The daily gazette., 1877-01-17
From the World. .I. I..
Packard and the President.


If President Grant did not intend b,
his incoherent and mischievous despatcl
o. Sunday night, sent to General Augur
to precipitate collision in New Orlean
between the United States troops an,
the people of that most unfortunate city
1t is difficult to see what he did mean b,
it. In the despatch itself President Gran
recognized the fact that he did not KIN ~
and could not know which was the right
ful government of Louisiana, that O
Nichols or that of Packard. Yet, re
cognizing this fact, he goes ON coolly t,
SAY that it is not proper to sit quietly b,
land see the State government gradual
taken possession of by one of the clai
''mants n by illegal means.
Was 1t proper, then, to move actively
forward and see the State government
violently taken possession of by another
of the claimants "by illegal means?" II
is difficult to speak of this latest act of
President Grant without using language
likely rather to infiame than to moderate
the righteous indignation which it has
excited in the bosoms of all the decent
people of Louisiana and of the country.
1t can only be fifty described as a wan
ton insult offered to Congress, to the laws
and to the conscience Of the American
people. No respectable and well-inform-
ed man in the North needs to be told
that the people of Louisiana are at this
moment, and have for years past been,
subjected to a strain upon their patience
and their respect for the laws which
could not be safely applied for twenty
four hours to the people of any Northern
State. There has been an election held
there of the fruits of which an undoubted
majority of the people have been cheated.
This was followed, in so far as concerns
the local administration, by a popular up-
rising, before which the pseudo-govern-
ment of Packard collapsed in an Instant.
On the face of the story the case was so
plain that even the audacious men who
surround President Grant shrank at first
from attempting to thrust the bayonets
OF the Federal army between the decency
of great American city and a gang Of
notorious rogues and plunderers, absOlu-
tely destitute of any honest or presentable
support in the community. But it soon
became plain that if Cassius helped him
s.
tom-House must sink to rise no more.
The observation-disclosures faction
must be saved at once or it would not
survive to be saved. 1t was originally in
the minority; it had daily suffered loss
the desePsion of Republicans un-
able longer to excuse or endure the rot
tenness exposed during the last two
there remained to it only those
who consent to any sort of government
because it is government of some sort,
and the thieves.
Cameron could not long be expected to
abstain from using President Grant once
more as they have used him so often, to
strike at American law and American
Ii berty. Our near past is full, unhappily,
of precedents of interference in similar
cases as illegal and iniquitsus as any that
were ever devised by Morny or carried
out under st. Arnaud. One more such
might well be added to the list, these
men doubtless reasoned, without risk.
Usurpation breeds and makes more easy
usurpation, making bolder those who
abuse power and bunting the sensibili-
ties of those who should prevent or re-
sent the abuse. The respectable Re-
publican who was horror-stricken at the
tirst invasion of Louisiana, has seen South
Carolina similarly invaded two wears
later Rnd kept silence; why should he not
be ready now to acquiesce in second
outrage upon Louisiana? With all our
Centennial speeches and resolutions left
but a few days behind, the American
people have seen perpetrated with only
q partial Iprotest crimes against the re-
publican idea infinitely more atrocious
than any even meditated by the "tyrants"
whom we resisted century ago.
So President Grant was pushed on
Sunday night into this new wickedness
and shame-but pushed into it just so far
and just so adroitly that it is impossible, |
we repeat, to resist the impression that
hose who led him into it intended and
to madden the outraged people |
If Louisiana into such an outbreak of |
iorce in defense of their rights as might |
lfford an excuse for further measures,
more atrocious and of wider sweep. Ifl
hey are foiled, as we believe they will |
De, in this intention, and disappointed in /
his expectation, the American people |
nay perhaps at last begin to appre-
lend the gravity of the perils into which
We have drifted.
ELECTION OF U, s., SENATORS.