Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-05-17
Daily aiennebet Journal.
Augusta, Saturday Morn'g, May IT, 1872
From the New York Tribune.
Mr.. KellOgg'S Case.

The Southern politicians who manage
things at Washington for the democratic
party are distressed at the spectacle of a
republican sitting in the Senate from one
of the late Confederate States. The re-
publican in question is Mr.. Kellogg, of
Louisiana. He has been a member of the
Senate for two entire sessions, not to count
the extra session now in progress, and dur
ing all that time has done nothing espec-
tally calculated to irritate his colleagues
from the South. Still his very presence.
no matter how quiet and retiring he may
be. is an aggravaton. Since the 18th OF
March he has been the one solitary repre-
sentative in the upper house of Congress
of the great body of Southern republicans
whose voice in the Government has grown
fainter and feebler year by year under the
sitting influences of bull-dozing and It's
sue-ballots. He is an unpleasant remind
er of the fact that there used to be re-
publican party in the South He inter
feres with that beautiful unity and solidi-
ty of the Southern vote which is the foun-
dation of democratic policy. SO he is to
be put out, and his seat given to one whose
voice will not be discordant note in the
grand chorus of Southern exultation. The
gentlemen who have undertaken the re-
construction of the Government on Con-
federatc principles are great lovers of har
mony, and the Senator from Louisiana who
votes the other way is to be suppressed
We have never particularly admired
Mr. Kellogg, or the class of politicians to
which he belongs, but we regard the eff
fort to deprive him of his seat as the
meanest piece of partisan work the demo-
cratic Senate has yet engaged in,
and this is saying a great deal MIR.
kellogg's case is res odjud'cdto. His
claims and the rival claims of Judge Spot |
ford were fully considered at the executive
session of the Senate in March 1877, and
at the extra session in November of the
same year, and on December he was adj
mitted to the seat which had remained va
cant from March to that time. Prior To
the vote which settled the contest there
was discussion lasting a week, in which
the whole tangled business of the rival
Legislatures and the conflicting State gov
ernments existing in Louisiana at the time
fixed for the Senatorial election was
thoroughly canvassed. No precedent can
be found for reopening the case of Sena-
tor once seated after IA contest involving
the validity of his election. 1t is worth
remembering that the day after Mr.. KEEL
logg was admitted Mr. NJ. c. Butler of
South Carolina, was seated by republican
votes. The claim Of his republican com
petitor, Mr.. Corbin. was not as strong in
one or two loyal points rs that of Mr.. kel-
logg, but had the spirit Of partisanship
which now rules the Senate then prevailed,
Mr.. Butler would have had no chance for
admission. Cancellation was then the
fashion, and many republicans seemed to
be moved by the fact that their party had
secured one of the two contested seats, to
give the benefit of all doubts to the demo-
cratic claimant for the other The demo-
Gratis took the seat that was thus gener-
ously awarded them as of questionable
right. and are now preparing to seize by
the brute force of majority the other
seat, to which they have no claim of prec-
edent. law or justice. Their course is I'M
fair, indecent, outrageous but who can
say it is not characteristic