New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-03-17
WHOLE NUMBER 244l.

jorities, and, governed by such fact. h
could put very respectable Republican
majority in the next House; but he die
done. 1t would shock everybody. A
government OF liberty had it's chic
corner stone in reverence for law
and when any body of men having charge
of the government cast loose from that, they
would have revolution and the guillotine, az
in France: tumults and disorder of every
kind, as in Louisiana; besides, the tone Of
respect for the law would be lowered when
people only respected law because it was
backed by power. They would very soon
either become the abject slaves of tyrant
or would produce an explosion which would
carry them to anarchy, and the Republican
party had stood by law and insisted that
their Southern brethren should stand by it
also. Let the party be careful that it did
not make an example now worse than the
South had ever given. In one sense the
argued that the Senate was es-
topped, as the lawyers say, by the
| decisions of the Supreme Court of
| Louisiana. He (Edmunds) differed from
the Sen atOr from Indiana. The constitution
| OF the United States made the Senate, and
| not the Supreme Court of Louisiana, the
judge OF the election of it's own members.
The Supreme Court of Louisiana had as
little power to pass upon the question as to
ture of Louisiana as he (Edmunds) had as
q private citizen of Vermont No court,
no matter how broad its jurisdiction may
be, can, in government framed like ours,
declare to degree which can be binding
upon the Senate what body of men.
constitute the Legislature of State. If
State court should say the Legislature
of a State was not the Legislature, there
would be an active treason, and the judges
cOncurring in that opinion should be i'm
'peached. If that august body, sitting be-
tween the Senate and House Of Representa-.
tives. the Supreme Court, should declare
that the body Of men at the other end of
the Capitol was not the House of Repre-
sentatives, how long would it be before q
committee of that body would appear at
the bar Of the Senate with articles of i'm
peachment against the judges thereof9
. Mr.. Logan asked if there were two bodies
of men in State claiming to be the Legis-
lature theerof and two men claiming to be
the Governor how the people could ascer-
tain as to which they must obey if the
courts could not determine.
Mr.. Edmunds replied: If there were fifty
pretended governments in State at time
the courts of one could not decide upon the
legality of the other. Resuming his argu-
ment, he said he had listened to the argu-
ments of Louisiana for two or three years,
and he had not heard the most Jealous
advocate Of the Kellogg and Pinchback
side maintain the soundness of the de-
cision of the Supreme Court of that State.
The Senator from Indiana (Morton) had
argued that the Supreme Court of
the United States was bound to follow the
decisions of the State courts. He ed
muBds) thought the Senator from Indiana
WAS mistaken in this proposition, and read
from several legal decisions to show that
the Supreme Court did not follow the
rulings of State courts in the class of cases
mentioned by The Senator from Indiana.
MIR. Edmunds next referred 10 the argu-
meDt of Mr.. Morton that the credentials of
Pinchback made a prima facie case, and
said such an argument would have been
better in 1873, when the applicant first pre-
sented his credentials. He then read from
the journal to show that on the fourth of
December. 1873, the credentials of Pinch
back and Mcmillan were, on motion of Mr..
Morton, referred to the Committee on
Privileges and Elections. On the fifteenth
of December Mr.. Morton reported back
the credentials, with the report that
the committee was equally divided upon
the question whether Pinchback was en-
titled to be sworn in on his credentials, and
remitted the whole question to the Senate,
and on the twentieth of January, 1874, the
credentials of Pinchback were, on motion
OF MIR. Morton, recommitted to the Com
mittee on Privileges and Elections, and the
committee was authorized to send for per.
sons and papers.
utter confusion of terms to say that Pinch
back had prima facia case, and must be
admitted upon the merits thereof, or he had
no case at all. To be told now that the
Senate should admit Pinchback upon one
part of his case, and consider tho other
part at some future time, was, in all
due respect to the Senator from Indiana,
a wrong; to do 80 would be On act of injustice
to the other States which were Interested in
the next man who should be in the Senate |
who had not the right to be there. The |
Senator from Indiana had claimed that the |
President Of the United States had recog.
nized the Kellogg government, and he hav- |
ing recognized it, the Senate was bound to |
DO so. The recognition of Kellogg by the |
President was not the recognition Of the |
which elected Pinchback. |
He (Edmunds) denied that the Presi-
dent had recognized Kellogg. The Presi. |
that it was the duty of every body to obey |
The mandates of the law. Then came the |
revolution in Louisiana, and then came the |
President with the declaration that he |
would take the man whom the courts had |
put in possession, and uphold him until Con-
.ress should act. The President had ap-
pealed to Congress again and again to act |
n the case.
Mr.. Morton said the President had recog-
,ized. the Legislature which elected Mr. |
Pinchback. and read the dispatch of the
Attorney General recognizing the Legisla-
,ure in session at Mechanics Institute
NJ H. L.
hat dispatch, but did not construe it in the
ame way as the Senator from Indiana. If
hat Senator would do the President of the
United States the justice to take all he has
aid on the subject, take his immediate
to the Senate, stating the
which attended his interfer.
nee, then he would come nearer in de-
ming the attitude of the President
Though he (Edmunds) was bound to say,
8 Senator Of the United States,
hat the attitude of the President was ab
olutely immaterial to the Senate. He
new of nothing in the constitution or law
.iving the President the right to bind the
'enate, and the President would be the last
nan to claim any right to judge of what
he constitution has remitted to the Senate.
Jnder the constitution we are to decide
pon the election of Mr.. Pinchback, and
70 action of the President or any one else
ould bind the Senate. The question to decide
7as whether the body Of men electing
'inchback was the true Legislature Of
The constitution said only the
rue Legislature could elect . Senator, and
also said the Senate should be the Judge
+ the election Of it's own members. The
uestiOn must be met, and it must be de-
Jared once and for all whether the men
eturned as members of the Louisiana
legislature by board which had no evi.
ence before it, composed the true I.egisla-
lre of the State. 1t had been argued here
nat Louisiana was entitled to two