The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1875-02-11

Thurman on Louisiana.

The logical and solid assault made by
Senator Thurman upon the audacious
conspiracy against the people of Louis
lana deies reply that can undermine
his premises or unsettle his conclusion.
This atrocious outrage done to the liber-
ties of the citizens of whole State is
continued by the support of the Kellogg
fraud and the persistent retention of
Sheridan. The President apparently
offered an apology for such an unparal
leled use of the military power, yet he
has done nothing to show his willingness
to undo the wrong. While admitting
that the military should not interfere
with Legislatures he still supports Kel-
logg and the minority which he forcibly
changed to a majority, and manifests no
signs of abandoning his original purpose.
Upon this plain fact does Judge Thur
man arraign him, denouncing his most
dangerous usurpation to the country in
language that comes from a patriot
rather than a partisan. His speech in
the Senate puts away all the incongruous
matter with which the Administration
followers seek to becloud the case, and
comes down to its few vital points. He
presents the essence ofthe whole matter,
the same which the people themselves
discovered with the instincts of an un-
erring judgment. With truth he charges
that the fraud and usurpation of 1874
were but the repetition of the fraud
and usurpation of 1872, and that the
Federal power upholds one as it upheld
the other. How is a community of citi
zens to be expected to remain quiet with
their elections turned against them and
the fraudulent Government imposed
upon them taxing them into state of
poverty, the public securities falling from
so to % per cent, their property disap-
pearing at Sheritfs' sales, and their busi-
ness industries shrinking and shriveling
to nothing? Yet if they grow uneasy
Sheridan calls on the PTesdeit ,n Is ,rb to RE2 z,
over to him. 1t ie TOO evident that the
| result of such outrages was expected to
be a general revolt, upon which as
preteXt second rebellion was to be de-
clared as existing in the South, and the
personal aims of the President to be ad-
vanced 10 the full limit of his desire
The Congressional Committee sent TO
Louisiana to inquire into the situation
reported emphatically against the frauds,
| intimidation and military force which
! had made it what it is. Foiled IN its eX-
| pectations, the Republican party in Con-
| gress, with trucking subservience to
the President, has sent second COM
mittee, which is notoriously engaged in
taking partisan testimony that shall con-
! tradict all which was given through
| Messrs. Foster, Phelps and Potter.
Senator Thurman makes a complete
| statement OF the issue when he says that
| it is simply whether the military power
| shall be put above civil authority in this
| country. The people regard it in pre-
ci ely the same light. This is the fla
| grant and most dangerous wrong against
which State Legislatures, Governors,
/ Chambers of Commerce, Boards of Trade,
| industrial associations, and long list of
| organizations, together with the people
| themselves in their capacity of citizens,
| have protested in tones that have made
! themselves heard from one end of the
| country to the other. 1t is this plain and
direct issue that throws the minds of all
rejecting citizens into the most serious
| apprehensions for the future of our re
| publican system. They have witnessed
| the expulsion of five elegally-chosen mem
bers of a State Legislature by Federal
soldiers, and ask where this usurpation
is to end. They have read the Presi-
dents seeming apology for the act, and
seen military rule remain undisturbed.
| They see Sheridan still in the place to
| "HleA hc hdS dSsi-Heu Dy liic ItSlutui
for specific purpose. They have noted
the pitiful yet bold excuse offered for
this military invasion by the President,
that it is impossible that the army should
be composed of lawyers, meaning that all
law was to become subordinate TO the
orders they may receive from their
t-superiors, the President being re-
sponsibie for the whole. The people
in protesting have by no means com
pleted the serious duty imposed on them.
They are summoned to repeat their pro
tests, increase their honest denuncistions
and continue their demands for the full
release of the people of Louisiana from
this audacious thralldom. They must
order that these usurpations cease for
ever in this country. Their work is only
hslf done as yet. So long as the Presi-
dent holds the Republican party in Con-
gress in his power, and it is ready to in
| dorse and sustain him with an unprece-
dented servility, waiting in obedient
silence for his next movement, offering to
double the army, to vote the appro-
priations whose control is given bv the
Constitution to another Congress just
| chosen by the people, and to grant him