Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1877-04-27
The President and Louisiana.

Military interference in Louisiana has
never had and can never have but one
justification or legal warrant, and that is
to enable the State Government to pro
tect the weak, inotfensive and maltreated
colored people. 1t is equally true that
these State Governments, thus upheld
by the military force of the United States,
have never protected the negroes, who
have been continuously subj bjectedt to every
species of cruelty and barbarity. 1t is
claimed that for eight years the blacks
have been murdered in Louisiana, and
made the victims of all manner of atroci-
ty; and, though the Governor has had
the appointment of all the Sheriffs and
local officers and the Judges, not one ar
rest has ever been made, nor one attempt
to prosecute an assassin. Even the men
accused by Eliza Pinkston of the murder
of her husband and child, and of the
harbarOus treatment of herself, though
named by her, walked the streets of New
Orleans sunchallengcd by the State author
tiles, who had the national troops to de-
fend and aid them.
1t is therefore an established and con
ceded fact that, though the national
troops have been IN Louisiana during
eight years, the unfortunate negroes
have never been protected, but have
been left to the mercy of the White
Liners. Gov. Packard demands now
that the troops shall remain there. For
what purpose? He does not pretend
that he will be able to protect the blacks
or to punish their white assailants any
more than Kellogg has done. OF what
avail, then, will the, troops be, further
than to protect Packard personally in
his claim to be Governor, he conceding
that, so far as the exercise of any author
ity is concerned, he will be as impotent
as the humblest negro in the StateY
There is a persistent effort made by the
whole disappointed ofiice,seekiDg and
office broking fraternity to misrepresent
the Presidents dIty and his acts; and
especially to misrepresent or conceal the
great leading fact of the utter failure of
the carpet-bag Governments, supported
by bayOnets, to afford the least protec-
tion to the non.resistant, simple-minded
freedmen. The truth is the amplest vim
dication of the Presidents policy and of
his actions. In the first place, the Pres
ident was fully aware that the negroes
were not protected, and he was advised
by his predecessor, who had used the
military for eight years, that that policy
had proved to be a signal failure. The
President desired to establish peace and
law and order Civil government was
essential in Louisiana, and he desired to
have the question at issue in that State
determined in a lawful way, The Consti
tuition of Louisiana makes the Legisla.
ture of that State the exclusive author
ity to declare who is Governor. There
has been no legal Legislature convened
in that State since the last election.
There have been two bodies, calling
themselves Legislatures, in session, but
it is indisputable that neither Of them
was legal body as whole. The Pres
ident has naturally sought to have the
legal elements in these two opposing
bodies unite, and, thus constituting le.
gal Legislature, make formal declaration
of who is Governor. That initial for
malty is required by the Constitution of
the State, and has never been complied
with. The President has not and will