The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-03-20
SENATOR CHRISTIANCY On
PINCHBACK.
What al Independent Republican Says of
the Kellogg Government.
Facie Evidence of His Election.
Attorney General Williams as Estimated
by an Eminent Jurist.
The Election of ISL. Utterly Void.
kellGg.'S Government Never Was Nor
Ever Can BE Legitimate.
The Whole Affair Based Solely on Fed
eral Interference.

| Mr.. CnrlStlancy (KepuOllcan, Michigan
said as he had not been in the habit of oral
discussion for the last eighteen years, he had
reduced what he had to say to writing, and
with the permission Of the Senate would read
it. He then read as follows:
The question we have before Us upon the
admission Of Mr.. Pinchback, as has already
been well remarked, IS not mere partisan
or political, but legal and constitutional
question, depending, however, as all legal
questions do upon the facts to which the law
is to be applied. What are these facts in the
present case? 1t is conceded that the Legis-
lature by whose votes he claims to have been
elected and the Governor whose certificate
he holds, were elected, if elected at all, in
November, 1872. The Senator from Indiana,
who has argued this question with his usual
and acknowledged ability and adroitness, and
who has placed the right of Mr.. Pinchback
upon the grounds upon which it must stand,
if it can stand at all, in one, and, as | think,
the most important branch of his argument
claims that the only fact material to the ques-
| ton is the certificate in due form from Kel-
logg, purporting to be the Governor of Louisi-
ana, and under the seal, purporting to be the
seal of that State, OF Mr. Pinchback S election
Senator: that this constitutes p,'iDd tdcie
case, and entitled the applicant to admi ,sion
as member of this body, and to be sworn in,
and that if the body purporting to be the
Legislature, who elected him, or Kellogg,
who signed his certificate, was not legally
elected and the election did not m axe the one
La Legislature nor the other Governor, these
f cts can be only shown after Pinchback's ad-
mission here, for the purpose of expelling
him. Where the legal existence Of the Legis-
lature purporting to make the election is CON
ceded, or not seriously questioned, and the
point of contest is whether they have pro-
| al ~,
whether the person elected is eligible to the
office, | concur fully in this rule: that the
certificate in due form entities tie person in
whose favor it is issued 20 his seat, subject to
expulsion upon subsequent inquiry into the
facts, and it is 10 eases OF this kind that the
precedents establishing the rule mainly and
most exclusively relate.
But when there is serious doubt whether
the body purporting to be the Legislature
making the election, and the Governor certi-
| fylng it had any existence or power to act,
the question stands upon a somewhat differ
ent principle, and much more analogous t. a
question upon the genuineness of the papers.
And in such case, while | do not question
the power of the Senate to treat the certifi-
cate as l1int0 fdcie evidence for the time
being, vet | think it would be more in ac-
cordance with just and logical and legal prin-
ciples first to act upon the inquiry whether
there was in fact or in law any such Legisla-
ture having the right to make the election, or
any Governor entitled to give the certificate;
and certainly there can be no good reason to
doubt the right of the Senate, in its discre-
| ton, to enter upon this inquiry in the first
instance, instead of waiting till after the ad-
mission, and then going over the same ground
for the purpose OF turning him out But
in either or both classes Of cases to which
allude, the rule which makes the certificate
prina tacie evidence of the election must
rest upon the presumption that things are
properly and legally in their existing state
until the contrary is shown, and when the
contrary is shown the presumption ceases
and the pyihta tdcje case falls with il. The
Senate has already investigated the whole
question Of the existence or non-eXistence Of
the Legislature which has assumed to make
the election, and Of the Governor who gave
the certificate, and the facts upon which the
question depends, whether in it, de pre- or
lie tuct0 character, are all before us by a re-
port of a committee ION Privileges and Elec
tions) of this body, accompanied by all the
evidence, consisting of 500 or 800 pages.
The committee, in January, 1873, was di-
rected to inquire and report whether there
is any existing State government in Lousi-
anna, and how and by whom it is constituted
| This was the government if any-the Legs
4
ton was made and the certificate given.
This evidence was taken after Mr. Pinch
backs election purports to have taken place.
He was present at the taking of evidence, took
part in it by suggesting aud asking ques ions
and producing evidence, and finally was him
self sworn, and testified at length upon the
very facts upon which the validity of his
election depended His right, therefore, was
fully investigated in proceeding to which he
was virtually a party. Ii was, in effect, a
proceeding IN rem, in which he actually came
forward and interviewed The testimony is
all before US, and has repeatedly been dis
cussed and considered by the Senate. | am
now about to 60 into that evidence.
| have read most of it carefully, and the
rest enough to see that the able report of the
majority presented to the Senate by Senator
Carpenter contains the fair result of the
whole evidence and draws the correct legal
conclusion, that there was no legal election
and no legal government; that the cleo
ton canvass or the votes and the pre-
tended installation Of the officers claim
ing to be elected were equally void, both
as to McEnery and his Legislature, and KEEL
logg and his Leg stature.
Senator Carpenter. Report-AbIe, statc,man-
| Like and Fair.
This report was drawn by no unfriendly
hand as far as the Kellogg government is con
cerned. 1t may in some slight degree ex-
| tenuate, but it sets down naught In malice.
| 1t is an able, statesmanlike, and fair report,
and adopt it by reference, without repeating
It's contents Looking into that mass of tes-
timony, what does it exhibit as to the nature
and validity of the election or any govern
ment claiming to rest upon it =:
| A FoRMIEss CHAOS OF PLOTS AND COUNTER
PLOTS, OF SETTLING PASSION OF INCoNsIsTEN
CIEs, INCoNGRUITIEs, AND ABSOLUTE NULLITIEs,
WITH NOTHING REAL, NOTHING TANGIBLE But
FRAUD AND FORCE.
Concurring, therefore, with the conclusion
| of that report, that the election was utterly