The Opelousas courier., 1873-06-07
ADDRESS OF GOV. McENERY
TO tlae People Of Louisiana.
STATE OF LOUISIANA,
EXECUTIVE OFFICE,
New Orleans, MAY 80, 1873. \

AS the duly elected but deposed Gov
, ernOr of Louisiana, overthrown solel
by the intervention of tho judicial, mill
tary and executive authorities of tn
United States, I deem it my duty, il
view of the recent proclamation of tn
President relative to Louisiana affairs
to address you some words of advice
and counsel.
The Federal Executive, in the face O
the report of the committee of thu
United States Senate, declaring unani
mously that the United States District
Judge usurped jurisdiction, and thai
his court was without authority to CO
cree State or seize or overthrow It'll
government, has issued proclamation
commanding the citizens of the State tc
submit to the Kellogg usurpation.
1t is apparent to you as we'll as to all
the people of this Union that the Presi-
dent is resolved at all hazards and al
all costs to sustain by the military arm
OF the nation, the present usurpation OF
the State Government, ushered into
existence by the midnight order OF
United States District Judge Durell,
executed by United States bayonets,
and presided over by Mr.. William Pitt
Kellogg. You uare ordered and required
by the President to view with calmness
and resignation the overthrow of the
legal Government of your State, elected
by you in pursuance to all the forms of
law; the displacement of judges, clerks,
| sheriffs, recorders, justices of the peace,
police jurors, etc.-in fact, the displace-
ment by force of the whole machinery
! OF government-State, parochal and
municipal-and the installation by
force of persons notoriously defeated at
the election, and whose only title to of
flee rests upon the return of returning
board without single official return or
vote before it to canvass or count. and
predicating its illegal action upon aft
davits lin many instances forged) certi-
ficates, statements, census returns, etc.
Yon are commanded by the President
to oppose no armed resistance to this
admitted usurpation, which, without
the potential aid of Federal authority,
would cease to exist in thirty days, and
l counsel and advise you to obey this
peremptory order of the President.
President Grant, as the Chief Magis-
trate of the nation, has assumed the
high and grave responsibility of foist-
ing upon the people of this State a usur-
patton without precedent in this or any
other free country, and he is answer
able before the bar of public opinion of
this Republic for this high-handed
measure, so utterly destructive of free
government in this country.
The President of the United States,
with the army and. navy at his COM
mand, has the physical power to coerce
the people of this State into any line of
policy he may be pleased to dictate,
and it would be but folly and madness
to internose any resistance likely to
bring us ia conflict with the national
authority; and as it has already been
successfully demonstrated that Mr.. Kel-
logg's Government, unaided by Federal
mandates, further violent demonstra-
tions will prove barren of useful or
practical results.
While the Presidents proclamation
will speedily repress any threatened
outbreak in any part of the State, yet
the deeply fixed sentiments of ire
pressible hostility in the minds and
hearts of an outraged people, against
the vilest usurpation ever attempted to
be fastened upen freemen, will find
their full scope and vent, and advise
that these manly and patriotic senti-
ments take form and shape through all
moral and legal agencies possibly to
be devised.
To abandon at this crisis of our af.
fairs the peaceable and legal means
within our power, by which we may
contest until the last hope is gone the
pretensions of this usurpation to the
title of being the legal Government of
would be an abasemcnt of
our manhood, and thrusting our necks
in the yoke Of tyranny and oppression
already prepared to receive them.
With the Executive of the United |
States to support him, Mr.. Kellogg may, |
until Congress meets, administer his |
with some apparent de-
gree of success, but this should not
cause us to despair of ultimate relief.
The public sentiment throughout the
Union, and the sentiments and opinions
Of members of Congress, lead me TO the
well considered conclusion that when |
Congress assemblies in December our
difficulties will be speedily adjusted,
and that if we fail in securing a recog-
nition of the government elected by the
people land an earnest effort will be /
made in that direction,1 at least Con-
gress will surely initiate and pass the
necessary measures, according to Lou
isiana a legitima government, to
which her citizea5s of all classes and of
All parties viii bow in willing and loyal
obedience. z .
In the meantime trust that peace
and order may reign supreme through
out the State, and that all our industrial I
pursuits will be nnembarrassed by the
political difficulties into which. unhap-
PLY, we have been SO unnecessarily
and nthlessly plunged, and especially |
do \ urge upon the people Of the two
races who are numerically nearly equal
in this State, to cultivate the one to- /
wards the other but feelings of amity,
good Feeling and mutual understand
ing. The fears and prejudices that have
been instilled into the minds and hearts
Df the cOlored man against his white |
neighbor, should give place to reason
ind iudgmentif the people of the white
ace are frank and open in their avowal
% concede to the colored man all the
tights guaranteed to him under the law.
1n the other hand the eolored man |
Ihonld accept with sincerity the plight
sd faith of his white neighbOrs, and /
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