The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1876-10-04
THE CITIZEA,s PROTECTION

Had Grant never been PRESIDENT,
he would have gone down ''the track
Of time great historical figure,
covered with grateful exaggerations
of all his military exploits, and by a
pardonable and natural illusion gift
ed with thousand good qualities he
did not have. Xn an evil hour for
his fame he accepted the civic wreath
with which an enthusiastic people,
grateful for deliverance from g great
peril, garlanded hia brow. He has
thus shewn the material Of which he
is made. It IS not his grossness, or
his vans OF experience, or his nepo-
tism that have broughg his name in
disrepute, ca shas vill secure for it
she iufamy that will certainly be at
tached to it by the future anna'ist.
His great crime is that he stabbed
liberty, and Furiously sramped on
the dearess rights of manhood.
Tt can never be forgotten that the
Force Bill, the Object of which was
TO stifle the popular will, was urgent
| ly pressed to adoption by Grant, and
it ought never be forgotten chat he
would have accomplished his pur
pose but for the Democrats in the
House Of Representatives. Failing
to obtain from Congress authority
for the exercise of arbitrary power,
he has sought to usurp it under the
guise of an order from his Attorney
General. 1t is conceding to Taft too
much consequence to attribute to
him the connection Of the scheme
which that Order to the Marshals
unfolds. His task was merely to
find pretence for it, and to put 1t
in form. The Order itself is con
. tinuing witness to the persistence
with which Grant pnrsues the policy
of REFRESHING popular disgust at his
administration and the callousness
with which he sanctions attempts to
strangle individual liberty which is
>. the life of Republic.
, The most disgracetul act Of Grant s
p official life was the attempt to foist
. in the seat of fancy such an agglom
Grafton of wickedness, incapacity and
q vil.alny as Landaulet Williams. He
knew what he was about. He want
ed o have in the highest seat of the
o highest Court of this country will
ing tool to assist in the prosecution
, of his schemes. Had that tool beer
!. there, who supposes that, the inter
' probation given by the Supreme Cour
last Spring to the Enforcement AM
i Civil Rights Acts and the Constitu
tional Amendments, would have eve
been uttered with his sanction. /
is only by comprehending the full
i. ness of those decisions that one ca
] realize the real nature and The Ill
y. disguised wickedness Of the Tai
!, Order.
h The Court annuled the provision
Y, of those Acts because Congress ha
~ undertaken Go exercise powers this
:. belong exclusively to the States, an
;, demonstrated as we'll as decided til,
=, the rohibitions of the Amendment
~, are directed against the acts
al States, and not against the acts I
h individuals. The guarantees whie
~ Acts and Amendments alike atfol
=, to the civil ri gifts of persons a
10 guarantees against the infringeme
~, Of those rights by the States, but Il
~ rights are themselves not eonferr'
,,.o by the Amendments. They exist
!, hefore-before the Amendments, al
~, before even the Constitution viii,
~ was amended. They are the gift
,oa the States, and exist by and un,l
# the organic laws of the seve,
.bo States, and not under or by means
the Federal Constitution. The Vi
ted States can do no more than GU;
raj antee that no State shall create a,
The inequality of rights between its ci
in zens. or withhold from any the rigl
as which it grants to others.
ope These decisions annihilated at on
The the pretension that the Fifteen
rth Amendment granted the right of S,
ut, frage to the blarks, and establish
ntlI as the judicial construction of tt
e a and the two previous amendment
ltne the limitation Of the power and lu
It'll of the United States to the prot
to tion of those who have the right
use. vote from any discrimination on a
ain account, and hence followed the in
ami liable sequence, that the duty of p
was tecting voters in the exercise of
TED right Of suffrage, whether white
ties colored, rests with and belongs