New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-10-15
THE DEMAND UPON THE SCHOOL BOARD.

| utiHhNu tife feblSnauOn OF Ine OBNOXIOUS
officers or the forbearance to enforce the
terms of the annoying law. What can we
call this right? 1t certainly does not arise
under the Republican doctrine of the rep
resentative duty to obey the will of the
constituent body, once so much respected.
The right to instruct and the obligation
to obey depended upon the ascertained
will of the constituency, and there have
been cases in which a Southern repre-
sentative has counted the signatures of
| legal voters appended to instructions in
order to ascertain whether majority de-
sired him either to obey their will or re-
sign. Nothing less than majority of
| such signatures was held to bind the rep
! resentative.
The New Orleans practice, however, diff
fers. If an incumbent hold an office or
an officer enforce law it is held to be
the right of the opponents of the in
cumbent or of the law to demand resigna-
ton of the Office or suspension of the law.
The man who could not be beaten at the
polls and the law which could not be de-
feated in the Legislature can be evicted as to
the one and annulled as to the other by the
minority which had failed to defeat either
according to the forms of law. There
has been but one example of this sort of
action in civilized history. A Partisan
mob surrounded the representatives of
the people, and few clubs dictated po-
itical action in the name of twenty mil
lions of people scattered throughout the
republic of France. Are we under the
rule of Gallo ideas? Do we live under
the law of suffrage or under the
sway of arms? Shall number less than
a majority, assembling in the fields and
squares, command formal government
to obey their ordering. 1t really seems
so from the course pursued by the in
quisitors of the school board. 1t would
appear absurd that minority meeting of
the voters should order the resignation of
commissioned and sworn officers, or the
suspension of an unpopular law, without
the means to enforce their order. Then
comes another popularity of our higher
law. The minority of voters boast them |
selves more skilltul marksmen than the
majority, and give notice that unless their |
order shall be complied with, personal
violence will be employed to compel the
resignation of the officers or the suspen-
sion the law. Thus Governor Kellogg
was summoned formally to abdicate his
office. Failing to compel this capitula-
ton, his Office was carried by storm.
The officers OF several parishes have been
summoned to surrender in like manner,
and in some cases have fed, in others
have been slain.
The School Board processes itself will
ing to be tried in the person of any mem
Der objected to according to any form of
legal investigation. 1t could not refuse
such trial. 1t could not protect mem
Der if it chose to attempt such a thing
The specific objections made in the COM
nittee letter addressed to the State Super
ntendent of Education will, no doubt.
receive attention at the hands of that
officer, but the School Board has no'power
% vacate the seats of its members, and if
hey were all scared out of Office by fear
% assemble, it would not annul their indi-
7idual commissions. This individual
light to Office can not be repealed by the
lcts of corporate colleagues. We infer
he Democratic remedy Of Louisiana for
he willful refusal to resign to be assassi-
,ation, or some minor mode of minatory
motion from Office. We believe his ex-
'ellency, Governor Kellogg, has passed
trough all these modes, from the pistol
hot Of some malcontent, the storm and
'apture of his authority, to the scurrilous
1buse of anonymous publications Is the
school Board to apprehend the same
course of intimidation? We are to infer
70 from the following phrase. The Bul-
etin, speaking in the name of the coun-
cuJo VI tAS OcaOol bOdTu.
The Country" is weary of them, and
would be glad to get them off it's tired
hOulders.
We presume that nowhere except
n Louisiana would newspaper and
rowd of curious people and sensational
ARTISANS assume to speak for the country,
Tor would such limited constituency
propose in the name of the country to get
id of the School Board by any other than
egal means. This last radiance is OBJ
curely intimated in this sentence:
The country is as wearied of them as Sind
'ad was Of the Old Man of the Sea, and if
i can do no better, will get rid of them as |
le did OF his living nuisance.
We are aware that upon indictment for
having melted an instruction our con-
could scarcely be convicted |
'pon the testimony Of this paragraph.
,indbad, according to our recollection, was
Ifiicted with San Old Man of the Sec
rst as the Democratic party has been in
he Ohio election. Sindbad had carried
his deadhead for long time without
,eing able to outwake or throw him off in
my manner. Wandering one day, Sindbad
ound some wild grapes. These he
queezed into gourd canteen, and left
he juice for fermentation. A few DAYS
flor he hora his y,or<al v,,ortcor,o T.. Al |