The daily gazette., 1876-11-14
The Law and Louisiana.
SENATOR BAYARD DECLINES EX-
TRA-LEGAL MEDDLING
WITH THE LAW.

SENATOR BAYARD DECLINES EX-
TRA-LEGAL MEDDLING
WITH THE LAW.
OUR RIGHTS AND VICTORY SECURE WITH
TIME AND PATIENCE-sEAsoN-
ABLE WORDS OF WISDOM,
Senator Bayard, who was in town yes-
terday at the New York Hotel, was wait
ed on by reporter of the World, with
whom he spoke freely as follows, about
the situation in Louisiana:
Reporter-Senator Bayard, i have
| called from the World to ask if you are
going to New Orleans to be present at
the session of the Louisiana Returning
Board?
Senator Bayard-C Certainly not. Sug-
gestions have been made from very re-
spectacle quarters that it would be well
| for me to form one of a select corps of
observation upon the action of the Louis
| lana Returning Board, but rs / am in the
habit OF acting upon what believe to be
| lawful warrant, and see no such warrant
| in this case, L cannot conceive in what
capacity l could be expected to act in
furtherance of an honest return of the
Louisiana vote. What status citizen of
Delaware whether he happened or not to
| be n member of the Senate or the House
or to hold any other office under his own
State or the United States, could occupy
| before a board of Louisiana State Officials
is more than l can discover.
| R-You do not then approve, pre-
sumo, of the President ) action ininviting
certain gentlemen of other States to visit
Louisiana for this purpose?
Senator B-The action ofthe President,
in my judgement, is not only as much
without authority as the suggestions of
my party friends made tome, but itseems
to me to bestill more improper than those
suggestions, because, being made by the
President, it implies an official power to
interfere in matters which ought to be
and are strictly Independent of him and
of his action. In my opinion it only
makes the case worse when Fedral of
fetal volunteers by virtue of his office to
create agents not only unknown to the
law, but in violation of the law, because
they are to assume functions which are
IrepOsed in other hands by the law. No
matter what may be the issue of the re-
turns or the conduct of the Returning
Board, either set of such delegates would
be totally without power to arrest the
wrong IN teri or to remedy it when &C
comp1ished. Neither the prevention lies
with them nor with the President, but
both do exist elsewhere, ample and we'll
defined.
y
any value whatever in the action of such
eXtra-legal delegates, even if the Presi-
dent had selected for the mission the
best known andmost judicial men in the
country, and these had excepted the mis-
sion?
Senator D.-The partisan or non-parti-
san character of the Presidents selections
does not touch the question of his want
of authority or theirs to make inquisition
into Louisiana elections. Had the per-
sons named by the President been, what
they are not, unbiased and disinterested
Witnesses of an important historical event,
their testimony might have gone far to
satisfy public OpiniOnin regardto matters
passing under their personal observation.
But the President by omitting to name
even one of those who have not support
ed his Administration has putin idea of
limpartiaily out of the question.
R.-Do you think, Senator, that the
Democratic party should take any action
as matters now stand?
Senator B.-I hate the very name of
party in connection with such an emer-
gency as now apparently confronts the
American people. Whether successfully
or not, l should ask or seek nothing to-
day from any man, either as Democrat
or as Republican, but simply try to
control him by sense of his duty as a
citizen to the Constitution and laws of
Ills COuubiys hdNC BiNCh NY dohColoI
to the Democratic party because believe
it to be the party of law and order, and
believe to-day that its success is firmly
lintrenched in both, and thatit only needs
that its candidates and its members
lshould stand, by the law as it is written,
in letter and in spirit, in order to have
the full consummation of its victory in
the results of the Presidential election of
Tuesday last. Therefore it is that /
lstrenuollsly deDrecate any resorts, no
matter how wellintentioned, to irregular
methods for controlling legal results. To
Iapply these remarks to the case in point
Whethertn dealing with Louisiana, South
i Carolina OF Florida, what mean to say
is this: The elections in these States
have been held; the votes have been cast,
the ballots are, or ought to be, in exis-
ltence, and they disclose, OF did disclose, ~
majority on one side or on the other.
Which way these majorities or any of
them, are, is question of fact, which is
OF ought to be capable of distinct and
positive proof if the laws have not been
violated. 1t is by that fact that the
American people must stand and not by
any false and counterfeit presentment of
that fact, whether prepared by the fraud
of an official hand or not. Never was
, there an occasion more gravely calling
for an utter absence of anything like per-
sopal irritation or party heat; but, at The
same time, never was there an occasion
, demanding more deliberate and grave
determination to insist upon the very
truth and right of this question, under
, the authority of the law and of the law
alone. Our path will then be plainly
marked out for us, and we can and will
: tread it with an unfalterting step.
----
Radical Prosecutions.