The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-12-13
THE PRESIDENT ON LOUISIANA.

That portion of the Presidents message
referring to the political condition of this
State, and explaining his interference with its
government, is eliciting from the press of the
country some very sharp comments.
The reasons assigned by Grant for recog-
nizing and sustaining the Kellogg usurpation
are so puerile and contemplate that they
are scarcely entitled to any respectable con-
sideration. They may be deemed sufficient,
however, by the political and partisan admirers
of the President, to freely justify him in his
conduct toward Louisiana. But the impartial
and intelligent public cannot beimposed upon
by such specious arguments as he has put
forth to explain away one of the most palpable
and fragrant violations OF every principle OF
republican government.
The st Louis Republican, in reviewing the
message, thus speaks OF the Presidents DO.
sition:
"Considering that the present State aGministra.
ton of Louisiana had been the only government
in the State for nearly two years, that it has been
tacitly acknowledged and acquiesced in as such
by Congress and more than once expressly &C.
knowledged by me, | regarded it as my clear
duty, when legally called upon for that purpose,
to prevent its overthrow careful study of
these words reveals the preposterous doctrine
that any organization 'stactly acknowledged and
acquiesced IN by Congress and acknowledged by
me- az the lawful government Of State, is the
lawful government of that State, and must be
maintained by force of arms, if need be.
The organization thus recognized by Congress
and the President as the State Government may
be only dozen Of persons; the whole people
may be organized against it; it may be an usur-
patton of conspirators it may have any charac-
ter nevertheless-if it can manage to secure
from the President an acknowledgement and
from Congress a mere acquescence-it is the
State Government. III this doctrine be correct,
Republican President, WITH not the approval, bit
the mere acquiescence Of a Republican majority
in Congress, has authority to declare every one
Of the twenty-five Democratic States Of the Union
in rebellion, by recognizing the defeated Repub-
ican candidates as their lawful Governors.
The ''present State administration OF Louis
lana never had any existence, and could not
now live day, but for the support of the
Federal Government. The President, then,
cannot claim to have found government,
legally organized and in danger of overthrow
by armed resistance, and therefore entitled to
the support of the National Government He
first created the Kellogg fraud, and then hay
ing done so, consistency required him to
stand by and defend his bantling, bastard
as it was and as weak as it has shown its elf to
be in the eyes Of the whole country
So questionable was its birth that Congress
refused to acknowledge its legality, and has
compelled the President to shoulder the en-
tire responsibility of the usurpation in this
State.
In conclusion the Republican says:
Van the messages that the President has sent to
Congress on the Louisiana question, and all that
he may have occasion yet to send, cannot dis
lodge from the public mind the conviction that
he acted most unworthily in it. Had he done
till case had been made for his action. He
would have waited to see what the people of the
State would do-what government they would
have established and recognized.
After that would have come the time for his re-
cognition. 1t is no part of bis duty to determine
who was fairly and legally elected Governor in
State and, on that determination, to make him
Governor. If it were, why did he not make
Brooks, who. admittedly, received a majority
of the legal votes actually cast at the election
of 1872 in Arkansas, Governor Of that State: :
Why did he recognize Coke Governor Of Texas,
when it is notorious fact that the lection at
which he was chosen was illegal: The Presi-
dent did right in Arkansas and Texas and wrong
In Louisiana.
He made Kellogg Governor, and then recog-
nized him, interfering in matter which he
ought to have carefully avoided as long as posi-.
BILE. He made Kellogg Governor, not because he
believed him to have been legally chosen, for
with thas point he had nothing whatever to do,
but simply because Collector Casey and Marshal
Packard requested him to; and on this insiSnit
cant personal consideration rests the whole
Louisiana trouble.
Provisions L1oUoEs ErC.-Messrs n BidwelI
Co IS Magazine street, have large and select