New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-02-17
A DEFECT IN THE INSTRUCTIONS.

i
A DEFECT IN THE INSTRUCTIONS.
The Democrat complains because the
conference committee on the election bills
have actually considered the one passed
by the Senate, and agreed to eleven Sec
tons of it. If the papers reporter had
been at hand when the editor was thus
venting his indignation and surprise he
would have corrected his chiefs figures.
Thirty-six sections of the Senate bill have
been agreed to, and the deliberation
stopped at the Returning Board. But
this does not suit the Democrat at all. 1t
assumes airs of lordly superiority over the
Democratic members of the conference
committee and addresses them in terms of
admonition and menace, thus:
Our representatives on that committee
were not appointed for the purpose of con-
sidering the Sen ate election bill at all; their
mission was to secure the abolition Of the
Returning Board, or to report their inability
to do so.
Now, in our judgment, it depends upon
who issued the instructions to ''Our repre-
sentatives' whether they have blundered
or not. If the bodies of the General As
sembly to which they belong respectively
issued the orders, the members of the
committee doubtless are the proper judges,
since they are also part of the principal.
It, however, the instructions to this
committee emanated from the Democrat, or
secret caucus of the party, there may be
some force in the charge that they have
exceeded their powers in even allowing
the Senate bill to be read in their hear
ing.
The chances are good that ''our repre-
sentatives," as the Democrat loftily and
impudentIy styles the members of a joint
committee of both houses, are quite capa-
BILE of judging what they were appointed
for as anybody And they do not have
the character of being such weak-minded
creatures az to be unable to discharge their
legislative duties without assistance.
The Democrat is no doubt in earnest,
very much so, about the Returning Board
matter. 1t has repeatedly declared there
shall be none. The REPUBLICAN, on the
contrary, is equally determined to hold
on to the present law until We can have
another as good-one which will extend
to voters who are not disposed to fight
their way to the polls through Coushatta
mob, the protection of law. But neither
of these journals has vote in the General
Assembly. The people have thought
proper to commit their interests to other
if not ADLER hands. The representatives
thus chosen are responsible only to their
constituents for the manner in which
they discharge their duties, and can not
be called to account in any place except
the General Assembly and at the polls.
The REPUBLICAN maintains that '.our
representatives Oh the conference COM
mittee were appointed on account Of their
fitness to consider and report upon the
question in dispute, and to reconcile, if
possible, the differences between the two
houses. Were they to plant obstinately
upon their individual notions of things,
or attempt to force the suggestions of par
tisan organs upon the opposite party,
they would endanger the harmony of the
conference, and perhaps create the neces-
sity for new joint committee. We think
the committee may safely be left to judge
Of the purposes Of the appointment as
well as the best means OF effecting an
agreement between the two houses.
TUT ppwApn M REPRESENTATIVE TT