Year: 1874

cate the approach of that dangerous stage in
civil strife when the disorderly elements
called forth in the interests Of ambition act
from a view of their own interests only and
reject even the control of their nominal
superiors Between Brooks and Baxter it is
pretty clear that all the cutthroats in the
Southwest are likely to concentrate at Little
Rock, where, encouraged to every act Of
license and violence, set free from the
restraints OF the law by the authority Of those
who pretend to executive power, they will
hold carnival OF outrage, sure that while
they reap the profit in indulgence and plum
der the odium will tall on others, and that the
warning candidates alone will get the blame.
And it is, of course. upon the heads Of the
political intriguers who have planned the dis
turbance and made the pretexts for it that the
odium must fall
1t is evident that the ruffanly politicians
and evil plotters who are active in the trouble
feel the full importance of the step they have
taken in the arrest of the judges, for ener-
getic endeavors are made to escape response
bllity for that act Our first report of the
occurrence seemed to come from the Brooks
faction, charging the act upon the Baxter fac
ton /; but since then we have had from Bax-
ter an earnest denial of the charge that the
act was done by his authority, and, further,
an explicit declaration from him that it was
done by Brooks men and purposely laid to
the other side to provoke prejudice against it.


Perhaps there are few acts that men like those
who have now the upper hand in Arkansas
would scruple to commit if they saw an ad-
vantage in it but as o matter Of fact, men
in such situation seldom act on these Machi


avelian principles Straightforward violence
and outrage they are fully equal to, but they
never 60 into the abstruse and indirect nice
ties of villany. In Baxter's charge, there
fore, there is little probability but, on
the other hand, there is no evident reason
why he should seize the judges The very
judges arrested have decided case involving
the points now in dispute, and decided it in
accordance with the view taken by Baxter's
partisans against the dissent of the Chief
Justice of the State. These judges held with
the whole Court that the question whether a
given person has been duly elected to the Of
fee of Governor is placed by the constitu-
ton with the Legislature and that no court
of the State has jurisdiction for the decision
of a suit involving q contest on that point


Although the suit that was to come before
this Court on appeal on the day on which the
judges were seized was different in nature
from that in which the above judgment was
given, it involved the same subject, and it
seems in the highest degree reasonable to sup
pose that the point SO definitely made could
not have been avoided by the Supreme Court,
but that it must again have declined to de-
termine an issue it believes to be placed by
constitutional authority out of its reach.


It would appear, therefore, to have been
altogether in Baxter's favor that the Court
should sit !; but that he should ignore the
probabilities of decision that would morally
strengthen his case, and should fall into the
grave error Of endeavoring to stiAe the voice
Of justice, and excite against himself the pref
udice that is sure to fall upon any case which
its partisans are not at all times ready to have
fairly judged, seems somewhat difficult to be-
lieve-supposing him always to be person of
fair intelligence. It is therefore likely enough
that this seizure has been consequence of
excessive zeal in his subordinates and is an
evidence of the general condition that has
been brought about by the quarrel Bands
of armed men seem to be recklessly riding
hither and thither through the State, acting
on their passions and caprices and making
the unarmed and helpless generally the vic
TINS Of their fury.


How long is the State to be permitted to re-
main in that condition? How far must it 60
down in the scale toward recurring barbarism
before the general government will feel called
upon to interfere-to protect the existence Of
the State government from domestic vio-
lence'' and to stake care that the laws are
faithfully executed2" Some little of the same
sort of vigor that 50 triumphantly determined
the financial trouble-a very few words from
the Executive, like the words of his recent
veto Message, would silence the storm. Here
are the words of George Washington, when
an insuTrection in one Of the States threat
ened the peace of the country:-'I exhort all
individuals, officers and bodies OF men, to
contemplate with adherence the measures
leading directly or indirectly to those crimes
which produce the resort to military coercion;
to check the efforts Of designing men to sub
stitute their Misrepresentation in the place of
truth, and their discontents in the place Of
stable government; and to call to mind that,
as the people of the United States have been
permitted, under Divine favor, in perfect
freedom, after solemn deliberation, and in an
enlightened age, to elect their own govern
ment, so will their gratitude for this blessing
be best distinguished by firm exertion to
maintain the constitution and the laws" We
do not see that any Executive can err by the
most vigorous prosecution of this very policy
the maintenance of the supremacy Of the