The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-12-19

Now that the upstart Pinchback is agail
| importuning the United States Senate for ad
mission to that body as Senator from Louis
lana (?), and that Radicals in Washington, ant
their aspiring Chief, Imperator Ulysses S
Grant, are still enforcing the recognition o
Kellogg's government as the legally elected
government of this State, it is appropriate Il
consult the views Of Senators mainly Repub
lican Senators-as presented in their printed
| report.
1t cannot have been forgotten by our people
nor be denied by the supporters of the pre-
sent State dynasty, that Kellogg's government
owes It's origin and establishment to the mid
night order of Federal judge, and that the
Pinchback was elected Senator was solely {
creature of the Federal court over which pre-
sided the same judge, Durell, who has already
been victimized for his excessive zeal in be-
half Of Radical usurpations, though poor
Louisiana has been made to groan, without re-
lief, under the pressure of his extra-judicia
and despotic DEGREES.
Read now the deliberately formed and care
fully expressed opinions of the Senators who
constituted the United States Senate Commit
tee on Privileges and Elections in February,
1873, in reference to the midnight order OF
the judge and his DEGREES constituting the
Returning Board of Lynch, Hawkins ct al,
by whom the Legislature of 1873 was brought
into existence, in violation of the expressed
will of the people OF the State.
The majority of the committee, Messrs.
Carpenter, Logan, Acorn and Anthony, COM
menting on the midnight order of December
4th, 1872, remark:
It is impossible to conceive of more IRREGULAR,
Illegal and in every way lnexcusable act on the
part of Judge. Concedihg the power Of the
COURT to mske such an order, the judge, out Of
court, had no more authority to makeit than
had the Marshal 1t has not even the form Of
Judicial process. 1t WAS not sealed, nor was it
signed by the clerk, and had no more legal effect
than an order issued by any private citizen.
Yet this order-su act of furtive strategy
on the part of the Radicals secured the
Ssate-H House to the usurpers, who were con-
frmed in their possession by a posse Of
United States soldiers introduced steslthily
into the building ere the dawn Of the day
after the Illegal order was issued
Referring to the courts recognition of an
illegally constituted Returning Board-that
of Bovee, Lynch, Longstreet and Hawkins
which board certified list of persons whom
they had determined to be elected to the
Legislature, the same majority of the Senate
committee further remark:
Viewed in any light in which your committee
can consider them, the orders and inunctions
made and granted by Judge Durell in this cause
are most reprehensible, erroneous in point Of
lsw, and are wholly void for want of jurIsd cton;
an your committee must express their sorrow
and humiliation that judge OF the United
States should have proceeded in such fragrant
Of his duty, and have so far over
stepped the limits of Federal jurisdiction
Indeed, it liz impossible not to see that An
tones bill was fled and the restraining order
thereon was issued for the sole purpose Of &C
com plshing what no Federal court has the juris-
dictiOn to do, the organization of a State Legis-
lature.
The enlightened Judge TRANQUIL, Of the
committee utters his condemnation of the
in the following pointed language:
" Neither the Pinchback nor the Kellogg State
Government could have been set up, nor the
persons returned by the Lynch Board as elected
to the Legislature, have assembled and organized
as Legislature but for the unauthorized and
usurped authority exercised by Judge Durell,
supported by United States troops" "Ihe
whole trouble in Louisiana has grown out OF the
Illegal interference Of the United States authori
ties, civil and military, with the internal affairs
Of the State" "The b story Of the world docs
not furnish more palpable instance of usurpa-
lion than that by which Pinchback was made
Governor, and the persons returned by the
Lynch Board the Legislature OF Louisians; nor
can parallel be found for the unfeeling and
iespotic answers sent by order Of the President
% the respectful appea.s of the people Of Louisi
.nal"
The astute Senator. Morton, of the commit
zee, reasoning as profound lawyer and not
Is an interruptions Radical politician, sums
Up the whole Louisiana outrage, in his
nervous and vigorous style, as follows:
The conduct Of Judge Durell, sitting in the
Circuit Court of the Tn ted States cannot be
justified or defended He grossly exceeded hi
Jurisdiction, and assumed the exercise of powers
% which he could lay no claim. The only au-
hority he had in the matter grew out of the act
# Congress of 1870 to enforce the Fifteenth
Amendment, and the act amendatory of that, |
passed in 1871, which gave to the courts OF the
United States jurisdiction in all cases III law and
equity arising under the former act.
But the pretense that in a suit to perpetuate |
estimony the court could go beyond the natural
nd reasonable jurisdiction to decide WAC constI- |
uted the legal Returning Board under the laws |
# Louisiana, and to enforce the rights OF such |
% it might determine to be members of that |
'oard, aud to enjoin others who were not. is
Without any foundation in law or logic.
In the Antoine case Judge Durell not only |
ssumed to determine who constituted the legal |
returning Board, but to prescribe who should
re permitted to take part in the organization OF
he Legislature, and to eDjoin all persons from
aklng part in such organization who were not
eturned by the Lynch Board as elected; and |
his assumption or jurisdiction was made in the
ace Of the express provision, in the act of 1870,
hat its benefits should not extend to candidates,
or electors, for Congress, or for the State Legs-
sture. His order issued in the Kellogg case to
be United States Marshal to take possession Of
he State-House, for the purpose of preventing
nlawful assemblages, under which the Mar shall
allied to his aid portion of the army of the
United States as a posse cOnsitdtLs, can only be
characterized as gross usurpa;ion.
These extracts, embodying statements of
.cts which have never been refuted, and
rinciples Of law and logic which cannot be
show conclusively that the pres