi-
ton: but he is compelled to do so in this
case; he backs sguarely out of the Louis
lana quarrel which he kmself provoked.
yields to Warmoth, and promises to punish
the faithful and jealous partisans who have
been fighting his battle. 1t is bitter hui
initiation. but there was no avoidance of it;
the administration adherents had done
their duty with such lawiess and outrageous
fidelity "a to excite the alarm of the cOun-
try, and the President must needs disavOw
their conduct to save himself from being
called to "a stern account by the Republican
opposition in Congress.
The whole transaction is an instructive IL
lustratiOn of the degradation of a civil ser
vice which permits federal officials to pros
titute their authority, violate laws, arrest
State officials, organize mObs and employ
the federal army to serve the personal in
terests of the executive who appointed
them.
The New York Tribune, of Saturday.
says:
Further information from New Orleans
shows some more rapid changes in the stu
alton, and the last mutation seems to leave
Governor Warmoth master of the situation.
The thirty assemblymen who remain with
Carter and the CustomhOuse leaders are
outside the State House, and their barrOom
sessions will lack dignity, to say the least,
The State or WarmotA party has sixty-three
assemblymen, who constitute quorum
with ten to spare, and there are seventeen
Senators meeting from day to day; the
CustomhOuse men and Democrats, on the
other hand. number but forty-two, all told.
Yet this busy faction. aided by federal
patronage, has been able to create a tre-
mendous tumult, and nearly revoluti0nize
the State. There is no doubt as to where
the responsibility for this belongs. The
men who dsgraced the very maine of Re-
publicanism when the State Convention
was broken up last summer, have been per-
mitted to remain and persevere in their in
reference IN State political affairs. War
moths course may bring him penal cOnse-
k,t fI1.c