New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-28
THE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES.

4ue prospective aOVeut Oh the congress.
ional committee here has created an un-
wonted stir among the politicians of lesser
note. There is racking of brains to re-
member what prominent federal officials
have impaired from time to time in gush
of misplaced confidence, and lively rum
maging of receptacles for old letters and
documents for the purpose of discovering
something or another that will rise to the
dignity of a temporary sensation. A
room has been rented and clerks employed
to receive and take care of sill such items
Of information as, in the opinion of the
leaders of the Democracy here, will prove in
any way damaging to the Republican party.
The Democratic papers even suggest that
certain acts of our State officers should be
inquired into by Messrs. Gibson ct ais
We can understand but one motive the
committee could have for going beyond
their instructions to inquire into the con-
duct of federal officers in Louisiana, and
that would be to give greater currency to
local gossip, which, filtered through a
congressional committee, may be taken
up and exaggerated by the press and
given to the world as the verdict of the
highest sort of tribunal. We have had
examples of this kind. The same politi-
cal party that assailed, denounced and
condemned whole Congress, almost paid
divine honors to o Senate committee
which declared Governor Kellogg was not
shown to be elected because of the alb
duction of the returns. and McEnery was
not entitled to the Office in controversy
because of the frauds committed by the
Democrats at the polls. This double
back action conclusion, which was con-
CURED in by four members of the COM
mittee of seven, was paraded as the YER
dict of the highest tribunal in the United
States, until it was formally set aside by
resolutions of both houses Of Congress,
when the matter was dropped altogether.
Neither can we understand what. the
committee of the House can do in any
case, provided it shall be made to appear
that ofenses against the State have been
committed by State officers. According
to the doctrine laid down by Chief Justice
Waite in the case of the Grant parish
prisoners, the jurisdiction of the United
States does not extend to ordinary offenses
against the laws of State. The power
of the federal government has been limited
to those cases in which some right created
by the constitution of the United States
has been denied. It does not extend to
such inherent rights as are merely recog.
nized by that instrument, as those of life
liberty, etc., as they have been left to the
care and protection of the several States.
And if such a power be denied to the
whole government Of the United States,
including the President, the Congress and
the judiciary, it can hardly be claimed
and exercised by one branch of Congress,
still less by committee.
It is probable vast amount of idle
gossip, ill-natuIed criticism and exagger-
ated accounts of actual occurrences will
be brought to the attention of the COM
mittee and, perhaps, for the credit of the
city, too much Of it seized upon by news
paper correspondents and published as an
illustration of society manners and poll
tics in New Orleans. Let those journals
which complain that simple narration