New-York tribune., 1874-09-22
THE TRUTH ABOUT LOUISIANA.

THE TRUTH ABOUT LOUISIAN1.
Mr.. Kellogg has now been reinstated at New
Orleans by MajorGen. Emory, after remaining
in seclusion at the Custom-house just long
enough to convince the world that no party
whatever in Louisiana sustained his preten-
sions to the Governorship. More than year
and a half ago Mr.. Carpenter, speaking in the
name of majority of the Senate Committee
which had made a careful investigation OF the
condition of Louisiana affairs, reported to the
Senate that "if Federal support were with
"drawn Kelogg's Government wonld be i'm
"mediately supplanted." The result has justi-
fed his prediction to the letter. The bay
onets which propped up Mr.. Kellogg's chair
having been taken away. that doughty magls-
trate instantly tumbled into the mire. His fall
was so sudden that he cid not make even
momentary pretense of ability to stand alone;
so dsgraceful that he can never recover the
prestige he has lost by it and so disastrous
that the Federal General had great difficulty
in picking him up again, and could not per-
suade him to resume his usurped authority
until forty hours after the last of his armed
opponents had gone home and the troops had
kept the city for him during day and two
Louisiana is ruled not by officers of her choice,
but by procOnsul from Washington.
While these transactions were going on,
Senator Morton made defense of Kellogg at
indianapolis, and it is the only defense of
him that we have seen from any source en-
titled to moments consideration. lie as
sured his hearers that the fraudulent charac-
ter of the alleged election of McEnery was
fully established by the Senate investigation;
that Kellogg had been recognized by the Su-
preme Court and that the Senate, by reject
ing the bill for new election, had declared
his to be the lawful Government OF the State.
The shameful story of Louisiana has been told
over and over again, but we cannot
allow such gross Misrepresentation as
these to pass unnotced. Gov. Morton, as
member Of the Committee to which he
refers, ought to know, better than he
seems to know, what it discovered and what
it reported. The judgment of the majority
was written by Mr.. Carpenter, whose preju-
dices were all on the side of the Kellogg
party, and whose position as a friend and
supporter of the Administration is quite as
conspicuous as that of Gov. Morton himself.
That Judgment declared the De Ferret return
and Penn by majority of about 1000, to be
the only legal one, and the only one which
had any returns before it, and found that
Kellogg was intruded into Office by an irregu-
lar, unprecedented and wholly void order of
Judge Durell, enforced at the point of the
bayonet. 1t is impossible" says the report
"to conceive of o more irregular, ille-
q" gal, and in every way inexcusable act
"on the part of judge" Viewed in
"any light in which your Committee can con-
"sider them, the orders and injunctOns made
"and granted by Judge Durell In that cause
care most reprehensible, erroneous in point of
"law, and wholly void for want of jurisdic-
"tion, and your Committee must express their
"sorrow and humiliation that Judge of the
"United States should have proceeded in such
"fagrant disregard of his duty" But for
"the interference of Judge Durell in the
"matter of this State election, matter wholly
"beyond his jurisdiction, the McEnery Gov
"ernment would to-day have been the dc facto
Government of the State. Judge Durell in
"terposed the army of the United States be-
tween the people of Louisiana and the only
Government which has the semblance of
regularity, and the result of this has been
"to establish the Kellogg Government, so far as
"that State has now any government" And
as for the proceedings of the Lynch returning
board, upon which Kellogg based his title to
Office, the Committee say There is nothing
+" in all the comedy of blunders and frauds
under consideration more indefensible than
"the pretended canvass of this board.
No person can examine the testimony ever
e" so cursorily without seeing that this pre-
"tended canvass had no sembance of
"integrity. The proceedings of that
"board cannot be sustained without dis
regarding all the provisions of the law
applicable to the subject, and ignoring the
distinction between good faith and fraud.n
Your committee are therefore led to the
conclusion that if the election held in
November, 1872, be not absolutely void for
frauds committed therein, McEnery and his
associates in State offices and the persons
certified as Members of the State Legislature
"by the De Feriet Board ought to be
recognized as the legal government of the
"State.n
That makes it clear enough what commit
tee of the friends of the Administration thought
of Kellogg's title to office. What shall we say
of Gov. Mortop's pretense that KELLOGG vas