Year: 1874

4 t1Oms


The controversy which has been for several
weeks in progress in the columns of the
HERALD on the legal points involved in the
Louisiana question receives q great accession
of interest in the forcible letter of MIR.
Jeremiah S. Black which we print to-day.
Judge Black is one of the most noted public
men of our time. No statesman or lawyer
of his standing has such marked pecu-
liarities of individual character. In the long
list of great lawyers who have held the Office
of Attorney General Of the United States there
is none who brought with him TO that station
q more masculine cast of intellect, greater
legal astuteness, superior political courage, or
a more admirable capacity for clear and
forcible writing. In strength and manlness
of style Judge Black has hardly an
equal among the members of the Amer
ican Bar. Dsdaining trivial ornaments
and flights of vulgar rhetoric, he
ranks with the masters Of style of compo-
sition of which the merit consists in express
ing with clearness what one thinks with vigor.
1t is always refreshing, even to those who dis
sent from Judge Blacks opinions, to read o
paper by him on any important subject He
is SO explicit SO downright, 50 courageous;
his arguments are SO direct and telling his
language is SO strong and sinewy, the air of
deep conviction which pervades every SEN
tence betokens so sincere and robust nature,
that even his prejudices seem respectable, and
every reader is constrained to admit that
there is at least one man in American politics
who is no trimmer. This strong flavor of
genuineness, both in substance and style,
which characterizes oil the productions of
Judge Black makes him one Of the most de-
hghtful OF writers to keenly logical minds.
He is o provoking and therefore an exciting
reasoner; for, although he often compels dis
sent the reader feels that an equipment of
intellectual reasoners is needed to refute him.


The HERALD finds nothing to reward its
self-complacency ill Judge Blacks strong and
able letter. At the time he wrote it he could
not have seen the HERALD's recent arguments,
undertaking to prove that the de facto govern
ment of State is the only one which the
President can legally recognize, and yet this
position is the very pivot of all Judge Black
has to say. 1t is the central thread Of his
letter on which all his other arguments are
strung. 'It is the call of the de facto gov
ernment" says Judge Black 'that the Presi-
dent must respond to- This principle per
vades oil law, municipal and international,
and its observance is absolutely necessary to
ths preservation of our dom mestic tran
quillity, as well as the peace of the world" OF
course we feel fattered and strengthened to
have our main position SO strongly Endorsed
by veteran jurist Of Judge Blacks eminent
standing Supported in this position by the
great authority of Webster in the last genera
ton, and of Judge Black among our contem-
poraries, our confidence in our own legal per-
ceptions is justihably strengthened We are
encouraged to believe that we hit the great
central consideration by which this con-
troversy must be determined


We must confess, however, that our battery
has been turned against Us by Judge Black S
dexterous logic. From the same impregnable
premises which we employed to justify the
Black deduces the precisely opposite con-
clusion that the President ought to have rec
ognized McEnery at the time of the Septem-
Der outbreak in Louisiana He dissents
alike from the position of Mr.. johnson and
the position of Mr.. OConor, and contends
that the duty of the President to recognize
the de facto government bound him to recog-
nize McEnery, because McEnery had gained
possession, and in virtue Of his possession of
the State authority was entitled to be recog-
nized as the de fdcto Governor of the State.
We admire the logical dexterity with which
our main argument is thus turned against us,
but we are glad that the true hinge
of the controversy has at last been recognized
by a jurist of sufficient weight to make his
opinions respected We believe that the duty
Of the President to recognize the de .focto
government of State which Judge Black, in
unconscious Endorsement OF the HERALD 8
position, SO strongly maintains, is the true
way to a correct solution of this difficult prob
lem, and we do not despair of showing that
Judge Blacks ingenious application of this
fundamental principle is not quite warranted.
When jurists of such deserved. eminence as
those who have been heard in our columns
differ on such subject we cannot be charged
with presumption in having an opinion of our
own. When the guides we have summoned
point in contrary ways we must select our own
path. Our opinions, of course, must count
for nothing except SO far as we support them
by reasons which the legal mind Of the
country will recognize as having some weight.
We must stand or fall. like the other par
ticipants in this interesting controversy, with
the logical force Of our arguments


Judge Black thinks that, as . strict conse-
quence of the duty Of the President to recog-
nize the de facto government of State, he
ought to have recognized the McEnery gov
ernment in September, when it had got pos
| &c L.