The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-09-19


which they had but recently suffered ani
sacrificed SO much. 1t could not have
been intended to apply to any foreign
power, for the government of no State
could be subverted from without, until that
of the United States had been first destroyed.
1t did not even charge the duty of preserving
to the States, severally, their republican gov
ernments upon any specified department., but
it guaranteed that the forms of republican gov
| eminent which then existed, and which it was
taken for granted would be forever main
tanned by the States themselves, should suffer
no loss, degradation, nor subversion by the
United States, of whose central polity and Gu
mulative power our fathers we're wisely fe arful.
How this guarantee was observed we have ex-
hibited in the unlimited and unauthorized
| intrusion of the General Government into a
| contest between State and faction of its
citizens, in which it had no authority, what
soever, to interfere.
1t was too late to inquire into the wisdom
OF the reconstruction laws or the ultimate
effect Of the constitutional amendments. Ter
| rible as was the crime against nature itself
which subjected the high and ancient civiliza-
ton of free-born Anglo-Saxon commonwealth
to the rule of debased and ignorant Africans
held in immemorial bondage, but lately the
slaves of the very people over whom they were
had been committed, and there was no revolt.
fraudulent and disgraceful, and unconstitu-
tional as were the means by which the votes
of the Southern States had been secured for
the amendments, they had been finally passed
and submitted to. Tue rehabilitation of Loui-
siana was complete. She was an integral
part of the Federal Union, and her political
rights, privileges and standing were equal to
those of Ohio, or New York, or Massachusetts,.
Take what view he may of the relations be-
tween the States severally and the Federal
Government, there has been no respectable
jurist, anywhere, bold enough to assert that
the amendments conferred any authority on
the Executive, or mposed on him any obliga-
tions, not derived from the body of the Con
stitution. Louisiana was not in rebellion
against the Federal Government. Her rela-
tons to the United States and to her sister
States were in no wise disturbed. There was
no affectation even that she had violated any
constitutional obligation, or jeoparded the
rights, lives, or property of citizens of the
United States There was simply contest
pending between two parties within herself,
rival claimants to certain elective State Offices
when the hypocritical pretense was set up
that resistance was meditated against some
decree or mandate, not yet issued, of an
United States Circuit Court, and forthwith
Gen. Emory furnished The troops for the most
dastardly and outrageous crime ever perpe-
trated under the forms Of free government
But it may be argued that the United States
derived its title to interfere from the same Sec
ton of the fourth ar sicle of the Consultation,
which also provides that it shall protect each
State against domestic violence. True but
only on "application of the Legislature, or of
the Executive. when the Legislature can not
be convened" Were these conditions OBJ
served? On the contrary, is it not an inds-
putable fact that the Federal Government
created the domestic violence, to quell which
it provided the troops in advance that it Or
ganized anarchy. in the interest of certain
persons and classes? that it interfered directly
in the regulation Of our domestic concerns,
against the wish and in spite OF the protest of
the Governor (the Legislature not being in
SESSION., to create a Legislature which should
be the servant Of its will? Can it be shown
that any such prerogative, utterly unknown
before, was acquired by the Executive either
through the results of the civil war, or by |
virtue Of the amendments to the Constitu-
ton? This is one of the wild theories of the |
" party of great moral IDEAS" the ill-con- |
trived and deformed offspring of Radicalism,
rs foul and misshaped as any of that hell |
born brood which Death and Sin conceived. |
In November, 1872, Kellogg had filed bill |
IN chancery to perpetuate testimony, to assist
him as defeated candidate in a contest for
he Governorship in January, 1873. He
claimed that he had been deprived of the
negro vote-which Of course belonged to him
BY prescriptive title, the negro being the
bound serf Of Radicalism- through fraud and
Now the fifteenth amendment
it is true, "that the right of citi-
,ens Of the United States to vote shall not be
iol obriA hu fba mil "A Gfota |
~ any State, OF account of race, color or
previous condition of servitude." But was it
,ver charged that the State of louisiana,
n its corporate capacity, or through its con-
tituted authorities, by which alone State
IAN act had attempted to deny or
bridge the right of citizens to vote
N any account? Why the returns had
lot yet been made when Attorney General
Williams, under pretence of resistance to the
mandates of United States court, first set
Up usurpation by force of arms, and then
,ept it up under the shifted excuse of do
nestle violence" II this be constitutional
aw, the States which created the Federal
government have become its creatures, and
he people OF the States have no longer the
bility or power, or right to establish and
maintain their own governments. The whole
ystem has fallen in through sheer inability
o sustain its own weight. The Federal Gov
rnment is not the guardian only, but the
'arent of the States, and the farce of Democ-
acy, as was early predicted, is played out.
let the prompter at Washington put away the
uppets and ring down the curtain.
And how long can such armed interven-
ion-or recognition" according to the Off
ial phrase-continue? "For every act of
Interference" says profound jurist, for
very act of determination and of execution
r interference, the President must show a
ontinuing authority. The Legislature of
ne State may withdraw at any moment its (
squisition. The President has no power to
Ike upon himself the guardianship of the {
tate and perform acts of administration for
s government" And yet-withouta any further
eqnisition from the usurping Governor of J
louisiana, after the Legislature had ad- |
'urned, or from the Legislature itself when t
gain in session-trom month to month and '
.om year to year your streets echoed {
, the tread of the Federal army, +
our public squares blazed with the |
cam of Federal bayonets, the flash of a
Federal sabres Lit up the gloom of your Q
ark savannahs, the tramp of Federal horse G
urboI fha Sabbath o,;at IF vour ,,aaaaf,J !