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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



grant of power given by the States under the 

 constitutional compact to the Eederal Govern- 

 ment would usurp the very substance to the 

 Federal Government, and leave only the ' form ' 

 or shell of republican government to the States. 

 "The Senator from Wisconsin submitted 

 this well-considered sentence to the Senate : 



If I am right in saying that it is the vital element 

 of republican government that its rulers are chosen 

 by the people, it follows that the present government 

 of Louisiana, lacking this, is not a republican gov- 

 ernment. 



" I do not object to his definition. Republi- 

 can government is one the vital element of 

 which is that rulers are elected by the people. 

 Ten years ago a majority of the people of Lou- 

 isiana had no voice in electing the rulers. Was 

 it a republican government ? I do not say that 

 it was. It certainly was not, under the defini- 

 tion stated. But as Congress had no right ex- 

 cept over the form of government, it was nev- 

 er claimed that under the guarantee clause of 

 the Constitution Congress could give the right 

 to vote to the disfranchised majority of the 

 people of that State. It required an amend- 

 ment to the Constitution before that could be 

 effected. 



" This word ' form ' is not a matter of chance 

 as it occurs in this Constitution. The people 

 of the Southern States, when they entered 

 into this compact, knowing that large portions 

 of their populations were disfranchised, and 

 not intending that they should have a voice in 

 the election of rulers, would never have agreed 

 to insert in the Constitution that the Federal 

 Government should see to it that their State 

 governments should not only be republican in 

 form, but also should s*ee to it that the rulers 

 were elected by the people. They stipulated 

 that all the people should be considered and 

 counted in the apportionment of representa- 

 tion, but not so in the election of rulers." 



Mr. Carpenter : " I want not to answer the 

 Senator, but simply to ask him a question, as 

 he did me, so that I may distinctly understand 

 him. Does he maintain that in case the three 

 branches of government in Louisiana to-day, 

 that is, the men holding those three branches 

 of government, shall collude together, the 

 court to decide all questions in favor of the 

 other two, the other departments to adminis- 

 ter every thing in their common interest, to 

 keep themselves in power under the present 

 existing republican constitution of that State 

 during their natural lives, and they should do 

 so for fifteen years, would Congress have any 

 power to interfere, the form that is, the con- 

 stitution being conceded to be republican." 



Mr. Frelinghuysen : " That is not a case be- 

 fore us." 



Mr. Carpenter : " It is two years before us." 



Mr. Frelinghuysen : " I think I will show 

 the case supposed is not before us at any time. 

 It is difficult to solve questions put in this 

 manner out of the order of debate ; but my an- 

 swer is : That if after repeated trials in a State 



where we have performed our duty of giving 

 them order and government, and of seeing to 

 it that it is republican in form, it should turn 

 out that the people were so depraved, ignorant, 

 and degraded, so unfit for the blessings of re- 

 publican government, that they abused all 

 their privileges, I suppose it would then be in- 

 cumbent upon us to fulfill that guarantee of 

 the Constitution pro tanto, to fulfill it just as 

 far as we could, and to give them government, 

 even if it was under a military commission. 

 But, sir, we will never be called upon to re- 

 sort to that extreme measure, unless the ex- 

 treme case which my friend has supposed, of 

 the executive, legislative, judicial branches of 

 government, and the people themselves, all 

 combining in one dire conspiracy to destroy 

 themselves." 



Mr. Carpenter : " Let me correct my friend 

 as to the effect of my question. My question 

 meant this : Where the judges of the Supreme 

 Court, the members of the Legislature and the 

 executive department, the Governor and the 

 other officers, should combine among them- 

 selves to hold the people under their govern- 

 ment, and the people should be of course re- 

 sisting that, and the government should apply 

 to the President to sustain it, and the President 

 should interfere, and then the question should 

 be presented to us whether, after that thing 

 had continued for ten years, and they had 

 avowed their purpose of continuing for life, we 

 should have any power whatever to interfere ? 

 The particular case is only put to test the 

 Senator's argument of the distinction between 

 our guaranteeing a republican government 

 and what he calls a republican form of govern- 

 ment." 



Mr. Frelinghuysen : " I think I have an- 

 swered that question. I say that we are 

 bound to carry out the guarantee of the Con- 

 stitution. If the people are so entirely unfit 

 for a republican government, we must still give 

 them government, even if it is a military com- 

 mission. But no such state of things will exist. 

 You can suppose a condition of things which 

 will prove that any government is inefficient 

 and unfit for the purposes for which it is inau- 

 gurated. 



"Mr. President, if the Federal Government 

 can, in the exercise of its arbitrary discretion 

 a discretion from which there is no appeal, 

 and to which there is no review, not even by 

 the people, for we are not responsible to the 

 people of Louisiana for the votes given here 

 if the Federal Government can, in the exercise 

 of its arbitrary power, set aside the election of 

 Governors and Legislatures of the States, then 

 there is an end of the independent government 

 of the States. I submit that the procedure 

 here contemplated is without precedent in the 

 General Government, and without analogy in 

 any of the State governments. 



" As a matter of necessity, deliberative as- 

 semblies must be the judges of the qualifica- 

 tons of their own members. We judge of the 



