The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-01-14

quiry of the Senate. 1t is an ingenious and
able document, bearing marks of extreme care
in its preparation. 1t is very oifferent Mes
sage from the one which the public expected
in view OF the strong Endorsement sent to
General Sheridan by the Secretary of War, in
which 1T was stated that the President and
''all OF u.s." meaning the whole Cabinet,
heartily approved of all that was done on the
4th OF January by the federal troops stationed
at New Orleans Instead of defending and
justifying those proceedings the President
makes an elaborate apology, wherein he
shifts the blame, so far as blame can be i'm
puted, upon Governor Kellogg. This is a
different Message from the one first prepared,
and which intelligent observers in Washington
and elsewhere believed would have been sent
to Congress 1.-two or three leading members of
the Cabinet had not protested and supported
their protest by determination to resign if their
views were overruled. The President could
not afford Cabinet explosion in such crisis
as the present, and least of all could he have
afforded the indignant retirement of the par
ticular members who have the strongest hold
on public confdence-Messrs. Fish and
Bristow.
This Message is quite different document
from the one originally prepared which
would have led to the immediate resignation
of the few members of the Cabinet to whom
the country comedies the title Of statesmen.
We are glad that President Grant has been
constrained to recast the Message, abandon his
first positions and exchange tone Of defiance
for one of apology. If the Message as first
drafted was in the spirit of Secretary Bel
knaps unqualified Endorsement by ''all of
u.s. if it undertook to parry democratic
criticism by recalling the action of President
Pierce in dispensing the Topeka Legisla-
ture in Kansas, it is fortunate for
General Grant that he was restrained from
Offering such untenable arguments. Presi-
dent Pierce's action in that case is not peril
nent as precedent, because Kansas was not
at that time a State, but Territory, and
Territorial governments, being the mere crea-
lures of the federal authority, permit degree
of interference which is not permissible in
the government OF State. The public indig-
nation aroused on that occasion precludes the
republican party and republican President
from pleading that precedent in justifca-
ton; for, if indignation was we'll
founded when only Territorial Legisla-
ture was interfered with, it has an
infinitely stronger justification when the
federal army undertakes to control the Legis-
lature of State in the Union. The federal
government has supreme authority over the
| l,,f;t hoe oh, do 49, ,rht 10
determine the validity of State Legislature.
The Message, as finally revised, is not de-
fence, but an apology and we will fairly re-
state the positions on which his apology is
made to rest.
First, the President pleads total ignorance
of, and, therefore, denies specific response
biity for, the military proceedings of January
4. 81 did not know" he says, ''that any
such thing was anticipated, and no orders or
suggestions were ever given to any military
officer in that State prior to the occurrence"
If he thought it safe to assume responsibility
for those proceedings there would be no ne
cessity for this kind of hedging The refrac-
tory members of his Cabinet have evidently
convinced him that he must wash his hands
of any direct responsibility for proceeding in
such fragrant violation of law.
Secondly, the President explicitly shifts the
responsibility to the shoulders of Governor Kel-
logg, and is constrained to express his doubts
of the legality OF Kellogg's action. whether
it was wrong" the President says '.for the
Governor, at the request of majority of the
members returned as elected to the House, to
defeat these lawless and revolutionary pro-
ceedings is perhaps debatable question {"
The President thereby admits that it is not
clear that Kellogg had any right to interpose.
But if he had no such right it logically fol-
lows that the federal army could not be law
fully used to enforce his unwarranted assump-
ton of authority.
Thirdly, President Grant has been con-
strained by the dissenting members of his
Cabinet to concede and indorse all the posi-
tons Of law on which the opposition rests.
He says, among other things of the same
purport that ''each branch Of legislative
assembly is the judge Of the election and
qualifications of its own MEMBERS" and he
admits that even the Governor has no right
to interfere unless riotous and tumultuous
mob prevents the regular action of the
Legislature, when, he thinks, sit might
become the duty of the State Executive
to interpose, if requested by q majority
of the members elect" The President hereby
virtually abandons his defence of Kellogg by
admitting that it is o "debatable question"
whether Kellogg had right to interfere in
any case, and that, if he had, nothing could
justify him but the request of "a majority of
the members elect" 1t is q fact admitting
of no question that the fifty-two members who
signed the application to Kellogg were less
than majority, and, if this be conceded, Kel-
logg was wrong by the Presidents own adj
missions.
Fonrthly. the President has been compelled