The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-06-21

order to a general in New Orleans wrests
State Government from the people of Lou
| isiana and vests its control in the
creatures of the Administration. Sir,
even conceding that the decision IL
one or two of these cases accord
| ed with the rights of the people, there
stands the startling fact that all the lights,
peace and security Of these people hang up
on the precarious tenure of one mans Will
| or Caprice 1t is wonderful that beneath the
chill shadow of such a colossal despotism
| the hope and enterprise aud freedom OF that
people should wither and die!
Mr.. Speaker, my heart has on more than
one occasion thrilled under the tribute OF
applause paid by Northern members, who
were Federal officers in the war, to the
valOr Of Southern troops and the fOrtitude
of Southern people during the war. Sir, II
the conquest over self is the greatest Of all
victories, then that people deserve a still
higher need of praise for their conduct.ln
peace /: for, sir, they have borne unprece-
denied indignities, wrongs, expressions ana
torture with unexampled patience and Dig
nifty.
1t is true, sir, that in some districts, for
time tortured, gOaded and wounded, there
were neghboorhoOds in which misguided
men rose up, sometimes disguised, and IN
flicted bloody oscillations. And like all
innocent instead Of the guilty, and it served
only to call down upon the naked and de-
fenseless heads Of the people of the South
the wrath of this Government, which mis-
understood the outbreak, considering 1t as
the indication OF the temper of the South
ern people when it was only the indication
of their agony. These outbreaks that flashed
up here and there without concert and IT.
regular in their succession, were but signal
guns Of distress.
Sir the condition of these States is fully
illustrated by the events in which this con-
tested election originated, and but for which
it would never have existed.
/ have before me the House document re-
ferred to by the majority report: The OIL
cial dispatches contained in that report
show that the Executive Department of the
Federal Government, by it's own hand, in
time of profound peace, hurled out of exist
ence the civil government OF Louisiana
mean the Warmoth experimentation it
self had recognized as legal and constltu-
tional, and created another in its stead. We
have often heard it said that all the Presi-
dent did in Louisiana has been to enforce
the decisions of the courts. Sir, these dis
patches show on the contrary, that the
entire plan for establishing Kellogg's gov
eminent by the military power was In ad-
vance communicated to the Federal author
tiles at Washington from the very first step
to it's final consummatiOn, in every detail,
and that this plan received ths~ full sane
ton and promised cooperation. Strong as
this statement seems, you will be satisfied
that it is simply just if you will briefly
examine with me the record in this docu-
ment. i.
Mr.. Speaker, the real issue pressing upon
us for decision did not originate with the
Louisiana case. 1t underlies our political
system, and in it's results we are to find
solved the great question OF self-govern-
ment not for the South alOne, but for every
part of the Union. l know, sir, that i'll the
blind fight of factions the great peril is lost
sight Of in the presence Of the evils that
more Immediately affect the contestants.
But there is that involved in the real ISIS lie
which is of infinitely greater Importance
| than questions of many generations.
The antagOnism of races, as to the cause
of which / differ 50 widely from my friend
from New York (Mr. Smith), cannot last al
ways. With thirty seven millions of white
| people, increasing not only by the ordinary
| laws Of population, but by the tides of i'm
mgratior pouring in from Europe, to only
four millions of blacks continually falling
off in its percentage Of growth, with no
supplies from any foreign sources it does
"a
| it will take for the weaker and smaller race
to disappear before the more populOus and
stronger.
| So, too, the prosperity of the South may
| be utterly destroyed, and with it no small
| part of that of the North, whose present
distresses are in my opinion, not so much
due to the contraction or expansion of the
currency as to the rapid closing up of her
best market and the inpovershment of her
| Dat 1,,I Il al.
mate Of the South will still remain, and
long after we have passed into oblivion her
deep, rich sod will respond to the wants of
humanity, and the great Mississippi will
bear whole continents iu solution to the
Gulf, depOsiting and creating wider and
richer fields for cultivation. But the people
Of the United States cannot afford to have
destroyed the principles of constitutional
government and representative liberty. l
need not waste your time nor my strength
in eulogies upon our political system.
What it was previous to the late
war we all recognize and rejoice over.
What it is to be we cannot tell,
for we are in the midst of one of those
great political transitions in which a people,
deceived by the retention Of the form, are
in danger of losing the substance of free
government. Because their rights and lib
erty have to be won by bloody and violent
struggles. it is difficult for them to realize
that those very rights and liberties may ST.
lently disappear through the subtle, insdi-
GUS usirpations of power aud the unseen
and covert attacks Of political chicanery
and fraud. Yet such has been the history OF
tbs failure of republican institutions in all
ages.
Were not this so, the wrongs, the usurpa-
tons and the undisguised tyranny SO for
chilly depicted in the record have just read
were not possible. That which has happen
ed to Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama
and South Carolina, originates in an abuse
of power that is applicable to Massachusetts
New York or Ohio. The appeal l make fol
my own unfortunate section make for the
entire people of the United States. In wha,
l have said mean no assault upon the char
acter of the President. 1t is the system
against which protest, system which il
not merely centralizing all powers in the
General Government, but is also permitting
one department to usurp and hold them t,
the utter ruin OF the other two. l deplort
<ha a az nj Of COpuraSs in thosa ,,Surno