New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-04-18
TILE ARKANSAS CASE.


Tho President has behaved in the Arkansas
case with great dignity and prOpriety. He has
refused his countenance to either of the fac
tons now quarreling for the Governorship,
and has cOntented himself with instructlng
the Federal officers at Little Rock to prevent
an armed collision, without favor to Brooks or
to Baxter. Mr.. Brooks is reminded that his
claim is still before the courts, the decree OF
Judge WhytOck not being final, and Mr.. Bax-
ter is referred to the courts for his remedy II
he feels himself aggrieved. 1t is so clear that
these are the answers which prudent and
law-abding Executive must have re-
turned to any appeal for assistance
that, but for certain familiar his
torical incidents. we might well be
surprised that either of the Arkansas Gov
ernors should have expected anything else
The policy Of non-interference in local affairs
is new one with Gen. Grants administra-
ton. 1t is not long since the regulation OF
State elections, the composition OF State
tickets, the management OF ward caucuses,
nay, on great emergency even the up
setting of State governments and the lnstalla-
ton of usurping legislatures, were thought to
be legitimate duties of the Presidents office.
The chief aim of popular government, accord
ing to theories which recently prevailed at
Washington, was to preserve the party organ
ization and the chosen instrument in this
great work was Of course the President of the
United States. For this the patronage was
intrusted to his hands For this he had con-
sulships, and post-Oflices, and foreign mis-
sions, and relationships to give away. For
Al.
this he had a compact little army In the
troublesome States, and an Acknowledgement
to set the troops in motion when the dis
orders of party politics demanded heroic
remedies When the supremacy of the party
was endangered IN Louisiana, Gen. Grant did
not talk to the rival claimants about the
State courts. He made his choice at
once between the two candidates, and
stuck to his favOrite bravely through thick
and thin. Mr.. Kellogg got all the troops he
wanted and having the troops, he could set
I'D a Judge of his own, whose astonishing
orders were promptly and emphatically rati-
fed at the Federal capital. Mr.. Kellogg had a
much fainter pretense of being elected than
Mr.. Baxter could show in Arkansas, and yet
Gen. Grant took HIM bodily, lifted him into
the Executive chair and kept him there in
spite OF all IeSsIauce'
II is the most natural thing in the world
that other claimants, finding themselves in
the predicament of Mr.. Kellogg should ask
for similar moral c0untenance and physical
assistance 1t was only to be expected, when
| the President began the practice of Federal in
| reference, that all the disturbed States, where
the carpet-bagger still rules as sort
of brummagem pro-consul by favor of
the Administration, should look to Wash
ington for the settlement of their local
controversies, and that neither the YER
dict of the people nor the decisions of the
courts of law should be accepted as conclusive
on any issue that involved partisan politics.
In Louisiana, in Arkansas, and elsewhere we
have consequently found people who pretend
to believe in free government, abandoning all
faith in the law and the ballot, casting
themselves down at the steps of the White
House, and calling to the President, "Come
"and rule over u.s."
Gen. Grant has discovered that the inter-
ference policy has its disadvantages. Kellogg
is load under which he has staggered terri
bly, and it is load of which he cannot rid
himself. He will be slow to take up another
burden of the same sOrt-especialy when
there is no very decided partisan advantage
to be gained by it. But we need not quarrel
with his motives. Whether he refuses to in
terfere because it IS wrong, or because it is
not worth while, is of little consequence. He
has resolved to keep his hands off the Arkan-
sas governorship and mind his own business !;
and that is great reform in Federal politics,
for which we thank him.