MM 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



tar they acted wrongfully or decided fraudu- 

 lently, that principle jtives us the right in every 

 CMe to go and ia<]uire into the organization 

 of the Stato government; and after all tho 

 Congress of the United States it tlnm made tho 

 returning board for every Legislature, the final 

 board to inquiry whether a Legislature in 

 West Virginia, or in any other State, has been 

 properly organized. 



Whether that was tho legal returning 

 board was a question to be decided by tho 

 Supreme Court of that Stato; not by us. 

 They have solemnly decided that what was 

 known as the Lynoh board was the legal re- 

 turning board, but the Senator from Wisconsin 

 ays they had not jurisdiction. He knows 

 better than the Supreme Court of Louisiana 

 whether they had Jurisdiction. Ho gives it a 

 cursory glance, and disposes of it in a tew brill- 

 iant sentences. I say they had jurisdiction, 

 but. whether they had or not, they were the 

 judges of their own jurisdiction, and we are 

 bound by their decision upon a point arising 

 exclusively under the laws of the State. The 

 Supreme Court has decided that tho Legisla- 

 ture was a lawful Legislature; they were 

 called upon to do it, and could not avoid it. 

 Uow t A law was passed with regard to con- 

 tested elections, and that question came before 

 the Supreme Court in tho case of Morgan, who 

 claimed to have been elected supreme judge, 

 and die Supreme Court was compelled to pass 

 upon it, and they said that that law was passed 

 by the Legislature of Louisiana, that it was 

 valid and binding; but the Senator from Wis- 

 consin says that we understand all that much 

 better than they do, that it was not a lawful 

 Legislature, and that the Supreme Court of 

 tho State had no jurisdiction to examine and 

 decide the question at all. 



" It is proposed to overturn that govern- 

 ment, and either have a new election in the 

 month of May next. Governor Warmoth in the 

 mean time being placed back, or if wo cannot 

 do that, snys the Senator from Wisconsin, wo 

 mnt take the McEnery government the Mc- 

 Enery government, a mere supplement to the 

 government of Warmoth, and McEnery must 

 be pat in there, installed over tho colored 

 people of Louisiana, elected by defrauding 

 thnniandi of them out of their votes, elected 

 as the enemy of the colored people, as the 

 acknowledged foe of their race, running on 

 what was called the white man's ticket in the 

 State of Louisiana, and every white man was 

 urged to vote for McEnery upon the ground that 

 ) represented the white people. I say he 

 was running as the white man's candidate. It 

 Is now proposed that he shall ! induct-d into 

 power in Louisiana, when there is an acknowl- 

 edged majority of the people of that Stato who 

 re colored people. The proportion to pnt 

 MeEn'Tv tli, T e i to pnt a minority candidate 

 in as Governor of Loniniana. I do not believe 

 the Congress of the United States will do it." 



Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont, said : " I have 



been very much impressed with what tho 

 Senator from Indiana has just said on the sub- 

 ji-ct of our power. I do not myself doubt tho 

 power of the Government of the United States, 

 wln-ii the supreme occasion shall arise for it, of 

 determining for itself that there is no govern- 

 ment in a State; but as the Senator from Indi- 

 ana has said, and as the Senator from New York, 

 I believe, stated with great force, it must be a 

 time that brings you to where you con sny in a 

 moral sense, as the Senator from New York did, 

 that it is the last resort of kings. So that I agree 

 with the Senator from Indiana that we have 

 not here the occasion when this last power of 

 ours, although we possess it, should be exer- 

 cised. Going so far with him, I am sorry to 

 feel compelled, from the best consideration I 

 have been able to give to this case, to sepa- 

 rate. 



"I think we are obliged upon the evidence 

 that we have to determine, as he agrees, 

 either that we must allow tho Kellogg govern- 

 ment to go on, and stand by it as the final and 

 lawful government of that State, so far as the 

 United States are concerned, or we must de- 

 termine that it has been set op by us and not 

 by the people of that State, and give to tho 

 other party, who on the face of the returns ap- 

 pears to have been elected, the office, until, by 

 tho proper process of law in that State, if he 

 is not really entitled to it, it shall ho deter- 

 mined that some other person is. I think tli.it 

 the more we look at it the better we shall be 

 satisfied that there are less evils and less dan- 

 gers in declaring one way or the other that 

 the people of that Stato having had an elect ion 

 according to the forms of their law. must have 

 prima facie elected somebody to be their chief 

 magistrate. If we say that, as it appears to 

 me we must, then the question is who prima 

 facie has been elected ? '' 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, Raid : " The proof 

 shows that as to the McEnery government 

 the election was so managed as to defeat the 

 will of tho majority and prevent a fair election. 

 and in the other case that the actual majority 

 of the votes returned according to law were 

 not in favor of tho government set np by 

 Kellogg. Those two facts it seems to me are 

 reasonably established. 



" Now, what shall we do? Shall we set tho 

 example for all time to como of allowing a 

 government to be established permanently that 

 was not elected by the majority of those who 

 voted? Shall wo on tho other hand allow a 

 government to be perpetuated that was organ- 

 ized, engineered, conceived, and founded in 

 fraud ? Why, sir, to establish either of these 

 two propositions is to subvert the republican 

 principle. Therefore, I am disposed to acqui- 

 esce in the decision of tho committee that wo 

 ouirht to set them both aside, under the pow- 

 ers given to us by the Constitution of tho 

 United States to guarantee to the Stato of 

 Louisiana a republican form of government. 



" Now, one question arises, and it is the only 



