LOUISIANA. 



th public office* in said building of persons entitled 

 t I:.. -.1:... . 



(Sinned) E. H. DUBELL. 



It it impossible to conceive of a more irr> 

 (Deft], and in every way inexcusable act on i 

 of a judge. Conceding the power of th< frmrt \i 

 make >uch an order, the judge oat of court, had no 

 more authority to make it than had the marsh 

 ha* not even the form of judicial process. It was 

 not aealed, nor wai it signed by the clerk, and had 

 no more legal effect than an order i-Mu-.l by any pri- 

 vate citizen. The De Ferict Beard, therefor*, 

 had color of official existence. Their cauvasa wu 

 completed, and the result promulgated und 

 of State law, and it is clear that this gav, 

 Coon no more right to seize the State-House than to 

 M!M the Capitol. 



The marshal, on receiving this pretended order, 

 called for a detachment of United States troops to 

 act as a pout comitatm, seized the State-House at 2 

 A. x., of December 6th, and held it for weeks. 



Afterward on the same day, Judge Durell 

 made an order granting the injunction as 

 prayed for in the Kellogg bill, and delivered 

 an opinion. This opinion materially mi- 

 the allegations of the bill. He seems to admit 

 the validity of the act of November 20th, but 

 <luti.Tiiiin.-3 tliat it shall not take effect at an 

 inconveniently early day. Tlio judge also de- 

 clares that about four thousand affidavits sus- 

 tain the averments of the bill : 



Your committee have examined many of the af- 

 fidavits, and it is admitted thut none of them contain 

 the statement that right of registration or right of 

 voting was denied on account of raff, eolnr, orpre- 

 titna condition of wrritudf. * Viewed in any 

 light in which your committee can consider them, 

 the order* and injunctions made and granted by 

 Judge Durell in that cause ore most repr.-ln 

 erroneous in point of law and are wholy void for 

 want of jurisdiction, and your committee must ex- 

 preas their sorrow and humiliation that a judge of 

 the United States should have proceeded in snob 

 flagrant disregard of his duty, and have so fur 

 stepped the limits of Federal jurisdiction. * * 

 On tho 8th of December, 1872, the Lynch Board 

 Bovee, (who was then acting as Secretary of State in 

 place or Herron), Lynch, Longstrect, and Hawkins 

 pretended to have canvassed the returns of the 

 election, and certified to the Secretary of State thut 

 Kellogg had been elected Governor: Ant'.'me. T.ieu- 

 tenant-Oovernor ; Clinton, Auditor. rney- 



Oeneral; Brown, Snperintendant ' ; nml 



Deslondes, Secretary of State ; and also certified a 

 lit of persons whom they had <i to bo 



elected to the Legislature. There is nothing in all 

 the comedy of blunder! and frauds under eonsi dera- 

 tion more in<!>-fcn*ihle than the protended canvass 

 of this board. * No person can examine the te- 

 timony ever so cursorily without seeing that thia 

 pretended canvass had no semblance of integrity. 



The report then attacks the claim that a de- 

 <if th.- Supreme Court has determined 

 the Lynch Board to be tho legal one, on these 

 ground*: 



1. That fraud vitiate* every thin?, and that no 

 court upon the testimony hot" 



hold that canvass valid. 2. Tho judgment of tho 

 Supreme Court is void because it is without jur 

 lion. 8. But for the interference of Judge Duroll in 

 the matter of this State election, a matter wholly 

 beyond hia jurisdiction, tho MoKnery k - 

 would to-dav have been the dt faetn government of 

 the 8tat. Judge Dnroll Interposed the army 

 United States between tho people of Louisiana and 

 the only government which has tho semblance of 



reguUritv, and the result of this has been to estab- 

 lish the kcllogg government, so far as that State has 



now any government. For the I'nited flutes to in- 



re in a State election, and l>v the . 

 of troops set up a Govern r ami Legislature w'ithout 

 a shadow of right, and then t.. r. ; 

 wrong, upon tiie ground that to grunt relief would 

 be interfering with the rights of the Stati 



i (jith'eiilt 10 inter with a grave countenance. 

 Besides, it ne tow hut 



the Supreme Court nun have In en influenced il 

 dcring this decision oy the fact that the Kellogg 

 government, the creation of the Lynch BoanLbM 

 already been established, and the expectation that it 

 would bo sustained by Federal authority. * * * 

 It is the opinion of your committee that blit for the 

 unjustifiable interference of Judge Durell, whose 

 orders were executed by tl J roops, 



the canvass made by the De Feriet Board and pro- 

 mulgated by the Governor, declaring McEnery to 

 have been elected Governor, etc., and also declaring 

 who had been elected to the Legislature, would have 

 been acquiesced in by the pi <i ; . and that irovern- 

 inent would have entered 'inietly upon the exercise 



power of the' S'tute. But tl. 

 i_-s of Judge Durell, and the support given to 

 him by United States troops, resulted in establishing 

 the authority d* facto of Kellogg and bis associates 

 in State offices, and the persons declared by the 

 Lynch Board to be elected to the Legislature. We 

 have already seen that the proceeding* of that board 

 cannot bo sustained without dis- n the 



principles of law applicable to 



lag the distinction between good faith and fraud. 

 Your committee are therefore led to the conclusion 

 that, if the election held in November, 1--TL'. bo 

 not absolutely void for frauds committed therein, 

 McEnery and his associates in State offices and the 

 persons certified ns members of tl 

 the De Feriet Board, ought to be ; 

 legal government of th' nsidcrinir till tho 



-tulilished before your committee, there seems 

 no escape from the alternative that McEnery must 

 be recognized by Congress, or Congress BBM pro- 

 vide for a reelection. 



The report then says that it is impossible to 

 affirm that Louisiana has any government at 

 present. The McEnery government approach- 

 e more nearly a government dt jure, tin- Kol- 

 logg government a government <lr/nrto. The 

 question is not n judicial one, and cannot be 

 decided by tho courts. It is political, nml must 

 be decided by Congress. Public opinion in 

 Louisiana is about equally divided between tho 

 two governments. If Federal support were 

 withdrawn. Kcllogg'sgovornment would he im- 

 mediately supplanted. Husincss is interrupted, 

 confidence is destroy ed. Should Congress ad- 

 journ without making provision for tliis ruse, 

 one of two tliiiiL'M must result : there will bo 

 collision nnd bloodshed between the two par- 

 ties, or the President must support the Kellogg 

 government by I'niied States troops. Tho 

 committee therefore recommend the passage 

 of a bill to insure tin honest reelection under 

 the authority of the 1'nited St: 



Tliis hill was lost, and the State of Louisiana 

 was left in wluit the congressional committee 

 bo as "a melancholy condition.'' sub- 

 stantially a state of anarchy. Although many 

 of the . d in this report have already 



be, n mentioned in the previous volume, they 

 arc here repeated as presented by the high au- 

 thority of a committee of Congr* 



