New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1877-01-02
TIE DUAL sTATB eovEREmENr

TIE DUAL STATE GOVERNMENT.
The apparition Of Legislature at St.
Patrick's Hall is the legitimate outcome
of the Democratic policy of this State.
They will not consent to occupy the posi-
ton oF minority party in which they
properly belong, and SO they repeat the
fruitless tactics of 1873, and the revolu-
tionary policy of 1875. st. Patrick's Hall
is destined for the next two months to
take the place of Odd Fellows and
Deutsche Company. We shall be treated
from day to day, as long as it lasts, with
all the forms of a moot General Assembly.
The same aimless, monotonous, unproft-
able proceedings which characterized the
seceders of 1873 and 1875, will be con-
continued until the members get tired of
it. or some man like Mr.. Wheeler comes
along to divide the cheese.
We see an intimation given out that it
will be the duty Of this moot Legislature
to proceed Immediately in body and de-
mand admission to the State House.
There is no necessity for any demand and
fanfaronade about it. There is no obsta-
Gle; there has been none in the way of
any member of either House. He has
but to appear at the bar of the house to
which he belongs and announce his name.
The doors will be instantly opened. But
if he attaches, as q condition of his at
tendance, demand that whomsoever he
may invite or chooses to come shall follow
at his heels, he will have to ask those
whose convenience may be threatened
and whose rights and authority in the
matter are quite equal to his own. No
Senator or Representative has a right to
invite noR-member inside the bar of the
House except under rules and
upon terms prescribed by the ma
jority. A mere member of the
Legislature carries with him no more
powers than an ordinary citizen. he
can not decline to go to his place Of duty
upon plea that he is refused the priv
lege of having rabble following at his
heels. He is employed by the State at
the rate of eight dollars per day to per-
form certain services, which, under ordi-
nary circumstances, are required to be
done in public. But if he is deprived by
any means of the privilege of showing off
and airing his eloquence before an ad-
miring crowd of commitments or other
wise, it is matter which does not con-
Germ him. The excluded members of the
crowd may or may not have q cause Of
grievance, but it is not, in any sense, the
business of the member, in an individual
sense, at whose heels the idlers wish to
follow in troops. Plainly, all the mem
bers can not have their constituents pres
ent, and no member has the right to
make the point that, unless he can be
followed into the assembly room by
all the people of his district he will not
go at all. Those members, therefore,
who absented themselves from the House
or Senate Chamber, because they could
not bring in whole district with them,
are liable to expulsion for contempt OF
the body to which they have been re-
spectiveIy elected. If they will not serve,
the State can find plenty of men who will
do it gladly. There is no necessity fol-
triaing with recalcitrant strikers, who
corral themselves in rented halls, under
the charge and conduct of men who dc
not belong to the Legislature, and then
haggle for several weeks about terms.
Notice ought to given at once that the
seats Of all members which may be va
Gated for q certain time-say, two days
without formal leave of absence, prop
erly obtained, shall be declared perma.
nently vacant, and new writs of election
issued within the delay prescribed BY
Law. We believe such course viii pm
an end to the moot Legislature without
unnecessary delay.