The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1877-07-20
The Louisiana Crimes.

vital terms or conditions precedent to the
peaceful establishment of the Nichols admin
istratiou by the Commission of President
Hayes. These utterances have bubbled out
from all sorts of places near to the fountain
of power, aud have sobbed through trembling
organs to the public; but until yesterday there
was no authoritative declaration to the world
that one of the means employed to drive
Packard from his usurped mockery Of author
ity and install the officers honestly chosen by
the people of louisiana, was the agreement
between the representatives of the President
and the Nichols government on the one side,
and the discomfited revolutionists who had
desolated the State and shamed the nation by
their infamy on the other side, that all law
essncss, from murder down through forgery,
perjury, cmbezzlement, to assault and battery,
that :could be called political, must be above
the law and defy its retribution.
Judge Lawrence, of Illinois, regarded as
one Of the most intelligent upright and con-
servative of the Louisiana Commission. yes
terday made the apparent official statement
to the public, through the Chicago Inter-
Ocean, that the indictment of the members
Of the Louisiana Returning Board is gross
violation of the pledges Of the Nichols govern,-
ment. II Vds the distinct understandinq that
there should be no political prosecutions" "
This startling confession from one of the lead
ing members of the Commission, that one of
the achievements of that body was the sue
cessful compounding of the gravest tclonies
ever perpetrated in any portionof the Union,
is a declaration that holds up the names of
Lawrence, Hawley, Harlan, MacVeagh and
Brown to the execrations of every lover Of
law and justice. That purely political often
ses were to be condoned upon the Withdrawal
of the troops and the restoration of sover-
eign State to the rightful sovereignty of her
people, was admitted and approved by all dis
passionate citizens but what are political Of
fenses? They are easily defined and well un-
derstood even by the wayfaring man. Two
rival governments claimed to exercise author
ity in the State, each with its complete de-
partments, executive, legislative and judicial !;
with military and police with tax -gatherers
and sheriffs, and with all the agencies and
ceremonies Of de facto administration. Both
could not be lawful, and one or the other, with
all its subordinates, was amenable to the law
for usurpation, oppression, trespass, etc. 1t
was certainly well that when the people found
lawful government established, with peace
ond protaction 70 all H., ofIar;nno tba,, should
be rescued from the turbulence and discord
and inhamed passions which must have fol-
lowed the vindictive prosecution of those who
had offended under color of law or under the
pretence Of exercising lawful authority and
to forgive all that multitude of offenders and
restore Commonwealth to tranquility and
law, was but the office of wisdom and pat
riotsm.
But is the public thief who has plundered
the revenues of the people to escape because
he stole in the name of party? Is the Off
cial embezzler to go unwhipped of justice be-
cause he was standard-beare in political
battles? Is the forger to escape because he
forged for party to defraud whole commune
ties or whole State out of the expressed
popular will? Is the perjurer to defy the law
because he perjured his soul to put politica
friend in the Legislature, in Congress, in @
State Office or even in the Presidential chair
Is the red-handed murderer to be above the
law because he slew only those who were con-
triving to defeat his party at the poll, Was
this the mission, this the distinct understand
ing" made by such men as Lawrence, Haw-
ley, Harlan, MacVeagh and Brown, when
they were ostensibly seeking to have Justice
born Of law in land where both have long
been strangers If so, they have strangely
misconceived the considerate Judgment of the
country and Of the world, and have made
themselves the confederates of class Of Grim
inals whose record of crime is adiudged by
civilization as without single feature to plead
in extenuation Of of its unmingled villainy.
As yet but one of the members of the Lou
siana Commission has thus confessed the
consuming shame that he would accept for
himself and his associates. Other members
have been loosely quoted as asserting to the
views Of Judge Lawrence but they should
not be judged on so grave an issue until they
shall speak for themselves. Until then it
would be most unfair to assume that such
men as Hawley, Harlan, MacVeagh, and
Brown would be forgetful of the plainest OBJ
legations, which all citizens, in both public
and private life, owe to law and justice, and
we are unwilling to condemn them but unless
Judge Lawrence shall himself explain his ex.
planation of the action of the Commission,
they will owe it to themselves to wash their
skirts of the stains he has put upon them
As to President Hayes, however much he
may feel concerned about the developments
which may be made affecting the integrity Of
the vote Of Louisiana, by the trial of the
members Of the Returning Board in the Grim
inal courts, he has but one course to pursue
and that is so plain he cannot mistake it. Ht
received his title from tribunal that was ere
ated the lawful authority of the nation, and tC
which the whole country yielded obedience al
the time, and to whose Judgment the whole
people bow to-day, and he cannot for mo-
ment pause to parley with crime or criminal
who may have made his triumph possible
The day he espousesl the cause of Wells an(
his associates, even to the extent of pleading
or suggesting, directly or indirectly that granc
juries and courts and the law shall be stayet
in the punishment Of such offenses as forgery
and perjury, that day will turn from him tn
trust and support Of just men of all parties
and he will be ground to powder between tn,
upper and the neither millstones-P Philadel
phia Times.