New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-03-26


the immediate withdrawal of the troops from the
vicinity of the State House in New-Orleans,
and the result should be that Packard and
his government should be overthrown, the validity
of all judgments of the courts would still be an open
question, and one which tmight not be in the power
of Gov. Nichols to establish.
If the Commission can discover some way in which
a valid legal government in all Of its branches may
be brought out of the chaos now existing in LouIsi
ana its creation will be wholly indicated and justi
fed If it should fail to do this the delay in the set
Element of the Louisiana case will in any event be
brief Its success OF failure will be fully determined
within week or ten days from the time 1T reaches
NewOrleans If it fails the status quo having been
in the mean time preserved, the question will not
have been in the least complicated by its efforts, and
the President with more light upon the subject, can
determine upon what policy he shall pursue just as
well as he could have done before the Commission
was selected.
There need be no fear that the Southern question
will be an open one OF that the Presidents policy
will be still undetermined when Congress shall reas-
semble in extra session. The Administrations ertain-
~ does not anticipate any delay which can prevent
the presentation to Congress of its Southern policy
as an accomplished fact The expectation now is
that long before the intervening two months are
ended some adjustment of affairs both in South Car
DINA and Louisiana will have been made, and the
issues connected with the future treatment of the
South will have been definitely presented to the
country.
Some Washington lawyers think that Packard has
injured his own case bv demanding Federal inter-
ference under the provisions of the Constitution and
the law of 1892 His application will be considered
at an early Cabinet meeting this week, and will i'll
troduce an entirely new question into the Louisiana
hat has the
President or his Cabinet. That question is whether
or not the case as presented by Packard is one of
those contemplated by the Constitution and the
laws in which military interference by the General
Government is warranted,
During more than so years the Government OF the
United States has interfcred in purely State affairs
only twice-Once in Rhode Island and once in Penn
syvania. During the eight years of President
Grants administration six such instances OF inter
ference occurred-two in Louisiana, two in South
Carolina, one in Arkansas, and in Texas. 1t is
no secret that many very able Republican lawyers
are of opinion that in several if not IN most of these
cases interference was unconstitutional and il
legal: and it is believed that the sentiment
In the Cabinet is almost unanimous against
any Intervention in State affairs which
can possibly be avoided. On the vital question of
the continuance of this system of interference the
Cabinet is an entire unit. Intervention, if il should
take place under the present Administration must he
temporary, and under circumstances which place its
necessity beyond question There may have been
some difference of opinion to the details of the
management of the question in the two disturbed
States so far as it relates to the particular time
when the troops already supporting Packard and
Chamberlain shall be withdrawn, or as to the condi-
tons which shall precede their withdrawal; but
upon the important principle that Federal troops are
not to be used to sustain local governments in South
ern States there is eutire unity.
At the same time 1t cannot be denied that some
of the Republican politicians who are at heart OPP
posed to the Presidents policy are zealously taking
advantage of the delay to attempt TO undermine his
Administration, and to make ready to take the lead
Of an opposition to his policy if it shall appear that
if is likely to be failure that opposition to 1t can
be successful.