New-York tribune., 1873-02-28

the President for military force to maintain
the public peace and sustain the officers APP
pointed under this act it makes the most
minute arrangements for registering and vot-
ing and designates the election districts; 1t
ignores the State authorities, the State laws,
and the State constitution and it gives ex-
elusive jurisdiction of all Ofenses punishable
under this act to the Circuit Court of the
United States. I'm other words, 1t sets aside
for the time being the Constitution OF Louls-
ana, and throws upon Congress duty which
Congress has never received authority 10
perform. There is no point of constitutional
law better settled than that every State has
the right to prescribe the time and manner OF
electing Its own officers. 1t is only when the
State government has ceased to exist, and the
community is thrown back into an inchoate
condition, as the Rebel communities OF the
South were at the close of the war, that Con-
gress has right to intervene, and establish
laws, governors, and legislatures. Where
there is a State organization, the theory OF
our system is, as Senator Morton says, that
this State government possesses the power
and machinery to correct the wrongs and
frauds within itself.
1t is futile to pretend, as Mr.. Carpenter
must, if he would justify his scheme Of radical
reconstruction, that Louisiana has no State
government The trouble there is not that it
has not any, but that it has two. Now in
case of conflict of authority between two
bodies, each claiming to be the lawfully
elected government of State, 1t has been
repeatedly established that the question must
be decided by the political department Of the
General Government. Congress may determine
which of the two claimants shall be recog-
nized; but it has no right to overturn the
State government altogether, and erect Il new
one This is an important distinction which
some of our lawmakers at Washington seem
to be in danger of forgetting Rather than 80
mischievous a precedent should be established.
we would gladly suffer a continuance of the
Kellogg usurpation until the people have a
chance TO establish their rights by a new
election in due course Of law
And upon what ground would Mr.. Carpenter
and his party carry Congress to the unwar-
rantabIe length of rejecting both the rival
governments 7 The Kellogg faction is adj
mitted to be in the wrong by every member
of the Committee. 1. Ii did not receive Il ma
j0rty of the votes cast 2. IL was not re-
turned by a legal canvassing board; III short,
it was intruded into Office by mere brute force.
I'm no case can it be admitted to be a lawful
State government. Considering all the facts
established before your Committee" says the
report, "therc seems no escape from thu alter
native that the McEnery government must
"be recognized by Congress, or Congress must
"provide for reelection But, says Mr..
Carpenter, the election was so strongly tainted
with fraud that we hold it void altogether
McEnery certainly received u majority
of the votes cast; but we believe that kcl-
logg would have been chosen il the election
had been fairly conducted. This, however, is
not point for Congress to determine. Many
elections have been tainted with fraud before
now. but Congress has never assumed the
right to reject them. The frauds of the OctO-
Der election in Pennsylvania were as great as
the frauds of the November election in Louisi-
ana. IL is well understood that Mr. William
NJ. Tweed registered a vote against Gen. Grant
i'll the State of NewYOrk in 1868, when the
popular majority was really the other way.
But nobody has pretended that Congress had
authority to go back of the official returns
and determine what the result ought to have
been. That would be to make the power of
Congress absolute and dcspotic. That there
were frauds in McEncry's election we have no
doubt; but there is no evidence that they
were so gross as to inyalidate the entire re-
turns; there is no evidence that they were
gross enough even to decide the result; there
was no violence, or disturbance of any kind
"the vote polled," says Senator Trumbull,
"was twenty thousand larger than ever before
"cast in the State. and against more than
wo-thrds of it complaint of unfarness
lis even alleged 1t seems to be inevitable,
therefore, that the only just and constitu-
tional solution of this difficulty is to recognize
the McEnery government, and leave any can
didates of the opposite party who believe they
were defeated by fraudulent means, or counted
out by dishonest canvassers, to establish their
claims, if they can, before the regular tribu-
nails by regular process of law.