Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-01-06

say nothing. OF the irregular and out
rageous manner in which the existing
Legislature filled itself into a quorum of
both Houses, il Is not worth while to
speak. The act hrs bcen done. The
Legislature is or .g.iZ d. Is ii legal
body? Pinchblyk is Governor, and the
government of the State is an accom-
plished fact. Is 1t legal government?
The question is no longer an open one.
The Supreme Court of the State has
recognized it. The District, Parish aud
Justices Courts throughout the State
have organized under it. The clerks of
the courts and the sheriffs are commits
stoned under it. They are all bound by
its acts.
The Mayor and City Administrators
have recognized it, and hold their
commissions from the Acting Governor;
and the whole municipal machinery is
being run under the existing State.
The courts of the United States have
recognized it, and the Supreme Court
at Washington has refused to interfere.
The President of the United States
has repeatedly recognized it, and has
firmly refused TO reconsider his de-
cision.
The army of the United States under
General Emory, is on the spot to sus-
tam it.
Under such circumstances, what good
call possibly be attained by violent and
inoTganized resistance to recognized au-
thority, which we are pOwerless to over
throw.
Your appeals to the President have
been listened to. They have been decid-
ed against you. A few brave words of
sympathy float in to US occasionally
from the Northern and Western press.
But these come mainly from partisan
journals or through channels of ques-
tionable sincerity and but little political
influence, like the New York Herald.
One by one your committee straggle
home and bring no reasonable hope of
change. With the flight of time your
story of wrongs grow stale, and loses in
terest abroad. VIII Congress help you?
Is il not pledged to support the Presi-
ident? Could Judge Bradley interfere?
No one knows better than Judge Camp
bell, your spokesman at Washington,
that he could not lawfully. Chief Jus
tice Taney said in the Dorr case the
power ''to interfere is given to the
President. He is to act upon the
application of the Legislature or of the
Executive, and consequently he must
determine what body of men constitute
the Legislature and who is the Governor
before he can act. The fact that both
parties claim the right to the govern
ment cannot alter the case, for both
cannot be entitled TO it. And the
President must, of necessity, decide
which is the government, and which
party is unlswfully arrayed against it.
After the President has acted and
called out the militia, is a Circuit Court
Of the United States authorized TO in
quire whether his decision was right?''
And the Supreme Court of the United
States answered No! The question is a
political one, beyond the reach of courts,
and exclusively within the Jurisdiction
of the President.
In this condition of affairs, what is
left to be done? Organize body of men
TO play Legislature, - in opposition to
the body recognized by all the powers
of the Federal and State governments?
/ think not. Let our good men, who
are yet entitled to their seats in the
Legislature, go at once to their posts in
the State House. Let them be the fear
less advocates of right. Let them ex-
pose and denOunce every measure of
fraud and injustice brought before them.
In the end they will acquire the infiu-
ence which belongs to honest virtue,
and become terror to rOgues and po-
litical tricksters. CONSERVATIVE.