Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-01-06
LOUISIANA UNDER sHEREDAN's
HEEL

i
mors boldly and Enthusiastically than
ever. The use made Of the troops at
! New Orleans, on Monday, was certainly
the most deliberate and shameless act
Of military tyranny that the American
people have ever yet been called upon to
witness. This armed interference was
an outrage and usurpation at each sue
cessivestep. First, an epauletted subal.
tern undertakes to determine whether
or not the Legislature had been organ
lied; next, he puts out by force several
members, duly seated, whose cases had
been expressly referred to the Legisla-
ture by Kellogg's Returning Board; he
brings IN a spy to point out those men,
| bers to his minions; he undertakes to
force upon the Legislature an ex-offcer
whose successor has been duly elected
and installed; and finally, after driving
out the duly organized Legislature, he
confesses that he has no right or bust
ness there, by bowling himself out at
the beck Of Kellogg's mob. Since when
have Federal officers, high or low, even
the COMMANDMENTS Chief himself, been
vested with power to decide how
State Legislature shall be organized?
1t is a matter in which such bodies viii
brook no interference Of either court
or executive, much. less of soldiery.
When Grant first interferred in Lou
isiana's government, ne based his &C
ton on the midnight decree Of Duren.
Now, he throws away all such finsy
pretexts. There was nousurping court
decision to support the infamies of last
Monday.
Bat Radicalism must work its course.
1t cannot go backward. AS it fortunes
become more desperate, its measures
become more despotic. The course of
! persecution, race-antagonism and
wholesale misrepresentation which
! failed last fall, must be 50 intensified
as TO force success. Sheridan takes up
the lying role that Williams failed in.
Grant and his partizans have set out to
prove, by their mere persistency, that
the Northern people were mistaken in
their November verdict. Every IN
! preiu6iced observer knows this bluff
game must fail. Even Little Phil viii
find it impossible to excel the maligni-
ty Of Williams Outrage Bureau. He
cannot hope to stir up an uglier strife
than that which resulted in the massa-
ere Of Coushatta. Human passion,
instigated by the devil, cannot
furnish him worse instances than
the Trenton horror and the murder of
Julia Hayden. Nor can Creole i'm
petuosity afford anything more start
ling than the New Orleans revolution
of Sept. /. All these things were
brought to lear in vain upon the
Northern elections OF six weeks ago.
Sheridan VIII find It difficult to raise
greater misehiefs, and the Radical
scheme for perpetuating hate and mis-
rule is forever doomed to failure. 1t
has been tried once too often and Hound
wanting.
Meanwhile, however, until its utter
futilIty as a party policy is proven
even to the perpetrators, our Southern
neighbors, if not ourselves, are likely
to be harrassed IN a thousand ways.
Louisiana is under the bayonet. Martial
law has been proclaimed in Mississippi.
Alabama is undergoing investigation,
and a rowing commission has
been appointed to see If any other
Southern States need reconstructing.
/ Outside States, which imagine them
selves free, cannJt view such a situa.
ton without some concern for them
selves, PARTICULARLY neighboring State
like Tennessee, whose citizens have,
within the past three months, been
wrested from the local authorities By
the central power, without color or
form of law. Therefore we regard the
Joint resolution Of remonstrance, offer
ed in our Legislature yesterday by Mr..
Cummins, as both polite and oppor-
49,, T - g., +l,,4 Al, -, CA.4.-
Of Louisiana should express them
selves as States, through their Legisla.
lures. 1t is proper that the seal Of
condemnation set on Grantism last
November by the people, should be re-
peated and emphasized by their
chosen representatives. This is
the only official channel through
which the protest of the people
can be heard during the interim until
the next general elections. Let Ten
nessee, then, lead the van, as being
most nearly interested. There are now
in session no less than thirty State
Legislatures. Most Of them are De-
mocratic, but the matter concerns all
who prize free institutions. Let the
protest go ringing through the Union.
Let those great empire States Of the
North, New York, Pennsylvania and
Ohio, join Tennessee, Alabama and
Georgia Of the South, while Missouri
on the West responds to ever-faiahful
little Delaware. Kentucky has already
spoken. We much mistake the temper
Of the North, if such q remonstrance,
earnest and universal, does not meet a |
hearty response from its people.
WASHINGTON correspondents begin |