The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-02-12

Thugs and murderers, because they are no
silent under it all-when hear Lieutenan
General Of the Army Of the United States de
: mand that they be declared "bauditti" by al
f Executive proclamation, and handed over t,
9 military commission SO that he NAV crust
them with his gauntletted hand, 1 feel tina
there Is no extent OF human indignation
which can rise to the level Of it. The people
thus threatened and maligned have neverthe
Less borne it all with fortitude and courage
;. unparalleled-an endurance such as no free
t people were ever called to exhibit before
, After Gen. Grant had given them the saliva
tlon OF which l have spoken, they submitted
, with patience to the military power of the
Government, until at the last popular election
they indicated their rights aud lawfully as
serted and re-established their political su-
premacy.
I What followed? Once more the Republi
} can party required to be saved and the army
| OF the United States was summoned for its
second salvation. The Legislature of Louisi-
ana had just begun its organization. Upon
every principle known to representative gov
eminent, that Legislature was the Judge, and
the only judge, of the qualifications of its
own members. Neither Governor nor Presi-
dent had la gful part or lot in determining
whether they we're qualified or not. And yet,
In the face of this, and of what every man
who knows anything knows to be the law,
the soldiers of the United States-your SOL
diers and mine, felow-citizens the soldiers
OF the people Of this land, and not the SOL
diers of the Presiden-are placed at the dis
posal Of the pretended Governor of Louisiana,
to drag from the Legislative hall Of the State
the Representatives of her people-American
citizens Of gray hairs and honorable and pa
triotic lives
The President sends in these troops at KEEL
loggs bidding to repeat, in all that was pos
sible Of pettiness, the usurpation to which the
Cromwells and Napoleons at least gave gran
deur. Aud who was his chosen agent to con-
summate this work? 1t was Gen. Sheridan
whom he selected for the performance OF this
duty" And who is Gen. Sheridan? No
desire to win any mans applause shall induce
represented feelings which 1 did not share, and
gave his sword to the support of what did
not sympathiZe with, shall prevent me from
| giving him the credit which belongs to him
as soldier, and of which he would have de-
| served more, if his reputation had not been
linked with the devastation of war rather than
with its glory.
| The President selects him to engage in this
work of salvation. And what manner of man
is he? saw in the papers, and | have no
doubt it is true. for it came from the Asso-
ciated Press, and it has not been denied, an
account Of an interview that was had with
Gen. Sherman, the General-in- Chief of the
army. He thinks well Of Gen. Sheridan, be-
cause he is a man who will obey orders, and
who would burn the city of New Orleans as
readily as an Indian village, if he were ordered
to do so! That is the sort Of man, fellow
citizens, who governs through military COM
missions" that is the sort Of man, the exper-
fence of whom taught our fathers that the
itor oh 1oIu N
civil power.
Orders? Orders? The fitness Of man to
execute the most delicate trust that could be
confded to an American citizen lies in his
readiness to obey orders? Whose orders
The orders Of the Constitution? The orders
Of the Americas people? No but the orders
Of the President and Kellogg. That sort Of
man, that sort of insoence and trash has to
be put down, my friends, and the soldier who
leads American armies, or fights in their
ranks, must be taught that his glory or duty
does not consist in being Hessan or Cos
sack. He must be taught that the first order
he should obey is the order of the Constitu-
ton and the laws Of his land, and that
soldiers
OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW
is the only thing which makes the distinction |
in his calling between the trade of murder
and the honorable profession of arms. The
President then, sends this deputy of his
down there, and the first thing he does is to
discover that there have been several thou
sand people murdered during the last few
years on account Of their political opinions;
that the whole country is swarming with ban
ditti, and that Congress OF the President
should declare them bandtti, and then will
save Congress, he says, the necessity Of any
further legislation upon the subject. Leave
them to me!
Fellow-citizens, do you measure the height
and the depth Of the insolence of that
Leave a large portion of this country Of ours
to me" And, forsooth, who am "I?" Do
you know, fellow citizens, what O military
commission is? A drumhead trial and
short and bloody shrift My venerable friend
here turning to Mr.. Reverdy Johnson) knows
what military commissions are. The blood is
hardly warm in his heart yet, that was curdled
by his experience of their wicked and cruel
emo nifty. In the light of such pretensions
as Gen. Sheridan has the audacity thus to set
up, do we e1aggerate, think you, in using
The language of the resolutions you
have heard? What is a military despot-
ism but the despotism Of eSome one
man, the despotism OF some "me," rem
dered worse than the despotism of mere
man by being the despotism of brutal
soldier? Now l had hoped-somewhat
against hope, confess-that the President of
the United States, when the opportunity was
offered to him, would relieve himself from the
,dium of this, and of the approval of it
sscribed to him by his Secretary OF War; that
he President would have said: The senti-
nents uttered by Gen Sheridan are unworthy
If his position as an officer the United States.
they are an insult to the nation, and he !
should no longer stand one instant in the COM
nand of which he has shown himself SO utterly
i
Ie grants hat Sheridan didsuggest m easures
which could not be exactly legal, although he
that it would be q great blessing to /
he country if they re- That is to say, it ;
would be God-send to this country, he :,
links, if the whole subject the destinies of
hree or four States, and the liberties, lives 4
nd institutions Of their peolae could be
handed over to "me." And he says that the :
oldiers of the United States are not lawyers
nd that ssCln EboriNoxE. Voc 1onkiup of | {