The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-04-17
SHARPNESS.

ON An NlJOSs
The House Of Representatives now stand!
about where it would have stood on the 4th o.
January last but for the failure Of the Return
ing Board to do its plain duty. Except The
pledge made by the majority April 18th te
leave Kellogg undisturbed in the exercise o.
the functions of the Office of Governor, the
House is about where it would have been al
the opening Of the late regular session. The
commissioners, who constituted the majority
of the board, may now take retrospective
view Of what has grown out of their dllatory
action and their unfair award
1. For more than fifty days the character and
action of the members of the board kept the
public in state OF feverish excitement, ban
ishing confidence, expelling hopes Of reform,
enkindling new and adding fuel to old AMI
mosities, and seriously interrupting the cur
rent Of business at very important season,
to say nothing Of the influence upon the tenn
per Of the public. Measured in money, the
damage inflicted by the Returning Board be-
fore Christmas can not be rated at less than
$4,000 900.
2, The Board caused the conversion of
New Orleans into a garrison Of United States
troops, by whom, under Grant, martial law
was ia substance established. The expense
of these military movements was undoubtedly
very great, but the damage to the cause of
free government, by making the presence of
soldiers here in time of what would have
been profound peace except for the Return-
ing Commissioners, is an injury which money
cannot measure, and which can only be
properly estimated in the hearts Of men who
love liberty and hate despotism. Those who
in the pursuit Of wrong give pretext in a
republic for the use Of armed men, are pan
derers to despotism, caterers to lust for
power, and pioneers of the coming ruin Of
their country.
3. The Returning Commissioners are d.
rectly chargeable with inducing tho foulest
act Of military violence and Executive des-
potism that has ever been committed on this
continent in time Of peace, which was the in
vasion Of the House of Representatives and
the expulsion of members at the point of
the bayonet In connection with this
startling precedent of absolutism, the
mea.bers OF the Returning Board will
stand conspicuous as long as the history |
OF the rise. progress and fall of this |
republic shall! be remembered, as long as men |
love liberty and seek the means Of maintain |
ing, or abhor tyranny and watch the steps by |
which it prevails. Whether the intent of the |
commissioners was to cause q collision be- |
tween our wronged and insulted citizens and |
the armed agents Of CIR mt, or whether they |
sought to play mere trick OF political chi |
cancery, or whether they acted in mere con-
tempt OF the rights Of voters without any
studied plan OF mischief, the result, the re-
cord and the verdict will be the same and en-
dure perpetually.
4. Another effect of the action of the board |
is the utterly wasted expense of a whole regu-
lar session of the General Assembly at an ex-
pense to the State Treasury Of nearly two
hundred thousand dollars, all reforms being
in the meantime suspended, while absence OF
has produced its usual damaging
results to the extent Of loss Of many millions
Of dollars.
Thus every design of the commissioners to
produce mischief has succeeded, but the gain
intended to themselves, their favorites, their
party here, or to the President and his party
It large, has been to the members Of the
board complete disappointment. They doubt
ess felt that they were doing something ex-
'eedingly smart, but they wake up now to a
lumiliating realization that their smartness
vas after all only the quintessence of folly.
even mischief may suffer in its objects by be-
ny overdone. I