Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-01-09
Address OF the Louisiana Committee
to the People Of the United States.
W.surNcroN necenaher

The louisiana Committee have issued an
address to the people of the United States,
| who, they believe, are not unconcerned spec
| tators of the events now transpiripg within
| the limits of that State, and to which, it is
| probable, no parallel can be found in histo-
| ry. The Committee repel as utterly false
the insinuation that they are mere allies and
| agents of Governor Warmoth. They are
| not representatives of any personal Or party
| interest whatever. So far as Warmoth's
| past conduct is concerned, lew, II any or
| them, have not been among his pronounced
| opponents; while in those measures for
which he has been most loudly denounced,
he had for advisers, associates, and coadju-
| tors the very men who now assail him, in
Guiding, especially, Pinchbeck, Antoine,
and others, whose names figure most con-
splcuously in these proceedings. The Com
nittee declare, in reply to another insinua-
ton, that they are not parties to and have
no knowledge of any POLITICAL trickery in
| tended to defeat the true voice of the peo-
pie; that they do not believe any such ex
listed, and that they would not be here I'M
less they could proclaim conscientiously
their conviction, that the men who have
been foisted into the offices of the State have
been not merely irregularly and unlawfully
installed, but were not elected by the PEG
pie, and were not and are not the choice Of
the majority Of the voting population Of
Louisiana. The Committee add that all
they have asked of the Government is to
make candid and impartial investigation
OF the facts: and then they proceed to give
detailed statement of all the facts connected
with the election, including the various in
functions by Courts, and with the organiza-
ton of the partial Legislature which i'm
peached Governor Warmoth and placed
Pinchbeck in his stead.
Steps having been taken, say the Commit
tee, by Governor Warmoth to secure a revis
ion by the Supreme Court of the United
States of the chancery orders of the United
States Circuit Court, this body forthwith
adopted resolutions to dismiss these proceed
ings. The militia was placed under com
mand of General Longstrcet, ard the
arsenals taken possession of by the
aid of the United States army. A civil
revolution was accomplished within a
month, under the orders of Chanccry
Court, in suits over which the Court had no
jurisdiction at all. The Circuit Court of the
United States is Court of limited jurisdic-
ton, and without any authority to enter into
civil suits between citizens of the same
State unless the case arises directly under
the Constitution and laws of the United
States, and jurisdiction is vested by act of
Congress. Congress has no power to confer
jurisdiction in any other case between such
citizens. 1t has no authority to give juris
diction over a suit Of a citizen of the State
against the State. Under the act Of Con
gress of 1870, upon a single condition of
facts, a citizen Of State may maintain a
suit for an office of a State within the
Courts of the United States, but the State
Legislature is specially exempted from the
operations of this act, in the same clause
that excerpts members of Congress and Pres
idential Electors. The organization of the
Legislature is by chancery order. Had there
been resistance to the execution of their or
dcrs, and riot and bloodshed had followed,
upon whom would have fallen the RESPONSE
bility ? By whose f0rbearance was it that q
%
as a scandal to the land Il sometimes hap
pens that the Executive Department is toll
Grated, excused or justified in acts of admin
istration which exceed their legal powers
The arguments derived from the terms
of State necessary, public welfare, or con-
veniencc have here soothing influence, but
Judiciary action is not entitled to any bene
tit from snch arguments. The damage
which ensucs from the employment of judi
ciary power TO accomplish other than judicial
acts of administration cannot be calcu-
lated, and it is impossible to Justify Court
in determining that to be legal which is
merely desirable, or that to be right which is
only profitable. The order in the Kellogg
case was er pGrte il was placed in the hands
of the Marshal without notice to the parties.
1t proceeds for an alleged contempt by no
legal procedure usual in matters of this
sort, and VIC not aware of any imminence
OF danger to the public peace, which justi-
ies the seizure Of the State Capitol, in a
chancery cause in the suit between Kellog5
and Canvassing Board, a suit professedly
brought TO perpetuate testimony. The case
of Antoine displays with more dstinctness
than that Of Kellogg the use that has been
made of judicial sorders to accomplish the
results of which the judiary had no cogniz-
ance. Antoine was candidate for Lieuten-
ant-Goverror, and was entitled to his office
in January next, had he been eleced. With
disputed title, month in advance he fled
this bill and obtained the order We have
cited, placing under an interdict the Gov
ernor, Secretary of State, the members elect
of both branches Of the General Assembly,
all Boards and officers and men of the police,
the members of the two Canvasssing Boards
and upon this er parte order the organizas
ton of the General Assembly was regulated
and directed
Since the meeting in New Orleans, under
which the Committee was appointed, we have
been met with the suggestion that these
orders and acts are facts accomplished, and
that their revocation or recession would not
restore the Stdt,t quo, and that our com
plants, therefore, are unreasonable. If this
opinion we have be correct, such condition
ought not to affect our action or conduct
When the King Of Great Britain established
arbitrarily government in one of the colo
MES, the remaining colonies took alarm lest
it might serve as precedent as well as an
instrument to establish such governments
elsewhere. Besides, men are less patient
under wrongful orders and acts of Judiciary
tribunal than even Of violence from other
sources OF aVt lorty. A government which
rests for its organization upon an illegal
Judicial order, executed by a Marshal with
companies of soldiers, does not command as
much respect or authority as if judicial
appendages had been dispensed with, and
the army had set up a government with
strong and Vsurping hand.
The Committee take the liberty to say
that they have had no connection with these
suits as parties or attorneys. Neither do
they claim any Of the offices in dispute.
They have not heretofore been confined in
controversies among political classes, which
have endangered the peace of, and brought
scandal upon, the State. They affirm that,
during the last four years, there has not
been good government in Louisiana.
There has been extravaganza, prodigality,
dishonesty and waste in the public expendi-
lures. The public debt has been enormous
ly increased with but little corresponding
benefit. The credit of the State has been
given to specializing corporations for per-
sonal aims. The taxes on property have
assumed such proportions that they might
be called rents paid by proprietors to the
State for its occupation and use. The
taxes upon business Cypress the commercial
and laboring classes. The laws to
control elections, corporations, and public
institutions stimulate these excuses of
office holders, and the consequence is de-
preston and discomfort. The State needs
an honest, faithful and responsible govern
and not to enrich its members or perpetuate
their power. There was an earnest effort to
obtain such government at the last election.
We affirm without fear of contradiction