The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1873-06-07
MAKING A DE FACTO STATE GOV.
ERNMENT.

The dispute in this State as to the
has reached that solution which the
TELEGRAPH indicated was the only
peaceable solution. President Grant,
accepting the situation in Louisiana
convinced that the moral support of
his administration was not sufficient
to fasten the Kellogg usurpation upon
the people of Louisiana-has notified
us that he will support the Kellogg
government with all the power of the
Federal government, and has COM
mandcd the resisting clement in this
State to dispersc, and to cultivate the
ways and arts Of sspcace.'
1t was not the purpose of the friends
of the McEnery government in Louis
lana to resist the authority of the Fed
cral government. Its power we have
all conceded from the outset. But
overwhelming power is not recognized
as a principle in constitutional gov
eminent. We have not conceded, and
do not concede, that Federal authority
can make and unmake officers for the
State Of Louisiana. We believe that
such an assumption is grossly viola
tive of the terms upon which the sew
eral States, and the people of the
States, entered into the Federal Union.
We know that, in this instance, the
terms of the compact and the very cs-
sence of republican institutions have
been outraged. We know, full well,
that nothing less than usurpation made
Kellogg the Execueive of this State,
and that only usurpation sustains him
as such. We know that if Louisiana
be a State in the Union, with its own
local laws, there is no device nor cum
ming which could possibly place Mr..
Kellogg over us as Governor.
Knowing we have been wronged
most vilely in placing over us officials
We never clected-knowing that LOU
isiana, s'poor, unhappy and oppressed"
is swiftly circling from her orbit as one
of the bright stars of the American COLI
tcllation-neverthelc her people ac-
ccpt the inevitable, and bow with dig
nitied resignation to the centralizing
power which is hooking and destroy
ing the Genius of the great American
Republic.
The address of Gov. McEncry, pub
Iishett elsewhere in this paper, conveys
to the people of Louisiana and the
Union the true exposition OF the feeling
of the best people of Louisiana. We
have been contending for this-that tho
kellogg government was not Il lc t'tctl
government, being government born
nurturcd and upheld by usurpation ant
fraud. 1t was not, and never coulC
have been, in itself, II government q
force. The people of the State have
been prepared to demonstrate, not only
that Kellogg could not enforce his au
thority, but that the entire concern
could be run out of tho State by force
1t was intended that the Administra.
ton should foster, endorse and uphold
Mr.. Kellogg. The Administration has
been compelled to do exactly what tho
Fusionists of Louisiana were tlctcrinin-
cd should be done, in order to show
that Kellogg was not de .f;lcfo Governor
of tho State.
The effect of resistance to Kellogg
simply is that President Grant, with
the Army and Navy at his command,
has made a government for Louisiaua
iouisianians never made Kellogg Gov
crnor, nor Antoine his Lieutenant.
Our people, therefore, stand Justified in
their opposition to Kellogg, because,
under local laws and iocoI strength and
numbers, President Grant has con-
fesscd that Kellogg WAS unable to sus-
tain himself and his government, and
this was precisely what the people
have persistently sought to establish.
1t IS established, and the controversy
must go before Congress in this shape.
The Bastrop Republican inauvcr-
tcntly donbtless) misrcprcsents this
paper when it says, in effect, THAI the
TElEGEAriI named individuals as tho
robbers Of the mails on tho lt,ilrn,I