The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-01-16
A pELUGE OF SMASH.

:
as a retailer of editorial swash, his success
was indisputablc and immense. 1t is a mod
crate calculation that when Cullen gets OF
his nerve, his swash power is equal To an nv
lerage Chicago sewer IN freshet. The tive
} columns of swash in the RepuJIicaa of Thurs
day on the Louisiana question strikingly cX
J emplify his wonderful capabilities in tina
4 line.
i While President Grant has found 1t neccs
sary TO transmit six column message to
congress to soften down and explain away the
brutality and laundering of Gen. Sheridan on
his advent at New Orleans, the Ottawa RepH6-
ltean finds nothing in his acts but what de-
serves unqualified approval and the highest
applause. In calling the white people OF the
south "banditti" Sheridan was only charging
the crimes that have been so rife there upon
the proper parties" and in proposing that
congress or the President should declare the
members of the white league outlaws and
turn them over to Sheridan and his drumhcad
courtmartial for punishment, he but indicat
ed the only proper and feasible remedy appli-
cable to the case
| Yet it is curious that neither President
Grant, nor Sheridan himself, with all their
strong inducement to do 50, can take the
! ReDublican's blOviant, swashbuCkler view of
the case. AT best GraHts Louisiana message
sent to congress on Wednesday, instead of
justifylng Sheridan, is but lame and impo
tent apology for his laundering; confession
of his ignorance and a discrcdtaElG partisan
harranguc to mitigate the popular indigna
ton that the diSgraceful business has evoked
But Sheridan was not'content TO leave the
entire business of framing proper apologies
and excuses to Grant and rushes into print
himself In his lengthy dispatch Of Jan. Sth
to the war department he cuts a sorry figure
as a special pleader Accepting his own &C.
count of the military operations in the Louisi.
ana state house as correct, he places the affair
IN as bad light as his bitterest opponents
could desire. The only point he makes is
that which the Republican adopts as the main
text of It's two columns of swash, TO wit, that
the conservative side, through Speaker Wilt.
first asked Dc Trobriand TO interfere ito pre-
serve the peace by his presence as L. S.
officer in the lobby. He then concludes;
I'm all this turmoil, in which bloodshed
was imminent, the military posse behaved
with great discretion. When Mr., Witt the
speaker of the house, called for
troops to prevent bloodshed, they were given
la. no., 81, nft hn lad
for posse for the same purpose and TO en-.
force law, 1t was furnished also. Had this
not been done, it is my firm belief that scenes
If bloodshed would have ensued' !
Has it not occurred to this Bombas!es and |
his hackers that the federal military had no
more right TO interfere at the solicitation of
one side than the other, and that the fact of
having doTe wrong in the one instance did not |
excuse a repetition Of the wrong? But the |
of the first military lnterfer.
ference and those of the second were not at |
all similar. Speaker Wilt did not ask the
federal officer to assist in organizing the
house and in choosing speaker and clerk,
Or TO unseat republican members and seat
members in their places. He
simply asked him to restore order among per
sons, not members, but outside of the legisla. |
ture, whose conduct threatened its safety and
the transaction of its business. II i
was no such comparatively harmless work as
this that was done by the federal forces at the |
nsligation OF Governor Kellogg-no mere
quoting of tumult in the lobby. There |
was no disorder in or about the house when
Gen. De Trobrland and his soldiers elected |
the conservative members, thus in effect re.
the Legislature which had already !
been organized. Instead of preventing a
"scene Of bloodshed," these proceedings tend. |
ed to precipitate one; because, if the con-
servative members, instead Of yielding, had |
resisted, there would certainly have been fatal |
collisions between them and the soldiers.
Nor has tho Free TRADER, nor have any |
democratic papers Of the north, pretended to !
the military interference with the .
Louisiana Legislature on the ground, as al .
legged by the RePpJd,an swashbuckler that
the legislature was duly organized, the
speaker and clerk duly elected &c. The .
question whether Wits legislature was
regularly organized cuts no figure in the
fight. ltmay or it may not have been Had
the interference OF the military not gone be. .
yond the comparatively harmless act OF clear
ing the lobby, there would have been little
but while it may be too much to
expect that such an idea should enter the
noodle of the RcpRJijcar editor, men of sense
can see vast difference between "clcaring Il
lobby and the usurpation 10y federal gen
eral of the power TO determine the qualihca
lions o!,hc members elected 10 the legislature
OF ore Of the free states Of this union
SITUATION AT NEW ORLEANS.
There Is very little change IN the situation
at New Orleans during the naSr week. Both