New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-08-22

having been cuffed and curried into q
sWhitS league organ ssves the R1RuS'
L1cAN some trouble in collecting the evi.
dence of an insurrectiorsry condition Of
affairs in Louisiana. 1t has filed plea
admitting the existence Of an armed in
surrection and proceeds to justify the
admitted disorder. Writing of the ere
ieved parishes, " it says that these people
were compelled to choose between quit.
ting their homes and compelling the off.
GERS of the parish to quit their Offices. In
indicating the expulsion of the parish
officers the PioayHne claims that the act
would be fully justified by every princi-
pie and sentiment recognized by freemen
and by republican ethics"
This illogical declaration is affirmed
upon the authority Of Algernon Sidney's
immortal apothegm, that Resistance to
tyranny is obedience to God" This axiom
is applied by a definition Of tyranny, and
the Picayune having predicated this tyran-
! ny of the parish officers evicted, the propri-
ETY. of the position is assumed to be COM
plete. Algernon Sidney was republican,
who denied and denounced the govern
ment of one man by Divine right. He was
appointed one Of the court which SEN
fenced Charles I. to the block. He was a
revolutionist, regicide and republican,
and we perfectly agree with him that this
capital arrest of despotism was ''the justest
and bravest action that ever was done in
England or anywhere else" But, in this,
Sidney never denied that he was in open
revolution against the government which
he disapproved. We defy any one to show
from his writings that he affirmed right
of any member of a republic to make his
individual opinion Of the legality Of an
administration reason for disobeying its
laws.
A violent and declamatory accusation
Of corruption by newspaper by no
means makes out case Of tyranny, and
it by no means justifes township in
taking the law into it's own hands if it
were 80. A citizen Of republic is a
voluntary party to the government. He
has bound himself to submit to its laws,
by whomsoever formally administered or
adjudicated. He has renowned his indi-
vidual right to obey or resist tie law, ac-
cording to his own Judgment. When,
therefore, one or more men, as in the
case Of the whisky instruction, were OF
opinion that license to distill, or tax
upon whisky, is tyrannical abuse, it did
not follow that mere private opinion of
what was or was not tyranny should be
the law Of their township. They were
taught that the judgment of legality
was in other hands, and their duty
as Republican citizens was to go to
the courts, prosecute their rights, test the
validity Of the law, and obey the decision,
as they had by their republican citizen
ship promised to do, and as their antago-
nists would have been compelled to do if
the decision were adverse to them.
The Picayune assuming tyranny" pro-
ceeds to assume that there is no legal
relief accessible to the people Of those
parishes. 1t says:
No regular legal relief is left to them.
The courts sustain and the executive otii-
Gals enforce these expressions.
Has this been tried? Is there evidence
that executive officials do not enforce the
laws of the land and the decisions of the
courts? Then the remedy Of these peo-
pie is to elect State and legislative officers
who will not be obnoxious to these COM
plants, and judges who will redress them.
It will be said that it is impossible to
elect representatives of tax resistance.
Very well; then, majority Of the people
of Louisiana differ from the malcontents
Of the parishes, and the majority must
govern according to Republican and even
Democratic principles.
We have repeatedly exposed, under
former administration of the Picayane,
that neither the higher law Of MIR. Seward
nor the notification of Mr.. Calhoun was
approved by the American people. The
majority must govern. However poor an
opinion one man may have Of the wisdom
or justice of the law he must obey it, or
withdraw (having first complied with all
obligations to the law from its jurisdic-
ton. No abolitionist could have set up
his opinion as to "the compact with hell''
as rule for refusing obedience to Chief
Justice fancy. No one could plead his
belief that his title to slave was sacred
and indefeasible right under decision of
Chief Justice Chase.
: The P;cayune, however, without the
formality Of announcing the withdrawal
or secession of some half dozen parishes
from the jurisdiction Of Louisiana, says
'the people in some half dozen parishes
have gathered in mass and waited on the
parish officials with demand for their
departure or resignation" The Picayauae
thus avows the fact that these people are
in open instruction against the legal
authority of the State, and SO re-
leves us of the necessity Of proving the
existence Of domestic violence" and a
a state of open and fragrant instruction
by people armed and organized to pre-
vent the execution of the laws by the off,
GERS formally elected and appointed to
execute them. We. can not suppose the
Governor to act upon any vague opinion