Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-06-06
TO ADVERTISERS.
LOUISIANA.

posted in louisiana affairs to be able to form
an intelligent opinion in regard to the
claims of the rival factions in that State.
We therefore gladly avail ourselves of the
views of men whose opportunities for Sec
ing and judging have been better than our
own; yet even among Vermont people res
ident in Louisiana, or who have visited
that State and had opportunity to judge OF
the actual history Of affairs and the feeling
of the loyal inhabitants, we find as wide
difference of opinion as we had already
found in the newspapers. Congressman Z.
w. willard of Montpelier, whose oppor-
tunities for forming reliable opinion in
regard TO Louisiana matters have certainly
been as good as those of any person we
know of, gives his views in the Freeman of
last week in the following language:
The election of last fall was unusually
quiet, and, rs was generally admitted, was
tolerably fair, except that in some districts
where there was a large negro vote the
polling places were not conveniently locat-
cd. Both parties claimed the state by from
10000 10 10000 majority. The vote was
never counted, as far as can be ascertained,
by any legally constituted canvassing
board. The Warmoth or Democratic board,
had possession of the returns, while the
Kellogg or Republican board, upon whose
pretended canvass the present State gov
eminent calls itself elected, never had any
legal, if indeed it had any returns before
il, If that board made any canvass it was
from newspaper reports, forged returns
and guess-work. OF course it declared the
Republican ticket elected; and 1t was
doubtless hoped that the end would justify
the means.
But this was not enough. 1t was we'll
enough understood that such government
could not be inaugurated without the help
of United States troops, and these could
only be had through the device of process
issuing from United States court. Judge
Durell furnished the process, and the Unit
ed States marshal, under orders from
Washington, furnished the troops. This
part of the transaction has been properly
characterized as courageous" by Repub-
lican committee of the United States Sem
ate. 1t had no warrant in law, or prece-
dent, or justice, or equity. 1t was bold
and bald and premeditated usurpation.
But it accomplished what it set on foot to
acc omplish, and put the Kellogg govern
ment in the places of authority in Louisi-
ana. Since that moment the State has really
had no state government, for Kellogg has
never seen q day when he could maintain
his authority except as it is understood
that tho United States army was at his
command. If the state had been remanded
q. lafN cfrI1n
ton, and Kellogg had been appointed pro-
visional governor under military rule, he
would not have been more in fact an agent
and representative of the United States
tina he is now, and Louisiana would thus
have had just such state government OF
its own choosing as it has now.
Such is the condition of Louisiana to-day;
and is it not strange that the President,
having set the Kellogg government up in
Louisiana, finds that it cannot maintain it
self, and is obliged to come TO its aid with
the army and navy of the United States.
Yet it is not easy to see that the Presi-
dent can do anything else than just what
he is doing. The first step last fall was the
fatal one. Having once recognized the
Kellogg government as the legal one he
must, to be consistent, stand by it. The
people of Louisiana have no purpose of re-
sisting the United States. They are only
resisting Kellogg and his police. They
know the state government cannot stand
alone, and they have made that apparent.
The constitution makes it the duty of the
United States TO protect state on proper
application, from domestic violence, and as
the President recognizes the Kellogg gov
eminent as the state of Louisiana, he is in
duty bound to protect it. And this protec-
ton, if it is TO be exercised at all, has come
none too soon. Kellogg's weakness has
been apparent to everybody but himself
for many weeks. The custom house at
New Orleans, which really is the manag-
ing head of affairs in Louisiana, has found
him unsuited to its purpose. The state
was not only rapidly drifting into anarchy;
it had already reached it. 1t is to be hoped
that this United States interposition will al
least restore order and quiet. Even a usurp-
ing government may be better than for the
people TO fall to cutting each other throats
1t is certainly better than such massacres as
that at Colfax.
The truth is, the whole of this Louisiana
trouble has been brought about by the i'm
proper intermeddling of federal officials
with the politics of that state. The people
of Louisiana have something of the same
sense oftheir capacity to govern themselves
that The people of Vermont have. If they
had been let alone in the same sense as the
northern states were let alone in the late
haa af,r
and quiet as Georgia or Mississippi or Ala
bama. Federal interference began the dis
turbance; but as il is strong enough to qui
ct il, il ought TO do that at once in the in
terest of peace. A usurpation to be re
spected aud respectable, ought 10 be vigor
Gus and decided and the President having
undertaken TO give Louisiana q govern
ment is under every obligation to end al
doubts as to his purpose TO maintain tn
government thus set up. This will serv
the good purpose of maintaining the peac
in that much distracted commonwealth
and it may serve another purpose.
The President said in one of his messag
es that he knew no way 10 secure the re
peal of bad laws more effectual than thei
vigorous execution and perhaps nothin
is more likely TO call attention to the dan
gerous tendency OF these times to Cover
states and control their elections fror
Washington, than this necessity of usn
the army and navy and treasury Of th
United States to maintain in authority. in
state of this Union, government that ha
no right to the authority it pretends to eS
ercise, and only existsby virtue of the faf
that the people of the state have no dispf
sition and no power to contend against tn
armies of the United States.