The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-05-12

People.
The first need of the South is peace-peace
maintained by policy at once conciliatory
and firm. This is peculiarly true Of Louisiana,
where condition of disorder always seems to
be impending. If affairs like the recent
outrages at Colfax and the troubles in Grant
parish are to occur whenever some uneasy
spirit chooses to raise the banner Of resist
ance to some real or fancied usurpation,
Mexico will become a paradise in comparison
with the Southern States Looking back at
good and much harm in the supposed pur-
poses of Colonel De Blanc. Now that it
is virtually over we can see what o miserable
and wretched affair the whole thing was. All
the talk about De Blanc's purpose being from
the beginning only resistance to the Kel-
of blood, is mere idle sophistry. Such
resistance necessarily means bloodshed,
and surely such men as De Blanc are not
constituted by Heaven to be the final arbi-
ters of the time when resistance becomes
duty. Indeed, with the courts open and all
the ordinary means for determining Kellogg
right to be Governor of Louisiana at the COM
mand of the McEnery party, it is mere mad
ness disorganization, civil war, not to crush
out the movement in the beginning and to
prevent future difficulty by wise foresight
and preparation.
Though the occasion has gone by in Louisi-
ana when any great strength will be required
to subdue Colonel De Blancs party, the ne
cessity for vigilance has not passed away.
Now, as much as before, the administration
should show that it intends pursuing the only
policy which can lead to peace-firmness and
Cancellation. The more troops the President
can send into the State to act as police force
whereby outbreaks and disturbances may be
prevented and the integrity Of the federal Law
preserved, the better it will be for Louisiana
and the general peace of the country. Force
is never lost when it is exhibited before its
employment becomes necessary There would
have been no draft riots in this city in 1868 if
the government had shown the purpose and
the power to prevent them. If the Hibernians
had been told that Orangemen had the right
to parade and the words had been supported
by an order to the militia to hold themselves
in readiness to prevent any disturbance, there
would have been no bloodshed on that men,
orable 18th of July. Even the rebellion
might have been crushed out in its inception
if the purpose had been shown to preserve the
integrity of the Union. The presence of force
generally renders its use unnecessary. If the
Mexican presidents had been able to crush out
any incipient instruction that country would
now be freer, happier and more prosperous
A country which is politically unsettled is
simply country overrun with thieves and
bandits. Unless the present state of affairs in
Louisiana is speedily corrected worse evils
than the State has ever suffered will follow as
the result of feeble and nerveless policy in
dealing with the enemies of order.
Outside of the necessity of preserving the
peace it is not easy to discuss the condition of
affairs in Louisiana without passion or preju-
dice. Each faction evidently has some of the
elements Of right on it's side, and both are
doubtless much in the wrong. The charges of
usurpation on the one hand are answered by
counter-charges of disfranchisement The
allegations on both sides are probably true.
In any event they are disgraceful But there
is one aspect of the case which must not be
overlooked, and this is in the moral quality
of the offences these men charge against each
other. The old motto, "One may as well be
hung for sheep as lamb" though it illus
trates homely bit of selfshness, is not true
in ethics. To an enlightened political con-
science it is scarcely more heinous to deprive
a man of the Office to which he is chosen than
to rob citizen of his right to choose. Each
is alike inviolable; both are sacred We
fear there is too much truth in the crimi-
nations and recriminations of the Louisiana
politicians, and that the whole State is utterly
and almost hopelessly debauched There
seems little to choose between parties and fac
tons in that State, but it is now too late to go
back and consider the original crime in regard
to the troubles at st. Martinsville. All the
questions at issue between McEnery and KEEL
logg must be left to the tribunals where they
properly belong If the Courts, the State
Legislature, Congress and the Executive fail
to do justice the people will condemn, at the
ballot box, and not the people of Louisiana
only, but of the whole country. These mat
tiers will all be settled in their season, but
they must not be allowed to interfere with the
immediate duty of the administration-the
preservation of peace.
While we think it the Presidents duty to
spare no effort to preserve the peace in Louisi-
ana, and recommend him without delay to
send all the troops he can procure into the
State, we cannot but deprecate the conduct of
Kellogg. His dispatches to Senator West
and to the government have been unneces-
sarily sensational, adding fuel to the fire in
stead of helping to allay the fame. His
hoc hoe ind hot he