The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-02-08

asaults." Speaking of the State governments
formed after the Revolution he says, ''But
none of them provided for the creation
Of power external to itself, which might
stand as the guarantor and protector of their
new institutions, and secure the principles
on which they rested We submit, with all
Difference, that the chapter from which these
extracts are taken is pitched in very differ
ent key from Mr.. Curtis present letter
The letter seems to US hardly more consist
emit with itself than it is with his book. The
main drift of his reasoning goes on the as
sumption that the Louisiana difficulty is q
mere case Of disputed election, and yet he
says, "Nobody can pretend that the Kellogg
government is anything but usurpation.
Now, according to Hamilton, whom Mr..
Curtis SO greatly extols in his book, usurpa-
ton is one of the very evils the federal guar
antee was intended to redress Hamilton
said, in the Federalist, "a guarantee by the
national authority would be as much levelled
against the usurpations of rulers as against
the ferments and outrages of faction"
1t appears, from the same number of the
has gone over to the very view against which
that statesman argued. 1.-The inordinate pride
of State importance, said Hamilton ''has
suggested to some minds an objection to the
principle of a guarantee in the federal govern
ment as involving an oficious interference in
the domestic concerns of the members. A
scruple of this kind would deprive us OF one
of the principal advantages to be expected
from the Union.''
Mr.. Curtis contends that Louisiana has not
been deprived of republican form of govern
ment, because its written constitution is still
in existence. We answer. it exists, not as
constitution, but as certain pages Of written or
printed paper. The State has neither an Ex-
ecutive nor o Legislature whose title is sup
ported by that instrument. Mr. Curtis ad-
mits this but still maintains that the paper
constitution is republican form of govern
ment Now, it is too evident that govern
ment must exist before it can have a torm I'M
less we erect into political doctrine that GRO
tesque fancy of Hudibras, in which
he ridicules an idea of the schoomen that
matter may exist without form. Mr. Curtis
seems TO put on the word Storm" the emphasis
which belongs to the word government"
Louisiana has government, but its form is
not republican. The Kellogg usurpaton
does not conform TO the constitution, and
there is no government in the State which
does. A government republican in form-not
the mere draft of form, without any gov
ernment-is what the federal constitution
guarantees to each State. Mr.. Curtis thinks
State would still have republican form of
government if every State Office were vacant.
But in that case it would have no government,
either of the republican form or any other
form. There would be nobody who could
legally hold an election, count returns, ad-
minister oaths, receive and certify official
bonds, or do any legal act toward the forma-
ton of government. We would gladly be
informed how State can have government
republican in form when it has no govern
ment at all. One might as well contend that
the human form can exist apart from any
object that bears it.