The New York herald., 1874-11-09


ernor, thu, President having no power to send
troops ar d the State Executive having no
authority to send back criminal if the per-
son makil ,g the demand is not the Governor
of the apl plying State. A fugitive criminal is
to be del ivered up ''on demand of the Ex-
ecutive a, lthority of the State from which he
fed" d omestic violence is to be suppressed
"on appt cation of the Executive when the
Legislatu re cannot be convened
1t is, tn erefore, too evident for dispute that
every Go, ernor of every State in the Usion
has to de- dde question of the very same kind
which laitely came before the President, as
often ss my other Governor makes requisi-
ton to d .liver up an escaped criminal If
Kellogg adapphed TO sGovernor Dix to surren-
der a g.stive murderer Governor Dix would
have bses under precisely the same necessity Of
deciding whether Kellogg was Governor of
Louisiana that President Grant was in Sep
tember. The advantage of looking at the sub
ject in this light is, that we get clear of GER
tain confusing notion of superiority, which
has caused the PresidGnts action to be dis
cussed as if he had some authority to make
and unmilke State governments when he has
no more such authority than any Governor of
o distant State. The power of recognizing
this or that man as the Executive Of this or
that State, for the time being, is power
which the President shisres with every one of
the thirty-six other Governors-it being
as necessary to decide ,xho is Governor before
o criminal can be surr endered to him as to
decide who is Governor before troops can be
sent to him to put dowr, an insurrection.
We venture to thin that this question
might be simpGfed and elucidated by consid-
ering the rules which ou ght to guide the other
State Governors in recognizing Kellogg and
McEnery. When it is assumed that they are
bound by the decision of the President it is
an assumption without any legal warrant.
Suppose Kellogg had mi .de no application to
the President in SepteI nber, but, after COM
mitting murder, had fled from the State,
leaving McEnery in un] disputed possession,
supposing that McEnery, in undisturbed pos
session, had made requisition on Governor
Dix for the surrender OF the fugitive Kellogg,
how would the Governor of New York have
decided? 1t would be a. osurd to say that the
last action of the Presid lent bound him, for
that was the early recogni ion of Kellogg. The
President could not have Recognized McEnery,
for, by the supposition, b did no: apply for
assistance. But would Il crimes committed
in the State have to gc'. unpunished, if the
criminals could escape, bt cause the Governors
of other States could no recognize McEnery
under such circumstances I?
We only suggest this lin We Of reasoning; we
have not space to pursueNit. 1t would lead
us into very interesting but too discursive
field. As the final upshclt of the discussion
we should find that the authority of the
President to make or unn lake Governors in
Louisiana is precisely neitl Ter greater nor less
than it would be to make or unmake Cover
nors in Cuba, if that island were independent
and we were bound by treaty to protect it
against domestic violence, ''on application Of
It's Executive, when its Lel legislature cannot be
assembled"