The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-01-05


ment I'm Louisiana.
There was witnessed in the Louisiana State
House yesterday spectacle which is the frst
of its kind in this country, and which should
cause every true American to blush with
shame and indignation. A body Of federal
troops entered legislative hall, took the
Speaker from his chair and forced number
of protesting members from their seats and
marched them out with soldier on each side
prepared to drag them along if they resisted
We congratulate the citizens Of Louisiana and
the people of the country that this extraordi-
nary and most revolving scene did not pro-
woke violence and bloodshed. Forcible re-
sistance would have been justifable in this
case if it be ever justiAable in any case-for .
greater outrage on every principle OF free gov
eminent was never perpetrated-were it not
for the fact that the people of Louisiana have
q surer resource for the redress of their griev-
ances in the sense of justice of the whole coun-
try and in the public resentment which will be
kindled to the highest pitch by these atrocities
and unexampled proceedings.
Every maxim of free government was vio-
lated and trodden under foot by the federal
interference yesterday with the organization
of State Legislature. Our Declaration OF
Independence denounced the King OF Eng
land for making the military superior to the
civil authority, and for dissolving representa-
tive houses for opposing his invasions on the
rights of the people President Grant has
done these very things by the use he made of
the federal army in New Orleans yesterday.
Of course the responsibility must rest on
General Grant, for without his orders
none of his military subordinates would
have dared to interfere with the
organization of State Legislature. It
cannot be pleaded that this was done to
preserve the peace, for tho citizens of New
Orleans were never more quiet and orderly
than at the time this great outrage
on free institutions was perpetrated. It
is principle which pervades our sys-
tenn Of government that every legislative
body is the sole judge of the qualifications OF
its own members and of their right to seats-a
principle so sacred that courts of justice never
we are suddenly brought to such pass that
federal troops undertake to decide who are
entitled to seats in State Legislature and to
eject members by force. The outrage is not
e1tenuated by saying that the federal troops
acted in obedience to Governor Kellogg, as
was pretended, while these shameful scenes
were enacting. No Governor of any State has
the least shadow of right to interfere with the
organization of its Legislature. Every State
constitution, like the federal constitution,
explicitly makes each legislative house the
free, sole and unlimited judge Of the right Of
claimants to sit as its members. Kellogg has
no more right to decide that certain persons
are not entitled to seats in the Louisiana
Legislature and to put them out than the
President has to pursue similar course
respecting members of Congress Kellogg
is guilty of q new usurpation when he
assumes to make such q decision, and
President Grant acts in the arbitrary and
insolent spirit of C@sarism in encouraging
such interference on the part of Kellogg and
supporting him in it by the rude hand of mill
tary violence. No rights are held SO sacred
in all free governments as those of their Legis
latures. All free constitutions protect them
from every kind of Executive interference
Their members are privileged from arrest;
they cannot be called in question in any othe,
place for words spoken in debate; they can be
expelled only by two-thirds vote of the
house to which they belong, and the ultimate
decision on their right to seats is vested ex.
clusively in that house and cannot be re-
viewed or reversed by any outside officer O,
body. All these constitutional principles,
which have always been deemed essential tc
| free government, were trampled under foot
the orders of President Grant.
His only right to interfere in the domestic
affairs of q State is for the purpose
of suppressing violence. There was nc
violent resistance yesterday, either to State
authority or federal authority, nor any Offer
of resistance or imminent danger of any.
The President has no more right to unseat
members of the Louisiana Legislature than he
has to unseat members of the New York
Legislature. The act Of Congress which
confers all the authority be possesses to
employ federal troops in State empowers
him to use them only in case of IAN insurrec-
ton in State against the government
thereof" The peaceable organization of the
Louisiana Legislature was not an insurection
and justified no such high-handed proceed
ings as those which took place yesterday.
The Presidents authority is limited in every
case to the mere suppression Of violence and
preservation Of order, and no stretch of the
statute can make it extend to the organization
Of Legislature and judging of the election
and qualifications of its members. What
General Grant has caused to be done in New
Orleans will prove finishing and irretrievable
L