Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-01-18
NOT A LEGISLATURES.

A careful consideration of the proceed:
ings at the New Orleans State House on
The 4th. tends to strengthen the opinion
that the conservatives assembled there,
and claiming to be the legislature were
not 30. The question has been carefully
reviewed by leading lawyer of New York
man not in sympathy with Grants admin
istration, and his opinion was published
in the Times. He says the alleged legis-
lature was not legislature, but revolu
tionary body, which had seized possession
of the House by violent and illegal means,
and then had "by fraud or force so added
to their numbers as to become majority. !"
The New York Herald, which In former
issues severely denounced the President
and the military, and sustained entirely
the democratic view of the case, in its is
sue of Friday questions the legality Of the
pretended legislature, in an article stating
the facts very clearly. The moral sense
ofthe country" says the Herald, "cannot
be obiuscated by legal technicalities, and
1t is only by such technicalities that the
action of the conservative members of the
Louisiana Legislature can be justified.
Their action was clearly irregular. 1t
was only by an adroit parliamentary trick
that they made Witt, Speaker, and admit
ted the FIVE members who were not on
the roll. A law Of the State excluded
those members from any part in the Or
ganization. If the conservatives had had
majority without them there would have
been no temptation to parliamentary sharp
practice. because, in that case, the conser-
vatives could have organized the House
without their aid, and have admitted them
after deliberate inquiry into their claim
to seats. Tho conservatives confessed
that they were minority by the unusual
means they adopted to seat the dispu-
ted members, tor if they had a majority
without them the organization of the
House was safely in their hands, and there
was no motive for premature admission
OF members, whom the law excluded from
participation in the preliminary proceed
ings. The irregular haste with which
those members were seated is confess
sion that the conservatives had not ma
jority without them, for they would not
Otherwise have relinquished the great ad-
vantage of having the Law on their side.
The defence OF the conservatives is, there
fore, rather technical than moral, and
their claim to exemption from outside in
reference Is weakened by well founded
doubts Of their right to be considered as a
regular Legislature, organized according
to law. They gained an advantage by
sharp parliamentary trick Intended to cir
cumvent law of the State, and although
this does not justify or excuse Illegal mil.
itary interference, it makes great differ
ence in the moral estimate OF the transac-
lion formed by the country, and gives
color 10 the republican representations
that h was not . regular and duly organ
lied Leglslatprs liz. was interfered with
Ehs gssss ssssg ~ sse people care more
Tor substautlA. ,igh, than for technical
pnnctIiios, and since The Presidents dis
Chalmers they viii hare 30 fears that leg
islative independence wi.! be hereafter
unjustifiabiy interfered with. It is clear
that the Louisiana Legislature. on the 4th
ofJsnuary, was body as to whose legal
ity there might be reasonable difference
Of opinion"