The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1874-09-27
COLUMBIA, s. g.
Sunday Morning, September. 81, 1874.
The LouissA ma satrapy.

4h6 kOna8t0o4S bAufapYs
There is remarkable unanimity oil
opinion in this country, North as we'll
as South, upon the original difficulty.
the cause Of causes, which produced
the troubles in Louisiana, the tyranny
and corruption Of the Kellogg govern
ment and its present unhappy and
PROSTATE condition under the heel of
the Federal power, with it's usurping
Governor and his mipipns restored to
place and upheld. By bayonets. The
Republican journals and the Republi.
1ican speakers and public men with
the exception of Morton and Landau
le! Willie@e2 have freely acknowledged
the initial error to have been in the
recognition by President Grant of the
decision OF Durell. Even Butler, of
Massachusetts,. while breathing out
threatenipgs and slaughter against the
people of New Orleans, maintains that
Kellogs's govern ment is not legal.
Reverdy johnson goes further and as
serts that the President erred in recoe
nizing. not the decision of Dureli, but
his right to make any decision at oil.
He shows conclusivelytthat the ques-
ton whether State government is
legitimately established is not judicial, :,
but political, and establishes his posi-
ton by reference to the decision which
was reached in the celebrated Dorr
case in Rhode Island. Mr.. Stephens,
of Georgia, has shifted the blame from
the Presidents shoulders and fixed it
upon the Reconstruction Acts and
policy Of Congress-; the President was
but ''executing what he deemed his Of
fetal duty" But if the opinion of
one of the greatest lights of the law
now living is to be regarded. the Kel-
logg administration was established,
not by the forms of law. but contrary
10 them, and the Presidents action
was not in conformity to any enlight.
ened or correct view of his official
duty. The difficulty having originated
either in blunder or a design to sus-
tain the wrong side, the remedy, one
would think, would be plain and easy.
What binders the President from re.
ceding from an untenable position?
But the principle OF absolute govern
ments that ''the King can do no
wrong" which has been introduced
into our tnominally free and popular
form of government, is here lugged in
to excuse the original wrong and up.
hold the ,tsurpatiOn which II created.
Even Rsyerdy Johnson says that.
whether right or wrong. the Presidents
decision. was final, and he was bound
to put down the attempt Of the Mo
Emery government to gain possession
Of she nficea to which they had been
elected. and OF which they had been
illegally dsspoiled.: The President can
take no step backwards to undo q
wrong, but must be held to be justified
in whatever arbitrary measures he may
resort to to sustain his first fatal viola
tion Of law and usage. The President
has rights even in wrong doing. He
can establish one wrong by another.
The State and people of Louisiana. on
the other hand, have no rights which a
Federal Judge need regard, and which
President may not override whenever
it suits his fancy.
Such ia what is left of the rights OF
States. But our Northern orators,
lawyers and editors have remedy
which they think may heal ali the
troubles of poor Louisiana. Butler. OF
Massachusetts, the New York Herald,
Reverdy Johnson, and other political
advisers, think the best solution OF the
difficulty which Durrell and the Presi-
dent have made, will be found in the
resignation OF Kellogg end MoEnery
and their submission to new election.
To this proposition, MoEnery readil==
acceded, but Kellogg. strong in the
presence of United States troops, and
in the confidence OF Williams and
President Grant, promptly declined it.
He said in reply to the Herald, that
MoEnery ''has nothing to rosien." !" to