Richland beacon., 1875-01-09
LOUISIANA LEGISLATURE.
4 Short and Stormy Session.
fie Members Dispersed by the
Military.

leans, and proceeded TO organize Dy
calling l. 4. Wilt to the chair
temporarily. Daring the organiza-
ton Gen. DeTrc BRAND, of the L. :.
army, appeared on the scene and or
drrcd proceedings stopped; but was
iulormed bv Mr Wilt that it would
require force to enforce hi. order, he
retired for the purpose Of getting
soldiers. \ permanent organization
was then effected by clecting Nr. l..
4. WiIiz Speaker and Mr.. Il. j.
TrrZcyant Clerk; the oath Of Office
was then administered to the Speaker,
and the swearing in Of the members
was being proceeded with, when Gen.
Beforehand again entered, accom-
panied by two Of his staff officers and
about twenty solGiers--the soldiers
stopping outside Gen. Beforehand
then informed the Speaker that he
had been sent to eject certain members
and TO have the roll called by Ncgers,
clerk OF the ,iaSt Legislature, whom
Kellogg had Informed him was the
proper clerk of the House. lie was
informed that be would have to eject
both members and clerk by force /;
whcrcupon he ordered Negers to call
the roll. He attempted to enter the
clerks stand and do 50, buy, by order
ot the Speaker was elected ;herefrom
The General wanted the Speaker TO
point out the members he had ordered
to eject, but he refused to do so, and
repeatedly protested a5ail S this nil
tary interference. Gen. Beforehand
finally succeeded in having Negers
call his roll, to which no Cunserva-
tive answered. He also had the
members whom be wished to eject
pointed out by Radical members, and
elected them forcibly from the House,
they and the Speaker, meantime,
protest NJ AMI remons rating in the
name of the State ana the Union
against such furcible interference with
the Legislature of once free State.
General DcTrobriand then ordered
two soldiers to advance to put Ncgers
in the Clerks seat; whereupon Speaker
( Wilt rose and said. as iegal Speaker
of the House of Representatives,
State of Louisiana, | have protested
against the invasion Of our hall by the
soldiers of the United States with
drawn bayone;s and loaded mu5kets.
We have seen our brother members
violently torn from US by force of
arms; we have seen force Of
soldiers march up the aisle Of the
house Of Representatives Of Louisiana,
have protested against this in the
name Of once free people, in the
name of the onct free State of Lou
isiana, in the name of the Union he
entered his solemn protest. The chair
of the Speaker of tie House Of
Louisiana is surrounded by United
States troops, officers Of the house
prisoners in their hands, so ! sOiemnly
declare Louisiana has ceased TO be
sovereign State, that it has no
longer Republican government, and
| call on the Republicans of the State
to retire with me before this show of
arms. The Democratic representa-
tives, headed by Speaker Wilt, then
marched out Of the hall and the bouse,
and both were closed as soon as the
last Democratic representative went
out. They went to No. ii st. John
street. followed by large crown, who
cheered them on their way.
After these gentlemen had retired
Vegers proceeded 20 call his roll, to
which So men answered--one less
than a quorum, but he declared "a
present, and they proceeded to elect
Hahn Speaker.
Thus we have given brief outline
Of this days shameful proceedings,
which requires no comment at cur
hands, tor simple statement of the
fact is sad enough commentary Of
itself; and we close this detail with
the following extracts from the New
York papers:
The Herald of the 9Th says: There
was witnessed 10 the Louisiana State
house yesterday spectacle which is
the first of its kind in this country.
and which should cause every Ameri-
can to blush with shame and indigna-
ton. We congratulate the citizens of
Louisiana and the people of the coun-
try tina, this extraordinary, most
revolving scene did not provoke vio-
lence aud bloodshed Forcible resist
ance would have been iustifable in
this case if it be ever juStiiable in any
case, for a greater outrage on every
,;,,;rIa of free Government was