New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-03-13
AIYrHme. 10 BEAT THE COMPROMISE

II
the clerk of the House for an alteration
. | of the journal, or for having certified tn
passage of bill contrary, as the Pieaya'
says, to the State constitution. We hav
heretofore invited public attention to tn
caution of Speaker Hahn in requiring tn
verifcation of every bill by the record be
fore he would afix his signature, ant
have a right to infer that any bill whicl
has received his signature must have beef
in all respects formally lawful. At al
events, it would be extremely difficult t.
find any court that would go behind tn
PRONUNCIATION of law and suspend it
operation upon an allegation of dis
crepancy between the journal and tn
facts. If any law be unconstitutional, o
course that defect may be pleaded, bu
the force of published law does not de
pend upon the formal entries of the House
clerk. This we state to quiet any SUPPOSE
ton that any law promulgated need mo-
be obeyed until the courts shall have con-
frmed its authenticity, but by no means te
admit that Clerk vigers or Speaker Hahn
have in any respect violated their official
duties
The extreme scraples Of the Picayunt
in one column blings up case OF varia-
ton in the record which appears in an
other column Of the same issue.
It is upon the subject of the special
session. Without expressing any opinion
upon the propriety of calling the Legisla-
ture together, we simply deny that it was
ever condition Of compromise. To
maintain this assertion we 60 to the col
umns of the Picay4ne. We there learn
that at 2:3O P. NJ. on the twenty-fourth of
February vote was taken in the Conser-
vative caucus upon the Wheeler propo-
sition, which resulted in the acceptance of
the same. Speaker Wilt was authorized
to telegraph the action Of the committee
on to Washington, which was DONE"
We have, then, only to examine the
Wheeler proposition to see what the Con
sentative caucus did accept It will be
found to contain no conditions in regard
to the presence of the whole committee,
and none as to a special session of the
Legislature. The first variation of the
caucus journal occurs in this, quoted from
the Picayune:
Speaker Witt was authorized to send
IA %n1~ AL
1.-THE Wheeler proposition il accepted by
vote of thirty-f0ur to thirty three. 10Th the
understanding that the whOle Louisiana CON-
mittee Of SeUess act as arbitrGtOrs."
We have italicised the variation from
the published record. Who authorized
this condition? 1t does not appear from
the published record. That says that the
vote was taken "upon the Wheeler prop
osition, which resulted in the acceptance
of the same" Speaker Wilt was author
lied to telegraph the action of the COM
mittee on to Washington, which was
DONE" We are to infer then that some
person took the responsibility Of interpo-
latinga condition of the Wheeler PROPOSE
ton which the caucus had not authorized.
But these adroit diplomatists go further.
The representatives of the caucus at
Washington publish that the Conservative
caucus has accepted the Wheeler propo-
sition, subject to the conditions: l. That
all the members Of the committee shall
act as arbitrators. 2. That there shall be
a special session after the fourth Of March.
This certainly throws all the skill at
tributed to Clerk Vigers into the shade.
Here are two conditions. which did not
appear in the published caucus journal
snaked into this bill as it passed the
caucus. Who did this thing? Who had
authority for saying more for the caucus
than it had chosen to say for itself? Why,
those who assume the guardianship of the
Conservative members. They first resist
the adoption Of any adjustment at all
and then they vary the terms of that ad-
justment to suit themselves, and possibly |
to defeat it altogether. The Picayune
makes the following confusion of its own
record
And here we may remark that the REPUB-
LICAN, in presuming the Picdyune to err |
when it said that the calling of an extra |
session of the Legislature was part of the |
agreement, has overlooked the fact that
this condition also was attached by the
Conservative members to the acceptance of |
the Wheeler plan. The practical work of |
the arbitration is based upon that docu-
npnf q w dali 70 f1,o hor c~l,o
and when it reached them it
these two conditions-that the
whole committee should arbitrate, and that
there shouEd be an extra session of the
Legislature.
Why, the Picayunss record proves that
here was no conditions imposed on the
Wheeler proposition by the caucus. It
proves that the condition Of full COM
nittee was not authorized by the order of
he caucus, and that the condition of a
special session was not telegraphed by
order of the caucus at all. Yet it says
hat when the document-which, we sup
'ose, means the order of the caucus
cached the hands of the committee, it
both these conditions, neither
# which appear in the published journal
# the caucus at all. People may talk Of
he ingenious notifications of telegraphic
ruth effected by the agents Of the Asso-
lated Press. They may compliment
,lerk vigers upon supposed adroitness in
he transcription of the Legislative record,
ut this interlineation of the last words and
of the Conservative caucus
urpasses both. There has been pal