The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1874-09-26
The Louisiana Revelation.
From the st. Louis Republican,

/ ne AonlSidlla hSVCIutlOU.
From the ST. Louis Republican,
When President Grant threw
the executive sword into the
Louisiana dispute and made
Kellogg governor of the state,
we stated that it was a wrong
settlement of the question and
that the president would have
cause to regret it. That cause
has come /; the Louisiana ques.
tion again. 1t has returned a
year after its settlement, to tor
ment the president and to
make him rue the day he had
anything to do with it.
If there ever was a more
wanton outrage on all the
principles on which governs
ment in this country avowedly
rests, than the presidents part
in the. Kellogg usurpation, it
was the tacit approval which
congress gave to the outrage.
As a precedent it was destruc~
tive Of all free government /; it
made possible the overthrow
of the lawful authority in any
state by a band OF conspirators
who could manage to involve
the president in their plot. 1t
made a state government the
creature of a loo of false affida-
Wits, a lawless decision of a
corrupt judge, and two compa-
nies of federal bayonets. The
president shrank from the re-
sponsibili:y 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 COM
gress was not willing to accept
the responsibility either. 1t
was glad the wrong had becn
committed, and was willing
that the Republican party
should have the benefits of it;
but it, too, shrank from an outs
right approval OF it. 1t there's
fore quietly replaced the case
at the presidents door, and left
it to breed the trouble which
has followed as its legitimate
and inevitable fruit. a
The people of Louisiana have
revolted against the usurping
government, and made their
revolution good by enforcing
the abdication of Kellogg and
his subordinate officials in pre-
cisely the same way they were
I
installed-at the point of the
'bayonet. It is an act of vio-
.lence, of course /; it is a revohl>
tion ; but the Kellogg govern
ment itself was the product of
violence lit was an admitted
and branded usurpation. The
case as it stands, therefore, is
that a violent remedy of a vio-
lent worng. What will the
presidentand congress do about
it?
There are many difficulties
and complexities in this ques-
ton which will present them
selves the moment the question
is taken up. But it need not
be taken up The wisest and
safest thing for the president
and congress to do is to let it
alone, and thus avoid the cons
plexities and difficulties it ip-
wolves. The people of Louisi-
ana have settled it in their own
way any interference with the
work would be an insettling.
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 a
single drop of blood. They
have effected through an Or
ganized revolution what, but
for the imprudent interposition
of the president, they would
then have accomplished by a
peaceful process. II they have
been able to do this without
any popular opposition, and
any usurping Of the
Kellogg partisans to protect
him ; aud if they are satisfied
with the new order which fhev