CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



237 



usurpation, and to maintain them in tho enjoy- 

 meat >f tli.-ir chosen government. 



1 huso are tho recitals of facts which I will 

 simply say are thoroughly sustained by the re- 

 of the committee to whom this question 

 was submitted, and who by a voluminous ro- 

 :-, .m|>!Hiied by more than a thousand 

 [' testimony have stated to the Senate 

 tho result of the investigation, elaborate and 

 igh, of the proceedings in that election. 

 1 do not propose to reiterate, prove anew, these 

 allegations. I simply content myself by say ing 

 are reported to the Senate by indubitable 

 authority. But one member of the committee 

 oon found in his report to deny the exist- 

 ence of these facts, and even he I refer to the 

 honorable Senator from Indiana (Mr. Morton) 

 admits that the action of the United States 

 court under which the government of Kellogg 

 was placed in possession of the offices of Louisi- 

 ana was an act of flagrant usurpation. So far 

 oven he goes. But the rest of the committee, 

 tin- four Senators who signed the majority re- 

 port, the Senator who drew that report whose 

 able and thorough demonstrations of the facts 

 on which that report was based is so fresh in 

 our memories, the able statesman who unfor- 

 tunately is no longer a Senator, Mr. Trumbull, 

 of Illinois, and the then Senator from Georgia 

 (Mr. Hill), all concurred in stating as true the 

 facts which I have alleged in the preamble to 

 this amendment. 



"I do not desire to weary the Senate by re- 

 capitulating their proof, but simply aver that 

 they are all sustained by the debates, by the 

 report, by the testimony taken. The Senate 

 is spared any further necessity of examining 

 into these facts. We have had as careful an 

 inquiry into them, as full a report upon them, 

 as any one could desire for the elicitation of 

 truth. The speech we had from the Senator 

 from Kentucky (Mr. McCreery) was memorable 

 for its ability, for that mingling of logic, wit, 

 and truth, which marked his utterances. The 

 speech of the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. 

 Carpenter) and that of the Senator from Mary- 

 land (Mr. Hamilton), within a few days, all 

 have gone to substantiate these facts as recited 

 in the amendment, and to render it a work 

 of supererogation for me to introduce new 

 authority further to sustain these recitals of 

 fact. 



" Mr. President, the issue before the Senate 

 of the United States is no mere question of 

 party triumph. We are not sitting here as a 

 court to hear and try the contested election of 

 Kellogg or of McEnery. In my opinion, wo 

 have and can have no such jurisdiction, and 

 our decision, even if backed by the military 

 force of the United States, would be void in 

 law and without authority in morals. The 

 issue before the people of the United States in 

 this case of Louisiana is nothing less than the 

 preservation of our form of government, 

 whether it now is or whether it is to be a 

 Federal Union of equal States or a consolidated 



power of unlimited rule by a central govern- 

 ment over outlying province*. 



" This question is all-important to Louisiana 

 to-day. It may bo equally important to New 

 York to-morrow, or to Massachusetts or to 

 Indiana. Let no man suppose that the viola- 

 tion of a great constitutional principle of gov- 

 ernment can be committed, can become a pre- 

 cedent, without its evils reaching those who 

 sot it on foot. This is no claim simply for the 

 right to hold and enjoy the powers and emolu- 

 ments of an office. It is the cry of a sister 

 State for relief from a foul usurpation set on 

 foot and maintained by unlawful exercise of 

 power by Federal authorities, civil and military. 

 Let the people of Louisiana speak for them- 

 selves, they who are before the Senate for re- 

 lief, whose petitions are signed by thousands, 

 whose language is entirely respectful, nay, in 

 my opinion, almost too humble for American 

 citizens to use in addressing their public repre- 

 sentatives.. The people of Louisiana in whose 

 behalf the measure which I have proposed is 

 offered are not office-holders. They are not 

 interested in the emoluments of office under 

 the government of Louisiana. They truly de- 

 scribe themselves as follows: 



They take the liberty to say that they have had no 

 connection with these suits as parties or attorneys 



" That is to say, the suits in the courts of 

 Louisiana, or the Federal courts, for possession 

 of the various offices in the State of Louisiana 



neither do they claim any of the offices in dispute. 

 They have not heretofore been concerned in the con- 

 troversies among the political classes which have en- 

 dangered the peace of, and brought scandal upon, 

 the State. They affirm that, during the last four 

 years, there has not been good government in Louisi- 

 ana. There have been extravagance, prodigality, 

 dishonesty, and waste in the public expenditures. 

 The public debt has been enormously increased, witli 

 but little corresponding benefit. The credit of the 

 State has been given to speculating corporations, for 

 personal aims. The taxes on property nave assumed 

 such proportions that they might appropriately be 

 called rents paid by the proprietors to the State for 

 its occupation and use. The taxes upon business 

 oppress the commercial and laboring classes. Tho 

 laws to control elections, corporations, and public 

 institutions, stimulate these excesses of office-holders, 

 and the consequence is universal depression and dis- 

 content. The State needs an honest, faithful, and 

 responsible government, conducted to attain public 

 objects, and not to enrich its members or to perpetu- 

 ate their power. There was an earnest effort to ob- 

 tain such a government at the last election, but a 

 political conspiracy has- unfortunately defeated it. 



" That is why they are here. Nay, further, 

 a report and I prefer to let these people speak 

 by their own voice the report of a committee 

 of two hundred citizens of the resident popula- 

 tion of New Orleans, made in March, 1873, 

 states 



That the people of the United States are divided 

 among States, and the humiliation and degradation 

 of a State of the Union to the level of a province, de- 

 prived of the rights of self-government, can only be 

 the harbinger or similar woes to themselves. 



We have asked nothing of the American people, 

 of their President, Congress, or judges, in any in- 

 temperate, immodest, or minatory form of address. 



