New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-09-07
WILL OUR DEMOCRATIC REPRESENTA-
TIVES ANSWER


cial mind. When the war began, the in
tervention of the Federal government
: within the jurisdiction of the State wa
limited to the demands of the State au
thorities. When the paramount allie
glance of the American citizen was de
clared due to the Federal government
the obligation of the government to pro
tect the citizen was direct.
The law has been so amended land en-
larged as to express this direct and cumu
lative obligation. 1t will be seen thai
the whole law before the war was the frs
of the present twenty-six sections. The
other twenty-five were passed during the
war. It marks an era when the authority
of the State was subjected to that of the
Federal government. For this reason a
contemporary argues on mistaken basis
when it quotes the old law requiring the
application of State authority to author
ize any Federal Intervention whatever
If our contemporary will look again it
will see that the law provided for the case
of IAN instruction in any State against
the government thereof The new law
has created new style of 'insurrection
against the government of the United
States" The organization of a military
force to overthrow the State government
| of Louisiana on the fourteenth Of Sep
TENDER, 1874, was ''an instruction
against the State government. The
formal call on the Federal government,
required by the law of 1895, was made
by the State authorities and re-
sponded to by the Federal gov
eminent. Under the laws passed
during the war substantive ofense is
created against tho Federal government,
and that government proceeds to enforce
its own obligations and protect its own
citizens. without paying the least atten-
ton to the special jurisdiction within which
the offense may have been committed.
This is new dispensation. From this
concurrent right to enforce its own laws,
and this paramount authority over the
citizen everywhere, the deduction of the
Attorney General is inevitable. The au-
thority Of the United States ranks the au-
thority Of the States. 1t calls upon the
citizens Of the United States, and will &C.
cept no plea of disobedience. When it is
argued that a posse comitatus is the power
of the county, it must be remembered
that the county of a Federal marshal is
the district for which he has been ap-
pointed. Why, it was strange foresight |
which induced Mr.. Pierce, the Democratic
President, now just twenty years ago, to
say:
The President, in case of resistance to |
Federal law. may and should place at the /
disposal of the marshal any pu olic force of |
the United States which happens to be |
within his jurisdiction, to be used as por- /
ton OF the posse comitatus.
Keeping in view, therefore, that the
alleged combination to prevent the exer-
else of free suffrage is an ofense against
the United States, and not against the
State at all, the situation becomes very
plain. 1t is merely an exercise by the
Federal authorities of their own powers,
according to the dictates of their own
Judgment, controlled alone by the law, to
which alone they are responsible. The
Attorney General has instructed the SUBJ
ordinate law officers in this case, as in the
prosecutions for fraud upon the revenue
There were remonstrances in both cases,
but the responsibility of the officers of
he Federal government is to the people
# the United States, and not to the par
les implicated.
We find in the columns of our contem-
ooraries a large amount of denunciation
lgainst the administration of the insur-
ection law. Apparently it is intended to
make the officers of the law unpopular.
t is as an exasperated debtor sometimes
boots the sheriff who executes a seizure
instead of the party who obtained the
Judgment upon which the process of seiz-
Ire issued. We have shown to our con-
some fearful consequences Of
pposing the laws of the United States
he whole Red river district, if under
ontrol Of insurgents against the law of
be United States, may be blockaded by
'ederal orders and closed out of CONNER
ial intercourse with any other part of the
'nited States. There may be also for
,iture Of steamboats, and railroad trains
mployed in conducting this intercourse
it'll the prescribed district.
We have been struck with the very late
eriod at which our contemporaries have :
the study of the law of in.
direction. In some cases the aid of
ounsel learned in the law has been in ;.
,ked. The same amount of reading and
quiry at an earlier period would have
revented the instruction Of September
t. 1874. 1t would have proved that sue
,ssful violence was impossible.
We have shown that the law against
surrection was a measure rendered nee 9
sary by the war. and that the powers =
Id discretion granted to President Lin !.
In have enured to President Grant.
e shall be asked why have these powers :.
zen continued? The Republicans have =
# them upon the statute books, per- =
Fps. as guarantee that the generous :.
ant of amnesty should not be abused. -
hey were wheeled away with the cannon.
hey are harmless as the cannon. If no
le violates the law the act against insnr.