New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-10-29
FEDERAL SOVEREIGNTY.


He must know little Of the n'Ature Of
our institutions who does noe see that
the war, and the conseqrent amend
ment of State constitutions, have placed
the whole South in linz with the whole
Union, in acknowledging federal SOW
ereignty. Louisiana has embodied this
in her constitution.
The citizens of this State owe allegiance
to the United States. and this allegiance 10
paramount to that which they owe the
State.
Now, for the first time, has been truly
realized that which was written by the
proto-RepubGcan, Thomas Jefferson:
1--WE are all Federalists. We are all
Republicans"
This acknowledged sovereignty I'M
poses on the federal government the duty
to preserve order everywhere throughout
the Union. Some persons pretend to think
that the presence of federal troops in
Louisiana is intended to affect the coming
election. Others suppose that it is from
sympathy with people who are threat
ened with the privation OF a right given
them by the constitution. The object OF
sending troops here is to maintain the SOW
ereignty of the federal government, and
compel obedience to its laws everywhere
within its jurisdiction. This renewed
and established duty is concurrent with the
unanimous constitutional admissions OF
every State in the Union. 1t will be and
has been executed in the streets of New
York, in the wilds of Montana, among
the noun tains Of Utah, precisely as it is
exercised on the disaffected inhabitants
of Louisiana to-day.
These soldiers and officers are as i'm
partial and impassive as the weapons they
WELD. Compliments do not seduce nor
threats terrify them either into imbecllity
or into violence. They will obey the or
ders Of their commander-in-chief as he
obeys the command Of the law, whose
executive he is. Were these soldiers Or
dered to suppress domestic violence, or to
execute the federal law in Connecticut
were they ordered to arrest or shoot down
men calling themselves Republicans for
disobedience or resistance to the law,
there would be no change in their de-
meanor or in their duty. These soldiers
of the republic would obey the order
of the law; for the military, under our
constitution. is subordinate to the civil
authority. Like the grim and uncom-
promising Cromwell, if be found himself
opposite the King in battle, he would fire
his piece into the bosom of the King as
soon as into that of another man. These
soldiers of the land are neither partisans
nor mercenaries.
The lawful orders Of the sovereign
people against the lawless and disobedient
are written with the bayonet and may be
punctuated with the cannon shot. In this
country alone is military force but the
weapon with which the people execute
when resistance or evasion renders it
necessary-the will Of the people. Else
where these deadly weapons are employed
against the people. Here the sympathy
of the whole people is embodied in the
government Of the whole people. Every
sovereign may confiscate, if need be, the
whole power and resources of the State TO
the defense of the State. The United States
is sovereign; aye, every inch sovereign,
and must be respected and obeyed ac-
cordingly.
From this may be seen by rejecting
men that the White League advice to re-
sist the federal laws for the sake Of Great
ing elsewhere sympathy for resistance is a
fallacv. The entire Northern States
always maintained the paramount au-
thority Of the Union. They were always
Federalists. Is it probable, then, that
these Northern and Western States will
be either frightened from their own doc
trine or moved by sympathy 70. party
martyrs to abandon that for which they
lost half million OF lives? As well ex.
pect those who believe in the justice OF
capital punishment to renounce their
convictions for sympathy in the struggles
of convicted offender.
The people of the United States who
established at such inestimable cost the
doctrine of federal sovereignty, will not
derogate from that sovereignty. They
dare not do so. The White League lead
ers can bear for the sake Of their princi-
pies the arrest, imprisonment: and posi-
BILE punishment Of their friends and
neighbors 70. violation Of federal law.
The people Of the United States who
have suffered so much to establish fed
eral sovereignty, will look with equal
upon the party martyrs APP
pointed 20 overthrow and defeat federal
sovereignty.
We shall regret greatly TO see ignorant
and excitable men taken from their
homes and tried for their liberty. on the
forlorn hope of overturning federal SOW.
ereignty. 1t was effectually tried by the
late Ku-Klux, and proved q sad failure.
NATURALIZATION QUESTION.
The full faith in the soundness Of the
conclusions Of Attorney General Field On