The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-09-20
The Louisiana Revolution.
lst. Louis Republican. sentember "a

lSt Loufs Republican, September 1871
When President Grant threw the execu
tive sword into the Louisiana dispute and
made Kellogg governor of the State, we
stated that 1t was wrong settlement oil
the question and that the President wonld
have cause to regret it. That cause has
come; the Louisiana question has become
the louisiana question again. It has re
turned year after its settlement to tor.
ment the President, and to make him rue
the day he had anything to do with it.
Ii there ever Was more Wanton out
rage on all the principles on which govern
ment IN this country avowedly rests, than
the Presidents part in tho kellogg usurpa-
ton, it was the tacit approval which
Congress gave to the outrage. AS q pre-
cedent it was destructive Of all free gov
eminent; it made possible the overthrow
of the lawful authority in any State by
band of conspirators who could manage
- to involve the President in their plot. II
made State government the creature of
lot of false af6davits, n lawless decision
of q corrupt judge, and two companies of
Federal bayonets. The President shrank
from the responsibility of what he had
done almost as soon as he had done it, for
he submitted the case to Congress and
asked for its treatment of it. But Con
gress was not willing to accept the respon-
sibility either. 1t was glad the wrong
had been committed, and was willing that
the Republican party should have the ben
ehts of it; but it, too, shrank from an
outright approval of it. It therefore
quietly replaced the case at the Presidents
door, and left it to breed the trouble which
has followed as its legitimate and inevita-
BILE fruit.
The people of Louisiana have revolted
against the usurping government and made
their revolution good by enforcing the alb |
dication of Kellogg and his subordinate
officials in precisely the same way they were |
installed-at the point of the bayonet. 1t |
is an act of violence, of course ). it is a |
revolution; but the Kellogg government |
Itself was the product of violence; it was |
an admitted and branded usurpation. The
case as it stands, therefore, is that of a
violent remedy for violent wrong What
will the President and Congress do abUur
itf '''"'
There are many difficulties and COM
plexities in this question which will nre-
sent themselves tho moment the question
IL taken up. But it need not be taken mn.
The wisest and safest thing for the Presi-
dent and Congress to do Ia to let it alone |
and thus avoid the complexities and diff
culties it involves. The people of Louisi-
ana have settled it in their own way any
with the work would be an
unsettling. They have just now done at
the cost of thirty or forty lives, what they
ought to have been allowed to do eighteen
months ago, without the shedding of
slngle drop of blood. They have effected
through an organized revolution what, but
for the imprudent interposition of
the President, they would then have ac-
eomplisbed by peaceful process. IF they
have been able to do this without any pop
ular oppOeitioD, and without any uprising
OF the kellogg partisaps to protect him j
and Is they are satisfied with the new or.
aer Whleh they have established, NE do