Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-04-17
LOUISIANA.

E. V. Smalley, the intelligent
and usually fair staff correspondent
of the New York Tribune, tele-
graphs to that paper from New Or
leans the following as the con-
illusions to which a majority, if not
all the members of the commission,
have been led:
First-That the Packard gov
eminent has the best, if not the
only de iure title; that the Nichols
party have no right to build up a.
government on their own doubts as
to the constitutionality of the stat
utes under which the board acted.
The question goes to the President,
however, not as a legal one but as
a political one.
Second-That Nichols exercises
complete de iacto authority through.
out the State, and in every acre Of
Its soil except within the walls Of
the old hotel STYLED a State-house.
The circuit judges do not recognize
Packard; he is a prisoner in the
State-heuse, supported by nobody
except the members Of his govern
ment and the two or three hundred
guards he feeds and pays; the ne
groes viii not raise a finger to sup
port him; the white population is
unanimously hostile to his preten-
sions.
Third-That the Nichols admin
istratien is maintaining order
throughout the State and protect
ing the rights Of both races, and
that peace and prosperity would
result from its continuance.
Fourth-That the Packard ad-
ministration cannot be established
by a simple recognition on the part
OF the President, but only by the
use of a large force Of Federal
troops to crush out the acting gov
eminent and the maintenance Of a
garrison in the State during the
whole of Packard's term. Further.
that if this course were practicable
it would involve a continuance Of
the race conflicts, social and indus
trial disturbances and business de-
preston which characterized Kel-
logg's administration.
The object of the commission,
Mr.. Smalley thinks, Is to get the
people of Louisiana to settle their
own affairs. That is just what
they have been anxious to do for
these many years, and if the Presi.
dent will only withdraw the troops,
as he has done in South Carolina
the question will settle itself with.
out any outside help. The Pack.
ard government is isolated. without
sympathy, means or responsibility.
1t would starve out in three months
None Of its processes could be exc.
cuted without sending along a fll
Of United States soldiers. Nj
Hayes, having accepted the Office 0
President at the hands Of a com
mission which ruled that congress
could not go behind the electora
returns, and thus counted him in o
a technically, can ignore the Pres
Dental election altogether in dea.
ing with this case. He can tax
the high ground and the tru
ground, hat the goyernmen
has no right to go behind or inter
fere with a State government, Tn
Nichols senate passed a set Of COZ
ciliatory resolutions yesterday j
which they referred, in the mo
respectful terms, to the Presiden
On the other hand, Packard az
dressed an insolent, sarcastic, if n,
defiant letter to the President,w hiC
could have only been written und.
the firm conviction that his polit
cal DAYS are numbered. 1t rea
like Chamberlain's dying gasp
he abdicated the chair of misrr
in South Carolina. A propositi
is pending to admit all elect
members to the Nichols legislatu
without regard to politics, as
basis Of settlement. This won
reduce the number Of legislatul
to one, and Packard's pan
would become beautifully less. I
house roll would include six.
two Democrats and ffty-tWc /
publicans. The plan is, Of cour