The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-09-24
The Lesson of the E4ouisfans Up
rising.

The Kellogg regime has been restored
in Louisiana. It is not for US to upraid
the authors of TIE movement which re
resulted in the temporary displacement
and disgraceful humiliation of Kellogg.
Nor y it worth while to criticise the
action of the President in unfolding
what he claimed to regard as the legally
constituted authorities Before the adj
journment of Congress, be called the
attention of that body TO the condition
of affairs in Louisiana gave his reasons
for having in the absence of Congression-
al action recognized Kellogg Il Co.,
and stated that unless otherwise instruct
ed by the lawmaking department, he
would persist in his course. Cong ess
cravenly recoiled from the responsibility
Of deciding the case and virtually au-
fhorized the President to proceed on the
line which he had foreshadowed.
Nor is it worth while to discuss the
effect Of the popular uprising upon the
pending elections which are to determine
the political status of the next Congress.
This would be a matter of mere specu-
lation at most.
But this great popular movement has
established some practical truths which
neither the reinstatement Of Kellogg,
nor its bearing upon Northern sentiment,
nor its effect upon Northern elections,
can uproot 1t has shown that no State
government can exist here in the South,
without the support Of federal bayonets
which is based upon corruption and
public robbery and is conducted as close
corporation in the interests of dishonesty
and ignorance, in open defiance of the
intelligence, and virtue Of the State in
which such rule may be set up. For
example, kellogg claimed to represent
majority of the votes of Louisiana.
The facts reported by a Republican
Committee Of the U. s. Senate, prove
the assumption to be false But what
if it was true? This movement of
the people against alien rule and its
systematic robbery, shows that his
boosted majority backed by his Metro
politon train-bands with Longstreet at
their heal, did not amount to a straw in
curbing the overwhelming tide Of public
Indignation that surged against, and
overwhelmed, him and his pirate crew.
Penn is displaced. McEnery is not
welding the Executive power of Louisi
ana. Kellogg again sits in his official
chair decked by federal hands with the
insignia of Office, but his bearing is not
that of man wearing the honors Of an
office to which he is entitled, but of
trembling wretch who has been dragged
to the bar of public opinion, and is await
ing the fearful sentence of the pillory
or the gallows which his crimes have
earned. He is Governor again by virtue
of United States bayonets, but, the no
LITIGATION which this uprising of the peo-
pie has served upon him. remains, that
he and his gang are usurpers and that
they cannot officially exist, without
the support which those bayonets afford
them.
This is the lesson of the Louisiana
uprising. 1t argues nothing, to say that
it was ill-timed and inopportune. May
be it was. May be it was not That is
not the point The lesson still remains.
1t has taught wronged people what
it is possible for them to do, if they
but dare; and it has taught their OPP
pressors that they are helpless as babes
in a lions den, unless defended by the
strong arm of the National Government