The New Orleans Democrat. (New Orleans, La.) 1875-1876, 1876-01-07

Tot4s Rsesident and % N. ins fe1ss aec .t mousl
We, the people OF the State Of Louis
lana, assembled In convention through
their regularly chosen delegates, re-.
spectfully petition this, Our memor1a!
and petition, and ask for 1t respectful
consideration.
We assume that 1t has been establish
ed before both Houses of Congress that
the acting government. In the State OF
Louisiana Is q usurpation that the in
elected by the people of the State, but,
on the contrary, were unquestionably
defeated at the elections held for the
offices which they fill In 1879 and 1874 ;
that this Is true as to the Governor,
Lieutenant Governor all the State OIL
GERS, fifteen Senators, several Represen-
tatives, one of the Supreme Judges, sew
eral of the district judges, and many OF
the inferior local officers. 81
We further assume rs fact equally
established, that the lawfully elected
Governor, State officers, Senator'S, Rep
resentatives, judges and inferior officers,
whose places are usurped and held by
their defeated opponents, were, and are,
excluded from said official positions by
the unlawful interference or the federal
authority, through it's courts, and
through its military power.
The midnight order and double writ
of mandamus and Injunction issued by
Judge Durell, United States District
Judge, by which he organized the
usurping Legislature, and for which he
arrested impeachment only by resigna-
ton: the seizure of the State House by
Federal troops In December, 1872; the
dispersion by force OF the State Legis-
lature and the arrest of Speaker Mon
cure In March, 1879 the expulsion OF
tives in the State Legislature, In Janu-
AIRY, 1876; the proclamations OF the
President in April, 1873, and September,
1874, and the blood thirsty orders and
dispatches of General Sheridan in Jan
uary, 1876, are facts, the sickening rer
cital of which has engaged the atten-
ton OF the people OF tho Union, and are
too well known to justify repetition.
We also assume that it has been estab-
lished that the right of the people to
elect their officers and representatives
has been taken from them and vested
Ia partisan State Returning Board OF
five members, chosen by the usurping
State Senate, and having the power
within itself to fill vacancies that may
occur in its membership; that it has
ignore the official returns OF elections,
and substitute therefore ca pdrte atfi-
davits, their wn opinions and oalcula-
tions that they may add supposititious
votes or reject legal votes, and SO modi-
fy the official ett1rnS as to defeat the
will of the people and substitute there
for their own personal or partisan
choice of candidates, and that the State
Supreme Court has repeatedly decided
that the declarations of the Returning
Board are final aud cannot be reviewed
by any tribunal.
In view of these facts, the people OF
ing Kellogg government which they
never elected, and which, therefore, is
not republican In form or In substance,
is armed with the fearful power of
absolute -perpetuation aud in view
OF the atrociously wicked, tyrannical
and lawless conduct OF the usurpers, MS
shown by the statute book, by the court
records, and by the public history of
this unfortunate State since their usurp-
ing rule began. the people cannot delude
themselves with the belief. or lulAthem-
selves with the hope, that the conduct
of these corrupt and unprincipled
usurpers i'm the future will differ from
It's conduct in the past
we IuIUueTIuOle dSSuIue tldb ~ HuS
been demonstrated that this usurpation
can exist only as it is supported by the
military power of the Federal Govern
ment.
The Senate Committee so found in
1878: the House Committee SO found in
1876; the usurper Kellogg SO testified,
on his oath, before the Hoar committee.
and the events of the t4th of September,
1874. show that, before the feeblest de-
monstration of an outraged and long
suffering people, made at the State
capital, and nowhere else, the usurping
government crumbled away in every
parish in the State, leaving not a vestige
of its insolent authority.
Deeply impressed with these truths
the people, though smarting under
wrongs and outrages which would not
be borne i'm the older States of the
Union, have been patient, taking hope
and courage from the article of the
Federal constitution which obliges the
United States to guarantee to every
State of the Union republican form
Of government
Having appealed to the political de-
partmcnt OF the federal government
for the enforcement of this guarantee
in behalf of our State, and having never
abandoned that appeal, nor authorized
its withdrawal we have recently
learned, with surprise and indignation,
that it is urged by the usurpers and
their supporters in other States. as
a fatal objection to our appeal, that by
the Wheeler adjustment of the difficult
ties which grew out of the organization
of the House of Representatives in Jan
uary, 1875, we, the people of the State,
have acquiesced in the usurpation, and
can no longer be heard to question it's
legality or to demand it's overthrow.
We assert that there Is not one sylla-
BILE Of truth in this objection, and for
the following reasons:
/. Because the people Of Louisiana
did not submit, for the adjudication Of
the Wheeler committee, their constitu-
tional right Of self-goyernment
2. Because the persons who submit
ted their own claims to seats In the
State Legislature to the decision Of the
Wheeler COMMITTEES, never submitted,
nor intended to submit, the conflicting
claims between the lawfully elected
McEnery government and the usurpa-
ton, and said latter claims are not COW
cred by nor embraced in the award Of
said committee.
g. That the rival claims Of tho de i,Te
and de fdctO State governments were
never submitted to said committee, and
said committee, in their official report,
expressly state that their Investigations
were restricted to the legislative diff
cultios Of 1874 and 1875, and that they
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