Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-04-24
THE RUTLAND HERALD
Vermont and Louisiana.

Some days ago, we stated, IN Dfle,
paragraph, that Governor Converse hao
written letter to ''Governor" McEnery
of Louisiana. We thought then' anu
tb;nk now. that Governor Converse had
dome n very foolish thing. The letter,
If we may Judge from the comments OF
the liberal and democratic press, was an
..offlcial' letter. The Springfield Re
Du6lscan, of yesterday, says, and this in
dicates the view taken by the opposition
press
Over a. week ago, we announced that
Governor Converse of Vermont had
written a courteous and sympathetic let
fer to Gov. McEnery of Louisiana. In
this letter he spoke of the deep ana
universal regret among the, people OF
Vermont that $50 noble and valuable
state az Louisiana should be so shaken
and her quiet disturbed and industries
interrupted and embarrassed by intes-
tine eommotion and political animosi-
ties :" and promised to lay the address
of Gov. McEnery and the fusion COM
mittee before his Legislature as soon as
the latter comes together We nope
that this example in well-doing will not
he thrown away on Gov. Washburn.
II IL high time that Massachusetts, began
TO find her old voice again the Buffers
and Hoyts have done all the talking Tor
her quite long enough.
We have not been fortunate enough
to see a copy of the letter, but we take
it that if the Governor has, in any way,
expressed his opinion, as Governor OF
Vermont, that McEnery is the legal,
regular Executive of Louisiana, he has
oyerstepped the bounds of discretion
and the proper discharge of the duties OF
his office. The powers and duties of
Governor of Vermont are laid down,
with clearness and precision, in our con-
stitution We find therein no authority
conferred to decide contested elections
in sister States. He has nothing to say
nor has the Governor of Massachu-
setts-upon the question of who is the
legal Governor of Louisiana. That
power, that authority, that duty is con
ferrcd, by the Constitution of the United
States and the laws of the land, upon
the President. 1t is power, authority
and duty of the President in reference
to which there is and can be no dispute
1t has passed from the number of con-
stitutional and legal questions in refer
ence to which there is doubt. The mat
ter has been iudicially determined. The
President, whether right or wrong, has
recognized Governor Kellogg as the
legal Executive of Louisiana. Politi-
ticians, newspapers and others may con-
tinue to discuss the right and wrong of
the matter, but Kellogg can, alone, be
recognized as the Governor of Louisiana.
In the duty imposed upon the Governor
of Vermont, by the constitution of the
State, ''to correspond with other States,
he can only correspond with Governor
Kellogg, so far as Louisiana is concern
ed. As private citizen, he has right,
of course, to correspond with whom he
pleases, but ''as Governor he cannot
recognize McEnery as Governor. We
presume he has the right to lay Mem
erys address before "his Legislature,
but what good will it do? The Legisla-
ture of Vermont have no power in the
matter, and no duty to perform in refer
ence thereto. If they had, October 1874
would be rather a late date for action.
We do not intend to interfere with Mas
sachusetts legislation, and have no wish
to advise Governor Washburn, but we
will venture to say that he knows the
duties of his Office too well to recognize
McEnery, except as a private citizen.
There is and has been no necessity for
either Governor Converse or Governor
Washburn to meddle officially, with
Louisiana affairs. 1t is a matter, entire
ly beyond their jurisdiction and over
which they have no control. They
would do well to attend to their official
duties, look after the welfare of the citi-
zens of their own States and leave the
political squabbles of their neighbors
alone.