322 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



to these principles, and now desires that the 

 House will fully consider and deliberate hefore 

 it comes to the conclusion to depart from them. 



"The facts of this case are briefly these: 

 The elections in these two districts of Louisi- 

 ana are embraced in the one report, because 

 the same facts and the same principles apply 

 to both. There is no reason for making any 

 distinction between the two cases. The dis- 

 tricts are composed each of about half of the 

 city of New Orleans and of a portion of the 

 surrounding counties, or parishes, as they are 

 called there. The city of New Orleans, as is 

 well known, was, up to May last, in the occu- 

 pation of rebel forces, and was in a state al- 

 most of revolution, certainly of rebellion. "When 

 the army of the Union took possession of New 

 Orleans and expelled the rebel usurpation, it 

 drove out, as early as May last, from those en- 

 tire districts, the rebel power. They left what- 

 ever of Union sentiment there was there the 

 opportunity to develop itself, and left a love 

 for the Union, if any existed there, to grow 

 and to strengthen its hold upon the people. 



" On an invitation to the people to renew 

 their allegiance to the Government of the 

 United States, in the course of last summer, 

 more than sixty thousand of the citizens en- 

 rolled themselves and took the oath of alle- 

 giance. In order to preserve peace, and to 

 enforce good order and such laws and regu- 

 lations of society as were absolutely necessary 

 while tfye State authority was held in abey- 

 ance, the President clothed one of his brig- 

 adier-generals with the authority of military 

 governor of the whole State of Louisiana early 

 in the summer. From that time to this he has 

 been discharging all the functions which would 

 ordinarily be discharged by the Governor of 

 the State of Louisiana under the same circum- 

 stances. He has issued writs. He has ap- 

 pointed such officers of the law as the real 

 Governor of the State would appoint. He has 

 enforced order in like manner as the Governor 

 of the State would enforce it. He has regu- 

 lated the municipal affairs of the State after 

 the manner and in the form required by the 

 constitution and laws of Louisiana. Governing 

 himself by the requirements of that instrument 

 and of those laws, he has gone on, to all intents 

 and purposes, as the Governor of Louisiana. 

 There was no evidence before the committee, 

 and the committee believes that none exists, 

 that any Union man in Louisiana resists in any 

 manner this exercise by the military governor 

 of the civil functions of the Governor of Lou- 

 isiana. 



" The constitution of Louisiana requires that 

 when any vacancy shall occur in the office of 

 representative in Congress, from death or 

 otherwise, the Governor shall by proclamation 

 call a special election. In obedience to that 

 requirement of the constitution of Louisiana, 

 and on the earnest solicitation of large num- 

 bers of voters in those two congressional dis- 

 tricts, the military governor called an election 



by proclamation in those two congressional dis- 

 tricts, to be held on the 3d of December last. 

 The result of that election was: in the first 

 district, a vote of 2,643 ; of which Mr. Flanders 

 received 2,370, and all others 273. In the elec- 

 tion in the second district, Mr. Hahn received 

 2,799 votes, and all others 2,318, a total of 

 5,117. 



" It is on the strength of these elections that 

 these gentlemen present themselves and ask 

 for seats in this House. The requirements of 

 the law of Louisiana were all observed, with 

 the exception of the matter of the military 

 governor. The appointment of commissioners 

 of election, the manner of polling the vote, the 

 precincts at which the votes were polled, the 

 police regulations insuTing peace and good or- 

 der at the election, the means of preventing il- 

 legal voting and fraud, all of the details, down 

 to the minutest municipal regulations, were; 

 observed at the polls on that day. So that this 

 had every essential of a regular election in u 

 time of most profound peace, with the excep- 

 tion of the fact that the proclamation was is- 

 sued by the military instead of the civil gov- 

 ernor of Louisiana. 



"A military governor is not entirely un- 

 known to the law, even in this country. The 

 Supreme Court of the United States has recog- 

 nized not only the power of the President of 

 the United States to appoint a military gov- 

 ernor, but has recognized both his military 

 and civil functions as binding in law. They 

 have not undertaken, it is true, to say how far, 

 as a military man, he may discharge the func- 

 tions of the civil governor. So far as they 

 have had occasion to pass, they have limited 

 them as near as may be to the line of neces- 

 sity. They have, however, given full force 

 and effect to the acts of a military governor, 

 when acting in a civil capacity. So that, to 

 some extent, certainly we have the highest au- 

 thority for the validity of the civil functions 

 of a military government. 



" The question comes, what is the limit ; or, 

 rather, the practical question is at this momer t, 

 whether these particular functions, exercised 

 under these circumstances, are of such a char- 

 acter as to deserve to be recognized by this 

 House at this time ? " 



Mr. Voorhees, of Indiana, opposed the reso- 

 lutions, saying : " I regard this question as one 

 of exceeding and paramount importance. I 

 regard it as setting a precedent for future ac- 

 tion which will be exceedingly important in 

 its bearing on the destiny of this Government. 

 In other words, I regard it as surrendering to 

 the executive the branch of the Govermm nt 

 to which we belong. In my judgment, ihe 

 executive has already usurped the judicial de- 

 partment of this Government by the suspension 

 of the writ of habeas corpus. It lacks but the 

 sanction of such a report as the committee has 

 made in this case to surrender up the legis- 

 lative department also to the executive. 



" Now, in support of these observations 



