New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-04-26

hce, not 10 set aside 81 election. but i
determine whether the claimant was eve
elected.
1 Order new selection in Louisiana, an
you have established q precedent that mus
impair elective government. Excited pal
ties enter upon strongly contested Gle.
ton; the one party is in harmony with tn
dominant party in Congress. perhaps
Senator is to be elected BY the Legislature
that party seeks by violence and fraud +
obtain success, and when it fails comes I
Congress- and makes that very fraud an
violence the pretehse for covering their de
feat and for having the election set aside
and for having second trial with the ad
verse party who were successful damage,
and disgraced by having their victory Sc
aside. No, sir; better far let the State
! suffer for their own misdeeds, even th
innocent with the guilty; their suffer
ing will lead them to cure tn,
evil Admonished by the evil results of
vicious election, in the calm periods thai
intervene between elections all parties will
unite in devising and adopting safeguard
to secure honest elections. Registry laws
pOll-.lsts, proper places for the polls, police
regulations. and severe penal statutes
will be adopted as the means of preventing
the repetition of the evil. We had better
adhere to the constitution, and do what il
says, which ia that we shall guarantee tt
the several States government, which We
did with Louisiana when we sent our troops
there, preserving order and tranquility
and that we shall guarantee to them re-
publican form Of government, which we did
when we approved the constitution OF
Louisiana, under which form that govern.
ment is now carried on.
1t there are frauds in elections or usurpa.
tons in office, let the remedy be found in
the courts of the States or by means of i'm
parchment, or by the frequently recurring
popular elections. But let us adopt the
theory that we are under the guarantee
clause OF the constitution to interfere with
States further than to secure to them order
and tranquility and republican form of
government, and that we are to see to it
that the proper persons are in power, still l
insist that Congress is not to order new
election in Louisiana. Ii Congress is to in
terfere, and there is one who we know has
been duly elected, and who, under the con-
stitutiop of Louisiana, is entitled to the Of
flee of Governor, Congress surely is not to
interfere by ordering a new election, but
by placing the one entitled to the office bv
election and blythe Louisiana constitution
in power.
This election contest between Kellogg
and McEnery was on November \, 1872.
On that day WarmOth was unquestionaby
the duly elected Governor of Louisiana.
We are called upon TO order an election
because no one has since been declared
duly elected. But that is just the case
which the constitution of Louisiana, as ap-
proved by us, provides for. when, in the
fifteenth article, on the twenty second page
OF this case, lit says that the Governor
shall continue in Office until the Monday
next succeeding the day his successor shall
be declared duly elected"
If any one has in the sense of the Louis
lana constitution been duly declared elected
since the fourth of November, 1872, there
is no pretense for our ordering new cleo
ton. If no one has been so duly declared
elected, then Warmoth is Governor until
the Monday after such declaration, and our
business is to reinstate Warmoth, and not
to order new election. Can it be insisted
that when the constitution provides that
office until a successor is elected, we may
interfere and deprive him of his office! If
We interfere, it must be to place him in
power.
Mr.. Carpenter-Will my friend allow me
at that point question? Taking that view
Of the case, suppose Governor Warmoth
had continued to break up every election
from 1872 on, and had been there four or
i've years as Governor, under that provi-
zion, would not Congress then have q right
20 interfere and order an election for the
purpose of establishing a republican gov
in that State9
Mr.. Frelinghuysen-I do not see that
what Warmoth might have done or might
Tor have done alters the constitution of
louisiana. BY that we are to be regulated
md not by the vagaries of Mr.. Warmoth.
That constitution declares that Warmoth
hall be Governor until the Monday nexte|
Ifter his successor is duly elected. Do not |
understand me to be in favor of reinstating |
NarmOth. l am not. use the argument |
o show that we better live up to the con-
titutlon of the United States, guarantee to |
ach State order and q republican form of |
and let the States determine |
or themselves whether they will have a
Varmoth or McEnery or Kellogg as
Governor.
But again, Mr. President if Congress
hOuld not reinstate WarmOth, still it |
hOuld not order q new election; for the |
uthOr of the bill we are considering tells |
s that McEnery had majority Of 96O6 |
otes over Kellogg. The returns them
elves have been brought by subpoena from
nd the Senator from Wisconsin says that
Ray, McMillen and Pinchback were be-
)re the committee conducting their respect
70 sides of the case, and they all agreed
nat those were the returns, and agreed
nat those returns showed the result that
ad been arrived at by the De Ferret board,
nat McEnery had 96O6 majority. There
as no contest about it."
Some question in debate was made about
lere being fOrgeries in these returns, and
10 Senator from Wisconsin adds note to
is very able speech showing that that does
OF change the result. / may show what
1850 returns are presently. They are pa
or; if true, valuable; if false, worthless;
ut l am looking at the case from my
lends standpoint. If we are to interfere
should be to install MeEnery, not to de-
roy his election, for it is certainly essen
al to a republican government that one
lected to Office should fill the office as that
10 not elected should not fill it. But the
allIng McEnery for this reason: He says:
of the ballots actually cast Nc
Iery had majority, yet in consequence
the frauds committed previous to the
ection that result utterly reverses what
as the wish and intention of that people,"
hat is no reason why McEnery should not
, installed. If he had 96O6 majority of.the
ote cast he was prima facie Governor, en-
He'd to his seat, subject to being subse-
lently removed by judicial proceedings.
Mr.. Carpenter-NOtwithst anding he OBJ
ined them by frauds
Mr.. Notwithstanding he
,tained them by fraud. II
Mr.. Carpenter-I can not see now where
ould be the republican government. II
MIR. Frelinghuysen-In the State of Wis II
nsin BarstOw was elected Governor. Il
fer to the case of Bashford vs.. BarstOw,
ourth Wisconsin Reports, page 1881. He
as not the true Governor, he was not |
irly elected, but he was inaugurated, sent
8 message to the Legislature, and acted as
OvernOr, think, some sixty days, when
information was filed in the court of
isconsin averring that BarstOw was not
ected, but that Bashford was, and the re
Ii waa that Rarsfnw uaa Ousfad an1 | ,