New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-01-09
GETTING MAD.

| Our readers will see by the papers Of to-day
| that the Indignation of the Loyal North at
| the New Orleans transaction is fast increasing.
1t is advisedly that we use the phrase which
twelve years ago was commonly chosen to de-
note the flower of the Northern population.
The Loyal North in those days meant nearly
all of us who preferred country to money,
hated oppression, respected the laws, and loved
liberty better than party. These are the men
who now exclaim most loudly against
the enormity of Gen. Grants Offense in
Louisiana. The call which we published
yesterday has received a formidable list
of fresh signatures, among which the
world will recognize the names of some
of the stanchest adherents of the Repub-
lcan organization and the steadicst friends
of the President. Take the men who
fought in the Republican party when it was
inspired by noble ambition and directed to
grand purpose, the men whose politics
were always self-sacrificng and heroic, and
you will find them nearly unanimous in their
sentiment upon this affair Every hour Of
the day brings us fresh voice of protest
1t is perhaps too soon to judge correctly of
the intensity of the general indignation, but
it looks now as if the people were rapidly
getting very mad indeed
Two years ago, when Kellogg was fraudu-
lenty and forcibly installed at New Orleans
the North looked on with divided opinions
The action of the President then was utterly
inexcusable to be sure, but it had at least
some show of apology, some faint pretext of
sanction in false Interpretation of the law ;
| and many persons also honestly believed that
IL. Il IL Il
made the Presidents interference all right
| But everybody sees at once that in the pres
ent case there is no question of MAORI
| ties and returns. 1t is of no mo-
| ment just now who was chosen to
the Louisiana Legislature or how the House
was organized. Grant all that the Kellogg party
claims on these points, and the usurpation re-
mains as bad as ever. 1t was none of the
| Presidents business whether those seven men
whom he turned out of the State House were
| lawfully admitted or not. 1t was none of Mr.
| KellOgg's business whom the Legislature saw
| fit to admit to membership. That question be-
| longed exclusively to the Legislature itself
| The crime of the President was not so much
that he decided it wrong as that be presumed
to decide it at all. If he had sent Gen. Sher-
iudu WIN q oIuou VI luCu iuJO LILO Du-
! preme Court TO clear the bench and
decide the pending question of the cOnstitu-
| tionality of the Enforcement acts by court
martial, he would not have committed Il greater
wrong The country would not have wasted
time in considering whether such a decision
was intrinsicaly just; it would equally have
| been an outrage, just unjust.
The country has seized as if by intuition
upon the salient points of this affair, and the
| sophistries of the carpet-bag party in Congress
and of the two or three Administration papers
at the North which reflect the bitter
partisanship of the Capitol are not
likely to deceive it. We seem to
be approaching one of those rare political
movements when the people, stirred by some
genuine honest impulse, forget the ties Of
| party, shut their ears to the entreaties of the
party leaders, and take the management of
| things into their own hands. Such move
ments are always spontaneous, and if the
| gentlemen who are wasting their breath and
ingenuity at Washington and elsewhere trying
to stave off the crisis were wise in their
generation they would know that they are
| irresistible.