The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-01-09

| ton IN each parish, and the Superintendent
shall in like manner appoint two Commits
sioners of Election for each election precinct
| Within ten days after the day of election
| the State Registrars are to open the returns
| in the presence of the superintendent, anG
to examine, canvass and compile the same
and the superintendent are thereon to make
public proclamation of the result of the elec
ton in two newspapers of general circulation
and Of opposite politics. The Legislature
thus elected is to meet and organize on the
second Monday after the PRONUNCIATION of the
election. And, on the first Monday after such
PRONUNCIATION the Governor, Lieutenant Gov.
ernor and other State officers shall enter on
the discharge of their respective Offices, and
the Government thus established is to be re-
cognized by the United States Government as
the legal Government of Louisiana.
The United States Circuit Court of Louisi-
ana is to have exclusive Jurisdiction of all
crimes and offenses made punishable by the
act. It authorizes the President to employ
the army and navy to maintain the public
peace, to sustain the officers, under the act
and to enforce the provisions of the act, and
any act of an officer of the State of Louisiana,
or of State court interfering with the execu-
ton Of the act, is to be treated as absolutely
void Adjourned.
Louisiana resumed. Bayard and West
spoke. A resolution was passed, calling for
papers and instructions regarding Louisiana.
The amendment, leaving it discretionary
with the President to furnish information,
and another, by Morton, asking for informa-
ton about the organization and the objects
of the White League, passed. Adjourned
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8.-At l o'clock the
Senate resumed the consideration of unfin-
ished business being the resolution of Sena-
tnP in, ar1 70 <hn riciop
troubles.
Mr. Bayard said: Two years ago he intro
duced resolution calling upon the President
for information in regard to the conduct of
Major Lewis Merrill, of the United States
army, in South Carolina. Then, as now, the
Senator from New York (Cenkling) offered an
amendment leaving it discretionary with the
President to answer it. That resolution, with
the amendment passed the Senate on the Sd
Of March, 1873, and to this day the President
had treated it with contemptuous silence.
major in South Carolina, he had been sent to
'green fields and pastures new in Louisiana.
Never since the time when the American
colonies had separated themselves from Great
Britain, had the people of this country been
brought face to face with greater questions
than these Of to-day-questions needing the
most careful consideration. The issue was
whether we should have q free government or
military dictatorship. The remarks of the
Senators from Indiana (Morton), Vermont
(Edmunds), and Illinois (Logan), we're cal
tisan appeals to divert the minds of the peo-
pie from the true merits eff the case.
He (Bayard) then spoke of the circum-
stances attending the organization of the
Louisiana Legislature, the action of the Re-
turning Board, etc., and said: In States of
three and four times the population Of
Louisiana election returns were tab
ulated and promulgated within week after
the election. In great cities, with popula-
ton exual to that of Louisiana, they had been
tabulated and promulgated within forty -eight
lana the Returning Board was occupied in
canvassing the returns nearly two months,
and in every case of dispute or doubt they
decided in favor of the Kellogg party.
He read from the Constitution of Louisiana
and argued that there was an organization Of
the House of Represen tatives of that State on
Monday last by the Conservatives !; that there
was quorum of the House present and the
organization was under the Constitution. He
asked the Senate and the American people if
President Grant had the legal warrant to in
terfere in the organization of that Legislature,
and declared that this debate would close and
no lawyer would be able to produce any stat
ute showing the warrant of any such action
Mr.. Bayard then quoted from the speech
delivered by him in the Senate on the 9th Of
February, 1873, in which he argued that the
dangers which we're menacing the liberties of
the people of Louisiana then, were also mena-
cling the liberties Of the American people.
Has the policy of the President been modified
or moderated since then? No, sir. 1t had
been doggedly intensified. There was not
l. e L. d..
dent had been signified by the removal of an
buke. Sheridan had been sent to New Or
leans, secretly, to dragon the people of Lou.
isiana He arrived there only three days be.
fore the meeting of the Legislature.
He conferred with none of those who had
the welfare of the State at heart, but only with
Kellogg and his adherents, and then produced
from his own pockets the authority to assume
command. Other officers of the army, hi CHEZ
and lower than Gen. Sheridan, had been passed
over, and he was personally selected to inter
fere thus with the organization of the State
Legislature. He (Bayard) did not wish to de
tract from the glories of this officer. They
were one in career of rough war, but he was
an officer of the army of the United States,
paid and clothed by the people, and servant
Of the people, and no way their master.
He then read from the Constitution Of the
United States, and said, if this cavalry officer,
with whatever glory he may have attained by
his sword, is stronger than our guarantees OF
liberty, then let US know it now. The issue
cannot be raised too soon. Mr.. Bayard then
quoted from the dispatches of Sheridan to the
Secretary of War, and asked, who would say
that this officer (Sheridan) was even fit to
breathe the air Of Republican Government
He next quoted from the dispatch of Sheridan
urging that certain persons be declared ban
ditti, and said, if there was now the bone in
the Executive Department of this country
that there once was, that officer (Sheridan
would never sign his name again as Lieuten
ant Ger OF ! of the United States Army.
If that officer had been in hostile country
he could not have made more brutal O
bloody threat. Such Language as that use,