The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-02-02
BY TELEGRAPH.
CONGRESSIONAL.
THE SENATE.

The SENATE.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1.-Mr. Pratt, of In
diana, presented the joint res olutions of tho
Indiana Legislature, in favor of granting pen
sions to the surviving soldiers of the Mexican
war; Ordered to be printed and lie on the
table.
Mr.. Pratt said this matter had been dis
cussed by the committee, but no conclusion
had yet been reached.
He sent to the clerks desk and had read q
letter from the Commissioner of Pensions in
answer to an inquiry addressed to him by the
chairman of the committee (Pratt,) in which
the commissioner states the estimated num-
Der of survivors of the Mexican war is 81, GOA
and the estimated number of widows of
soldiers, who served in that war, II, 6OO
Mr.. Morton, of Indiana, presented a memo
rial, signed by the officers OF the Women's
National Christian Temperance Union, and
one hundred thousand other persons, against
the manufacture, importation, or sale Of alco-
holic liquor, as beverage, in the District OF
Columbia. Referred to the Finance Com
mittee.
Mr.. Norwood, of Georgia, presented the
resolutions of the Legislature of that State,
condemnipg Federal interference in Louisi-
ana. Ordered to be printed and lie on the
table,
Scott, of Pennsylvania, from the Committee
on Claims, reported back several memo
rails for compensation for quartermaster stores,
taken by the army during the late war, and
the committee was discharged from further
consideration OF the same. He said these
claims could have been filed, under the
statute, before the Commissioner of Claims
before the time expired, as bill was now
pending before Congress to extend the time
for filing claims Of this character.
The Committee on Claims had decided to
take no action on such claims until the policy
of Congress ON extending the time could bo
settled. The Senate then resumed the con-
sderation Of the resolution of MIR. Schurz,
instructing the Judiciary Committee to inquire
what legislation is necessary by Congress to
secure to the people Of Louisiana the right of
self-government under the Constitution. Mr..
West, of Louisiana, and Mr.. Merrill, of YER
mont, spoke.
When the Louisiana resolution of Schurz
was called, West, of Louisiana, said having
already occupied the time of the Senate on
this question, he felt some hesitancy in again
speaking but some features not yet touched
upon forced him to do So He proposed to
show, if it had been designed by the Govern
ment of the United States to overthrow the
Constitutional Government in Louisiana and
establish in its place military despotism, as
had been charged here, there had been
earlier and better opportunities to do it.
He then referred to the report of the sub
committee of the House, of which Mr.. Fos-
ter was chairman, which recently visited Lou
islana, and said that the document SO fire.
quently quoted from by the Democrats, was
simply q Democratic brief, and presented con-
illusions without the evidence to sustain them.
In 1868 there was universal scene of muir
der, violence aud pillage throughout the
South, and in Louisiana the Safe authorities
feeling themselves unable to suppress them.
had appealed, under the Constitution, to the
Federal power for aid.
He read from testimony before committee
of the Senate of two years ago and kilograms
passed between himself and the Governor at
the time, and said he advised the Governor
then that he was placing himself in a false
position to call upon the President tor troops
until he should exhaust the power of the State
to put down violence. The Democrats were
now making great outcry against military
but in 1872 they called upon the
President to dispense the Legislature of that
time.
The Democratic members of the bar of
New Orleans, q Democratic mass meeting.
Democratic Judges upon the bench, all be-
sought the President to dispense that Legisla-
ture but what was the answer of the Presi-
dent then? He said troops could not be
used, except under provision OF law. The
President was not responsible for an act Of
his subordinate in the recent interference, AZ
he was not aware Of it and had said in his
that it was not his desire to have
United States troops interfere in the af-
fairs of Louisiana, or any other State.
He argued that it was inconsistent in
the Democrats now after Andrew jackson had
arrested a Judge in 1914, after the Kansas
Legislature had been dispersed by a Demo
cratic administration, and the members of
the Maryland Legislature arrested by one
whom they afterwards sought to make Presi-
dent, and after they had themselves asked for
Federal interposition in New Orleans, to say
that the pillars of constitutional liberty were
tumbling down. Mr.. West then sent to the
clerks desk and had read the terms of Ca
pitulation between Grant and Lee at Apo
mattox Court house, and said all the records
refuted the suppositiOn that President Grant
would ever seek by force to subvert the con-
stitutional privileges of the country to mil
itary despotism.
Any effort to make the people Of this coun-
try believe that was about the ARREST bubble
which ever filled an empty head or a head
overcrowded with ambition. He next referred
to the Supreme Court of Louisiana and said
tie judges thereof were natives of the State
and no disrepute had ever attached to them.
The Democrats at one time wanted to make
the Chief Justice of that court the Executive
of the State, but he declined the nomination.
The attacks now made upon the judges of
that court were made because they were men
who had courage to construe the law accord
ing to right and justice and the oaths by
which they were bound.
He then read an affidavit of Todd and Hun
saker, who were members of the Mechanics
Institute Senate, and afterward went over to
the McEnery Senate, to the effect that the re-
turns which made it appear McEnery was
elected, had been cenvassed before they come
into the possession of the board, and that
some of the signatures thereto were forgeries,
and further fair count of the returns would
have shown that Kellogg was elected Cover
nor in 1872. He next referred to the state
ment OF the Senator from Ohio (Thurmah) to
the effect that seventy-one votes were cast
when Witt was elected Speaker, and said it
was q tvpOUranhica1 error in oua of ma panoYa