The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-05-18

- n the Common Law. The three depart
nents Of the government ara separate, dia
dnct and independent, and they are pun
Posely made 20 from conviction based upol
long experience, that this Is necessary if VI
would prevent such q concentration Of powe
~ would constitute tyranny. As well nigh
the Legislature send sergeantat-arms t
remove the Governor from his room when n
Il regardless Of the prophecies of life, or thu
judges from the bench when they are guilty
OF indecorum. The proceedings in the one
case or the other would be palpable usurpa
ton which might lawfully be resisted ever
unto death.
But justifying the Governor does not neces.
nrily justify the military force. This is CON
subject, and they fall back upon the pro-
vision in the Constitution Of the United States
which requires the United States ION appli.
cation Of the Legislature, or of the Executive
when the Legislature cannot be convened,
to protect each State against domestic vic.
lonce." This provision seems in the opinion
Of some persons, to constitute the ever ready
instrument by means of which the Federal
Government may overturn the administration
Of . State when it proves out Of harmony with
the prevailing Federal policy. Even while
vs are writing, an attempt 70 revolutioni.e
the State of Arkansas under pretense of this
authority has barely failed. But the utmost
violence to the language cannot make tt cover
this case In the first place, there was no do
mestic violence. This term evidently implies
. degree of force which cannot be sup.
rressed by State power, and
the remedy is regarded an ex-
treme one. But the violence" had not
gone beyond threatening exhibition OF pis.
tolls by few persons; and with the building
itself in the hands Of . friendly military
force, Gov. Kellogg's police must have been
greatly wanting in courage if they could not
have preserved order among the few persons
Who, by grace OF the military, had been admit
ted TO the hall. In the next place, the Legis-
lature could be convened, and actually had
been. Therefore, there was no authority in
the Governor to make application for help,
and the Legislature made none. Indeed, the
application for force was with view to en-
yloy it against the only authority that, by the
Constitution, under the circumstances, could
lawfully have called for it. The case was
consequently the exact opposite of that in
which the Constitution contemplated Federal
action. But, in the third place, even the
Governor did not make application to
'sthe United States" He applied to Gen.
De Trobriand. That gentleman may be
every way honorable and respectable; he
may be thoroughly competent to deal
with al those questions of law and Constitu-
tional right which sometimes perplex the
minds of lawyers and statesmen in contested
elections of Representatives, but he is not the
representative of the sovereignty of the Union,
and empowered Is such to decide upon appli-
cations for aid in suppressing violence.
L. eli kn~G - -
Gen. Emory, his immediate superior, can
that officer be regarded as such repre-
sentative. It is plain, therefore. that the
Constitution of the United States furnishes
no justification whatever to the proceedings
Of the military force, which broke up Legis-
lature and led five of it's members from the hall,
as King of England, two centuries and half
ago, hazarded his head in doing; hazarded
and justly lost And let it not be said any
more that these five persons were not men,
bers. They were elected by the people; the
election was certified by board composed of
their adversaries; the Congressional Commit
tee of seven members unanimously reported
that there was no ground for contrasting their
right. They thus have both State and Fed
eFal testimony to Their election. But, per.
haps, most conclusive testimony of
eli is the fact that the Chairman
of the Returning Board, who could make oath
to facts of which he knew nothing, in order
10 unseat others, did not venture to decide
against them. Surely, the case must have
been very plain in their favor when it could
thus be passed over by this board without
seating others in their place.
We have endeavored to consider this case
from purely legal and constitutional stand
point. It is unfortunate that it has been OBJ
scured, somewhat, by it's supposed necessary
connection with party politcs. 1t has no
such connection. It concerns the rights and
liberties of all the people and all the States,
and one party has the same interest in reprov-
ing the outrages Is the other. It as far tran
sends in importance all mere party questions
81 this time, as the life Of free State transsends
In value the salaries Of few Offices. The
party which nominally gains by these wrongs, |
for which these furnish the precedents. But
indeed no party in free government can pos
sibly gain BY the destruction of the liberties Of
any. It is like Q great destruction by fire, in |
which the whole community must necessarily |
suffer. Indeed, Kellogg and his associates |
belong to no party, but that of themselves. |
A Republican Senate has indirectly con-
demned the Kellogg government by declining |
to admit to Q seat q Senator chosen by it. The |
House has reI eated the condemnation, by |
ejecting the members returned by fraud in |
1872. A committee, mainly of Republicans,
while declining to pass upon KelloggB cleo
ton, has unanimously censured the usurpa-
ton of 1874. The leading lawyers among the |!
Republicans Of both houses, have generally
united in the opinion that the proceedings Of
the pretended State government, ever since
1872, find no support in the Constitution or
the laws of the State The best sentiment of |
the Republican press is to the same effect.
Before this general sentiment the usurping
judge abandoned his Office in dismay, with
the alternative presented to him Of probable
and removal by Republican
Congress, if he should fail to resign. No
man, therefore, can be accused of partisan
ship who unites his voice in the general
condemnation, or who, for the sake of
the perpetuity of free institutions threat
ened by such measures, and certain to
be destroyed by their repetition, enters his
protest as an American citizen against him.
An act, like that OF Gen. De Trobriand,