New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-03-24
TIE LOUISIANA CISE.

II il unfortunate for Senator Kellogg that he
is identified in the popular mind with the
scandals Of General Grants maladministration
OF Federal affairs in Louisiana. Mr. Kellogg
was Governor OF the State at the time of those
famous transactions which were so severely
denounced by Republicans in Congress and all
over the country, and a great part OF the odlum
arising from them has always attached to him
persopaly. The Democrats counted upon this,
or they would hardly have vcntured upon their
present course in the SCnatOrship contest But
il must be remembered that this case l. entirely
distinct from the old Louisiana imbrogiO
That trouble was settled long ago; none Of the
questions raised by it are involved in the pres
ent dispute; nor did the long and bitter con-
troversy over Federal interference in New-Or-
leans lead TO any disclosures affecting Mr.. Kcl-
loge's character which ought TO create preju-
dice against him in another matter.
The Democratic majority Of the Committee In
resolving to report for the unseatIng OF Senator
Kellogg, have been. guilty of a double wrong
In the first place. the case had already been
indeed. and they had no right to reopen 1t;
and in the second place, they have decided
against the evidence. The Kellogg and
Snoford case was examined III 1877, and in
November of that year the Committee on Privi-
ieges and Elections made a report in accord
ance with which the Senate declared by vote
that William Pitt Kellogg was Oh the merits
q of the case entitled TO "a seat IN the Senate
for six wears commencing on ihe 4th of March,
1877. This resolution ought to have been con
clusiye But now, when half the term has ex-
nired. the Democrats, having meanwhile OBJ
tanned majority in the Senate, 60 back over
tbe old ground to try contest which has al
ready been tried and settled. If this practice
is to be sanctioned, and claims once examined
and allowed are TO be IeOpCned whenever the
nolitical complexion of one OF the houses OF
Congress undergoes a change, nothing VIII ever
he finished, no ones seat will ever be safe,
minorlties will never be represented except
upon the sufferance Of their political opponents,
and no legislative body Will ever be secure in
its own organization. The respect which the
Courts nay to previous decisions is founded upon
the importance of gertrude IN the law, that the
scales of justice may he he'd even and steady.
IF Judges are so unwilling to reconsider points
already decided, it is III like manner necessary
that the constitution of law-making body,
once authoritatively established, shall stand
unchallenged But the newly come Democrats
no sooner get into the Senate than they proceed
IN reexamine the credentials of the Senators
who were there before them, and to upset the
decisions of their predecessors.
The testimony upon which they now propose
70 Dust Mr.. Kellogg " is not only unworthy of
a,espect or credit" as the report OF Messrs.
Hoar. Cameron and Logan expresses 1t, but
. is in many instances wholly irTecOncilable with
sundisputed facts, and Mr. Kellogg has met and
aoyerthrown it at every point" MIR. Hills re-