Year: 1876

THE LOUISIANA sENArORsHIP.


To-day the Senate will resume the con-
sideration of the Louisiana Senatorial ques
ton. and we trust will reach definite
solution of the same. For three years this
question has been pending before that body
and has been most elsborately and ex-
haustively discussed. The subject came
before the Senate by the presentation of
credentials respectively by P. B. S. Pinch
back and W. L. Mcmillan. the former
signed by VIM. P. Kellogg and the latter
by John McEnery, both claiming to be
Governor of Louisiana. At no time during
the pendency of the matter has there been
lack of pronounced majority of the Re
publican members of the Senate in favor
of recognizing Mr.. Pinchback on the
primG facis case presented by his creden-
tials, but in the judgment of some of the
Republican Senators this was an extraordi-
nary contest, the credentials suggesting the
rival pretensions Of two State governments,
and involving the legal status of the par
ties signing the credentials, and until this
issue could be determined the sufficiency of
the credentials could not be ascertained.
This view of the subject so far prevailed
that there was not a majority of positive
clements on either side sufficient to secure
affirmative action in favor of either claim
ant to seat, and non action as a resultant
has obtained, and to date, without her con-
sent, Louisiana has been deprived of her
full and equal representation in the Senate
of the United States.


A majority of the Committee on Privi-
leges and Elections now report in favor Of
seating Mr.. Pinchback on his credentials.
The reasons that have heretofore postponed
action, though never sufficient to have
operated that result, do not now exist, and
are not judicially and practically before the
Senate for their consideration, and the i'm
perative duty of the hour is that the Senate
shall recognize the rights and protect the
interest of Louisiana by promptly recog-
nizing the suficiency of the credentials of
the Senator-elect.


Under certain conditions the State,
through its Executive or Legislature, may
call upon the President for protection
against domestic violence, and where there
are rival claimants for State authority max
ing demand, the President implicitly and
necessarily must be empowered to deter
mine which is the lawful State government.
Common sense and the decisions Of the
Supreme Court of the United States alike
sustain this view of his prerogatives. This
determination is provisional in that it is
subject to the revision Of Congress, but if
Congress should fail to take action it be-
comes definite and final, and is such a set.
tlement of the controversy as would not
only demand a recognition by the people
of the authority of the State government,
but renders the Legislature competent to
elect q Senator who would be entitled to
seat in the Senate of the United States.


The President of the United States,
through the Attorney General, as appears
in his dispatch of December 12, 1872, re-
cognized Governor Pinchback as the lawful
Executive of Louisiana and the body assem-
bled at Mechanics Institute as the lawful
Legislature of the State, and similar recog-
milton was subsequently and in various ways
extended to his successor in office, Governor
William p. kellogg, and the action of the
President was intended to be, and actually
was, a settlement Of the political question
relative to the rival State governmen Is in
Louisiana.


The Congress, embracing the Upper and
Lower Houses, not Gnly did not reverse the
action Of the President, but by silence ac
quiesced therein, and the Senate in addi-
ton formally indorscd his action not only
in the matter of the recognition of the Kel-
logg government, but the restoration of said
government when the same had been over
thrown by the revolution of September IA,
1874, making O settlement so permanent
that the rights accruing Hereunder, both
property and political, cannot now be dis
turbed.


A government, whether called de fdcto
or de lure, that has been recognized since
January, 1878, by the United States Gov
eTnment; that has made and administered
laws for the same period affecting and con-
trolling the life, liberty, property and pub
lie security of great Commonwealth, and
the authority Of its administration sustained
by the supreme judiciary of the State and
of the United States, is so far lawful and
actual that the action of its Legislature in
electing and its executive in accrediting P.
B. S. Pinchback as Senator should be
promptly recognized. The sufficiency of
the credentials Of Governor William z. .Kel-
logg conceded, the precedents and the law
of the Senate would alike demand the recog-
milton of the prinlG .fdcie right of any party
presenting them. John McEnery on the
one side, whatever his supposed de juro
claim may be, has as real and historical
fact never exercised any official or executive
functions in Louisiana, but said functions
have been exercised by Governor William
P. Kellogg uniformly, and said McEnery,
in contemplation of law, at best occupies
the position of suspended officer, and is
incapacitated to perform any official act
The competency of Governor Kellogg to
give sufficient and valid credentials not
only springs from the actual, continuous
and permanent possession and exercise of
executive authority, but has been conceded
by the Republican House of the Forty
third Congress and the Democratic House
o! the Foity-fourth Congress, and even the