St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1878-03-16
Blockade OF the Calcacjeu
River.


New Orleans Picavunci
A correspondent at Lake Charles
whose letter appears in another part oi
the Plcayune, asks whether or not the
! Government of the Uuited States has 4
right to blockade the nayigahle streams
j OF the State of Louisiana. Our cores
pendent informs us that the Calcasieu
! River IS hlOckaded by agents of the
/ United States, 10y means of an iron boom
thrown across the stream We do not
understand that the Government of the
United States, or its agents, have any
sucti right. Even i'll the. case of navi-
! gable waters flowing through two or
more States, and hence subjected to the
maritime and admiralty jurisdiction OF
the Federal Conrts, the right of block
aue ny the Government would be very
qntSll"nabse. 1t cert;,nIy could not be.
exercised unless by authority of some
special statute. But in the case of the
CHlcasieu River all the elements of jur-
lSdIrtlon and power are wanting. That
stream lies wholly within the limits of
the State, and the Federal! Courts have
no jurisdiction over it beyond the tide.
wafer limit. Moreover none of these.
arbitrary proceedings have been taken
III pursuance ut amy admiralty or mari
time MrItS, or, in fact, Of any writs at
all. They are the act OF uns authorized
persons pretending to proceed under in-
structi0nS from the Secretary of the In
terror, who has no authority for this
conduct in any statute of the United
States. The United States appears as
plaintiff IN these citSrS with exactly the
status of Il private citizen seeking to re-
cover property alleged to have been
stolen by him. The suits are brought in
the United States Court and the court
acts according to the processes, and de-
cides according to the principles of the
law OF the State. II the private owner
OF certain logs, alleged to have been
stolen from him, were to go into court
ana get out Il writ OF StQueStratiOn, as
the United States has done, authorizing
the seizure of the property, he would
be very far from having the right to
close the navigation Of d river, and thus
put stop to lngresS to and egreSs from
the stream on tll" theory that if he let
anybody's logs ont. his own might es
cape. I he United States has no more
light to do this than private citizen
has. The Government, in these cases,
is simply the plaintiff in suit at law
with certain citizens OF Louisiana, and,
III that capacity, can have no legal rights
enjoy.
The proceedings taken by Mr.. Schurz
are utterly without warrant of law, bu
if persisted in, it is hard to see how
they can. be resisted. 1t is possible that
some judicial process, invoked by in
ttrested persons. might compel the un-
authorized bockaders to remove the
obstacles which they have placed in the
Calcasieu River, bUt the State, we pre-
sumo has no power to intervene.
Biennial sessions of the Legislature
have become extremely popular, a large
majority OF the State Legislatures now
meeting only every other year. The
idea was l:laugurated in the West, we
believe, and was spon adopted by a
number OF Southern and Western
States, which fo,lljd this one of the
safest and surest ways Of ecOnomiziliy.
New England, and the East generally.
held ont against the new system for
some time, Vermont alone excepted.
The experience of Western and South
ern States have shown SO emphatically
the advantages of biennial sessions
that there is every probability Of then
becoming universal in this country in d
few short years. Missouri, which adop-
TED THIS system three years ago, finds
that it saves the State directly 1915, 900
IA year, aud how much more Indirectly
it is hard to say
A special commission appointed BY
the last Connecticut Legislature to ex-
anime and report upon the subject ot
public expenditures in the State with
't View to retrenclIment and a more
ecOnomical administration of State
affairs, recommends, among other things,
the adoption of a constitutional amend
lneut providing for biennial instead of
',nnuai sessions of the Legislature OF
that State,
Twenty four States have already
adopted biennial; Legislative SESSIONS:
Arkansas, California, Deieware, Florida,
Georgia, Illinois, in,!iana, Iowa, Kansas,
Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Mis-
souri,, Nebraska, Nevada, North Caro-
lima, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Ten
nessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia aud
West Virginia, most OF which have
adopted this system within Il very few
years. 1t is probable that Louisiana
and Connecticut will soon he added to
The list. !
The New York papers suggest this
plan for New York as we'll, aud Il move
nent will be made in that State to
bring the matter before the Legislature
at Ouce.- n. o. Demns,st