The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-03-24
THE ANDERSON CASE.
WHAT 1s THOUGHT or THE DECISION
OF OUR SUPREME COURT.

WHAT 1s THOUGHT or THE DECISION
OF OUR SUPREME COURT.
Am Almost Complete Revolution Of Fee1-
Ing Toward the People Of Louisiana
sympathy No Longer Felt for Louis
iann's struggles.
Especial Correspondence Of the Democratl
RIGGS HOUSE, |
Washington. March 10, 1873.
don't know how the decision Of the Su-
preme Court In
THE ANDERSON CASH
looks to you, who are where you can take a
close view of it and all its attendant circum-
stances, but at this distance it appears 10 be a
sort Of judicial sequel to the wretched
eight to seven performance Of last winter, ag-
gravated by the fact that IL Is the deliberate
act Of Democratic or Conservative tri-
bunal to which every lover OF law
and justice looked for fairness and fidel-
ity In the conservation Of the dignity of
the State Of Louisiana. and the traditions OF
constitutional government or course
we. Mt this distance. have had no opportunity
Of examining tho text OF the opinion, and
hence can form no exast judgment as TO the
nature or force of the legal propositions en-
bodied In 1t; but. according to the abstract
which has been telegraphed to the press, the
decision OF the court amounts to the nulliti-
cation Of the right Of tho people Of Louis
lana to try by jury and punish by judicial
sentence any man or set Of men who may fe-
loniously set aside or reverse the verdict of
She people at the polls by altering or forg-
ing election returns or by any other
means within the scope Of criminal in
genuity to devise. This Is the view which
the people Of the North. at first blush, have
taken OF the decision Of your supreme Court.
How far this impression may be modified or
altered by subsequent and more exact infor-
nation, OF course / cannot say; but at pres
ent the result is an almost total suspension Of
that sympathy which honest and lawabiding
people at the North have go long cherished
and 80 often manifested toward the people of
Louisiana, struggling. as they seem to be,
for the re-establiBhment Of constitutional
government and the reaseeltion OF the rights
Dc States
body, made up Of tho lingering debris of the
regime OF crime, fraud and usurpation SO long
forced upon the people Of your State and other
Southern CONFERENCE.-The by allen bayonets
and despotic Federal authority, Its action
would have caused no surprise. But 1t was
supposed to be a body representative Of the
majesty OF the law and grounded upon and In
the support, affection and confidence of the
people OK your State; the legitimate offspring
of their choice and tho lawful tribunal of their
rights and wrongs; under the circumstances
the action in the Anderson case falls like a
thunderbolt upon the sense OF the nation. The
universal comment La that
THE PRESSURE OF JOHN SHERMAN
and his aceomplices, either In the White
House or In your parish Jail, has been power
full enough to warp the Judgment and pervert
the discretion OF the highest tribunal Ia your
State. Nobody had unprecedented that the
court would Yield The solcitude of every
body had been directed TO
GOV. NICHOLAS.
who, though universally believed to be man
Of the most unalterabIe integrity Of personal
character, was known to be beset with vicious
o. cowardly Councils snd wTho m %
timent OF fidelity to Q constructive promise
which had been tortured by those who
sought to be it's beneficiaries, into q
positive pledge to do or not to do q
specific act, as the case might be, for the
feating the ends Of justice. Those who watched
were made donbIy anxious by the reiiec-
uon that there was an alluring sophistry
In the arguments and approximations which
land upon Gov. Niohoiis II Behalf 81 the a s
pretended or convicted felons who quaked in
the clutches Of the law. But nobody Imagined
that a Supreme Court. made up Of such men
MS compose the highest tribunal In Louisiana,
night nusnos petoan s full 81 sSe se enss
Of policy and expediency. There was also
= consideration Of prudence for Mich
oils to bear in mind In discussing
and and na ddedng upon the g question aooo of
man who had seen the misery that Federal
interference had caused in the past the threat
of a renewal OF such torture In any form was
likely to be a spectre Of evil portent which 1t
were we'll to avoid by any admissible means
whatsoever Accordingly there would have
been a great deal said and more to say in ex-
tenuation OF Nichols Ii he had erred on the
side OF extreme prudence or iii the direction
OF oyervalued expediency by
pARDoNING TIKI NALEFACTOR ANDERSON.
Ali these things would have been duly
weighed. People who think and reflect calmly
after the majesty Of the law had been duly
vindicated by the conviction and sentence of
these criminals in due form, it might be we'll
enough to listen to the counsels Of political
expediency and extend olemency to them as
alton. But nobody dreamed Of a slap in the
lace Of the law itself by the hand of the highest
legal tribunal Nobody imagined that g. court
with such men on the bench, would slap JUS
lice in the face by decreeing that there was
III CIlIIiS vi cutdUlUS anu
frauding the commonwealth. Nobody, not
even the ultra Radicals, believed that the
power Of the people to assert their rights and
TO avenge violations Of the same through the
enginery OF court and jury would be nullified
and set aside by their own Supreme Court.
These hasty reflections will serve to give you
some idea Of the chagria and disgust which
seized the friends Of law and order and the
well wishers Of prosecuted Louisiana when
the news came yesterday that her chosen con-
Of law and equity had come to the
rescue of her late prosecutors. The result Is
AN ALMOST TOTAL RBvuLsIoN OF FEELING.
Men who have hitherto steadily SYM
pathized with your struggles now turn away
to say that, il your own courts cannot vindi-
cate your laws, nobody else can be expected
to champion your cause. Louisiana law has
become under Radical manipulation syno-
nym for laxity and fexbility And now
Democrats or Conservative administration
seems at this distance at least to have
turned it into something very like a farce.