Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-04-18

only irritation in the robbeT. The thing |
is done! What a dullard not to accept |
the situation regular Bourbon, who |
talks of his right to his property, as i'll
he would defeat progress and make the
world stand still. But although progress
with villains is villainy, yet, by expos !
ing this sort of progress, a counter prog !
ress might arise which may sweep away
the villains with their villainy, and
again restore in the government of the
country the ascendancy of Justice and
liberty"
PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS.
To the people Of Louisiana, and all who re-
cognize the principle Of se-f-government
in the people of the states;
The details of the Louisiana case have
been so clearly and aEthoritatiyely set
forth in the report of the senate COM
mittee of the forty-second congress, and
in the able report of the committee OF
two hundred Of this city, that it is not
proposed at this time to do more than
refer TO the leading points in the unpar-
aIleled infamy by which the legal gov
eminent Of this State has been sup
pressed and few political adventures
have been clothed with the semblance
of legitimacy through the all-pOwerful
aid and assistance Of the army of the
United States.
Defeated at the polls, the kellogg can
didates, boasting OF their monopoly of
presidential sympathy, threatened to
carry their case before the United States
courts, also, in their sympathy and in
terest. Their first step was to influence
certain members of the State returning
board, through whom they proposed to
manipulate the election returns in their
own favor. These members, however,
having been found legally incompetent
to act as members of the board, their
positions were filled by citizens not in
the interest of the conspiratOrs, and
they were thus foiled in their first plot
of treachery to the people. The next
step was to bring the case before their
creature, E. H. Durell, judge of the
United States district court, who, in hot
haste, issued his midnight order, from
his bed-chamber, under which the mill
tary forces of the United States marched
through our streets in the darkness of
the night to the capture of the State
capitol. It was under such auspices,
that the "bayonet Legislature" was con-
vened and organized, and it is surpris-
ing therefore that its record has been
one of unparalleled infamy even among
its plundering prototypes o. reconstrue-
ton birth.
All this 1t will be remembered was
before the issue was presented between
the rival candidates for the gubernato-
rial chair and long before the successful
candidate, whoever he might be, was en-
titled to take his seat. Having by these
means overthrown and captured, not
the newly elected State government,
but the government that had been rec
ognized for four years in this State; the
conspirators, still under the protection
of federal bayOnets and the unscrupu-
lous orders of the federal judge, pro-
ceeded to determine the result of State
election for State officers and members
of State legislature, by proceeding in
a federal court under a federal statute
enacted to regulate the election of fed
eral officers. If such a proceeding be
recognized as legal and binding on the
people of this State, il would be difficult
TO conceive of more complete and fatal
method of stilling the voice of
the States, and of prostituting the high
est prerogative of free people to the
base purposes or INSCRIPTIONS ambition
of the leaders of the national admins
tration through its courts and soldiery.
| In the present case the federal executive
at Washington was vigilantly informed
of every step proposed or taken. He
was even advised Of the political COM
plexion and bias of those fragments of
! the State government which it had not
been considered necessary to capture by
federal soldiery or paraly2e by the inter-
Iocutory orders of federal court. Col
lector Casey's dispatch to President
| Grant, of the twelfth OF December,
saved the State supreme court from de-
struction, because, as he explains to the
President, /" the Ss5preDle court is k71OlOn
to be in full sympathy with the Repub-
lican State government"
Little more need be said. Rut one
principle has been recognize by the
| federal authorities at Washington, or
by their representatives in this State
who, as is well known, We're alone the
| instigators and prime mOvers) through
the whole melancholy history, and that
has been, that the Republican party
must be maintained in power without
reference 70 the results Of the election
declared by the votes cast.
, The same fatality therefore atte nded
our appeal to congress. Although the
legal returns and the actual ballOt-bOxes
and ballots were placed before the SEN
ate committee; and although that COM
mittee solemnly find that every step
taken by these conspiratOrs was usurpa-
tory and fraudulent; that the legal cleo
ton of a sovereign State had been sup
pressed or overthrown; the will OF q
Il majority of its people thwarted, and by
arbitrary force delivered into the hands
of the party defeated al the polls; yet,
we are without redress, and find the
usurping power still maintained by
force, and the executive of the nation
still supporting the authors OF this great
crime against the people of this State.
We cannot, however, refrain from the
: simple mention Of later outrage, orig
mating, it is true, in the insolent bra
, vadO of the custOmhOuse party, but only
2 Ventured upon under the measured pro.
+ lection of the United States forces. We
refer TO the capture by the armed me-
, tropolitan forces of the Odd Fellows
, hall, then used under private lease as
, the statehouse of the McEnery gov.
} ernment, and the arrest and incarcera.
/ ton in the police Jail of the speaker Of
T the house and many members of the
legal legislature without affidavit
we cannot believe our fellOw-citizens
of the other States will permit this un.
paralleled outrage on popular rights t.
= remain unrebuked. We DO not think
they will ignore the ruthless ami un.
/, scrnpulous attack upon the essentia
} safeguards of national and State integ
rity. We cannot believe they will per
e NIT State elections, even in the Icon
: auered south, I" to be made the sport ant
prey of the INSCRIPTIONS partisaDs o
Z the national government.
Believing this, and relying on thei
fidelity TO those principles 50 necessar.
e to the perpetuity of the national Union
we resolve and declare,
n First-Although the federal executiv
b has chosen to sustain with the army
Y set of pretenders to State authority i
!. Louisiana, prOnouncing the senate CON
!, mittee of his own party 10 be without
q shadow Of legal title, and continues
0 dictate at the point Of the bayonet, III
government OF a State, in every respeC
!. the political equal of New York or Mass;
/ chusetts, we protest against the use
a military power, and call upon our 81
! STATES 10 witness the exercise In Louis
n ana of an arbitrary power watch ms
A next lie invoked against themselves
4 and We warn them, that when the spar
of resistance shall have been crushe