The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-04-03
SENATORIAL UsURPATION.

BY recent dispatches from Washington
having relation 10 the rejection of Judge Pa
dee's nomination as United States Distri'
Judge for this State, we learn that the Radios
Senators had determined to send a judge hel
who had sno local affiliations" and the tn
DRY upon which they had resolved was tbs
only 'tan entire stranger" to this communit
would he eligible to the Office.
This is the first frank avowal Of polio
which has nevertheless been practiced in thi
State with hardly an exception by the part
in power ever since Gen. Grant succeeded 7
the Presidency. Although after his election
in 1868, but before his Inauguration in 1868
he expressed his determination to bestow hi
patronage in this State only on those VIII
had lived there before. during and since tn
civil war, yet the only man who then held
Federal office, and possessed the prescribe'
qualifications. was removed soon after the 4tl
of March, 1869. and his place was filled by 9,
Indiana carpet-bagger.
Since that time, almost every State in tn
Union but the one chiefly interested IS repre-
sented among our Federal officials. Most o
the prominent supporters Of the administra
ton in Congress have had their share in tn
spoils The Collectorship. with its host o.
subordinates, was bestowed on the Presi
dents relations. The Surveyorship and it,
appointees were the distributive share of oul
friend Ben Butler. And the naval Office and
its patronage were handed over to and dis.
posed of by ex-senator Carpenter. And few
leading Congressman of the Radical persua-
sion have failed to secure5snug official births
here for their needy connections or constitu-
ents. Like Joseph Of old. Louisiana, bound
hand and foot, and sold into slavery, her
official garments have been divided among
her brethren of other States. The only ex-
ceptions to this rule have been made in favor
of negroes, native and exotic. The gates Of
Londonderry once, it is said, had inscribed
over them couplet, expressive OF the hatred
Of the people of that town to Catholics:
"Tusk, Jew or Atheist
May enter here, but not Papist.'
The principal officers Of the Custom House
are barred against Louisianians, but open to
strangers.
These dispatches indicate in striking
manner, too, the extent to which Radical
Senators have usurped the appointing power
of the President, and practically Invested his
Office Of that important constitutional prerog-
alive. They refused to confirm the nomina-
ton of Judge Pardee, to whom nobody OBJ
iected, because Senator West, of this Slate. to
whom every one objects, preferred another
and inferior man for the Office. On the same
occasion they propose to the President to fill
the vacant judgeship with Ex-senator Pratt,
Of Indiana. a stranger to our people. and one,
too. who has just been turned out of Office
by the people Of his own State.
The result is, that ceurt-by far the most
important of the Federal tribunals of the
South having been thus arbitrarily and I'M
lawfully kept without judge for nearly half
4 year. is decrced to- remain closed until after
The meeting of tho next Congress. Hun
dreds Of litigants will, by this practical denial
Of justice, be greatly embarrassed. and some
may pos IDLY be ruined. And all because the
man who misrepresents this State in the
United States Senate insists upon an appoint
nent wherein his preferences. if not his in
erests, will be consulted.
The process by which the patronage Of the
isneral Government has been gradually trans
erred from the hands of the President and
lis subordinates in the Executive Depart
nent, where the Constitution and laws have
placed it, into those of the Radical members
# tho United States Senate, is now claimed
y the latter as having been legitimated by
ustom. But custom cannot avail against the
Constitution and laws; and this custom is q
TOSS violation of both. And unless it is soon
'ut stop to. the officials Of every grade, from
oreign ministers to postmasters, will speedily
ecome the dependents and possible tributa-
les of faction of the Senate, while the pow
RI of the Government will be eventually alb
orbed by this faction as they were by the |
enates Of Rome and Venice.
Prior to 1924, Congress gave us our Presi- |
ents. The events of the Presidential CAM
align of that year brought the public to the
that this usurpation -fraught
8 it was with danger to the purity if not the |
OF our institutions should 60 no
lrther: and since that time, the selection of
ur Presidents has been made by the people,
'ee from Congressional interference. Let us
ope that Congress will soon be brought to a
roper sense Of its legitimate duties SO far as
,lates to appointments to Office. and that the
cnate. especially. will cease to absorb that
motion in itself. and will restore the ap-
ointing power to the strict operation of the
VS. regulating the same.
Wa had yesterday the honor and the pleas
re of welcc ming into our editorial sanctum
10 Hon. Geo. Il. Dennis. one Of the Senators
ON Maryland. who is one of the Congress
onal party now stopping at the St. Charles
oteL
Mr. Dennis informs us that his visit like