LOUISIANA. 



461 



which must ever attend a prolonged dispute as to 

 the title and administration of the Government of 

 one of the States of the Union. 



The President, therefore, desires that you should 

 devote your first and principal attention to a removal 

 of the obstacles to an acknowledgment of one Govern- 

 ment for purposes of an exercise of authority within 

 the State, and a representation of the State in its re- 

 lations to the General Government, under Section 4, 

 Article 2. of the Constitution of the United States, 

 leaving, if necessary, to the judicial or other consti- 

 tutional arbitrament within the State the question 

 of ultimate right. If these obstacles should prove 

 inseparable from whatever reason, and the hope of a 

 single Government in all its departments be disap- 

 pointed, it should be your next endeavor to accom- 

 plish the recognition of a single Legislature as the 

 depositary of the representative will of the people 

 of Louisiana. This great department rescued from 

 dispute, the rest of the problem could gradually be 

 worked out by the prevalent authority, which the 

 legislative power, when undisputed, is quite com- 



Eetent to exert in composing conflicts in coordinate 

 ranches of the Government. An attentive consid- 

 eration of the conditions under which the Federal 

 Constitution and the acts of Congress provide or per- 

 mit military intervention by the President, in pro- 

 tection of a State against domestic violence, has sat- 

 isfied the President tliat the use of this authority in 

 determining or influencing disputed elections in a 

 State is most carefully to be avoided. Undoubtedly, 

 as was held by the Supreme Court in the case of Lu- 

 ther vs. Borden, the appeal from u State may involve 

 such an inquiry as to tne lawfulness of the authority 

 which invokes the interference of the President in 

 the supposed pursuance of the Constitution, but it is 

 equally true that neither the constitutional provision 

 nor the acts of Congress were framed with any such 

 design. Both obviously treated the case of domes- 

 tic violence within a State as of an outbreak against 

 the law and authority of the established Government 

 which the State was unable to suppress by its own 

 trength. A case wherein every department of the 

 State Government has a disputed representation, and 

 the State therefore furnishes to the Federal Govern- 

 ment no internal political recognition of authority 

 upon which the Federal Executive can rely, will pre- 

 sent a case of so much difficulty it is of pressing im- 

 portance to all interests in Louisiana that it should 

 be avoided. A single Legislature would greatly re- 

 lieve this difficulty, for that department or the State 

 Government is named by the Constitution as a neces- 

 sary applicant when it cun be convened for the mili- 

 tary intervention by the United States. If, therefore, 

 the disputing interests can concur in or be reduced 

 to a single Legislature for the State of Louisiana, 

 it would be a great step in composing this unhappy 

 strife. 



The President leaves entirely to the Commission 

 the conciliatory influences which, in their judgment, 

 formed on the spot, may seem to them to conduce to 

 the proposed end. His own determination, that only 

 public considerations should inspire and attend this 

 effort to give ascendency in Louisiana to things that 

 belong to peace, is evinced by his selection of com- 

 missioners who offer to the country in their own 

 character every guarantee of public motives, and tho 

 methods of transaction which they have undertaken. 

 Your report of the result of this endeavor will satisfy 

 the President, he does not doubt, of the wisdom of 

 his selection and his placing trust in the Commission. 

 A second and less important subject of attention 

 during your visit to New Orleans will be the collec- 

 tion of accurate and trustworthy information from 

 public officers and prominent citizens of all politi- 

 cal connections, as to the state of public feeling and 

 opinion in the community at large, upon the general 

 questions which affect the peaceful and safe exercise 

 in the State of Louisiana of all the legal and politi- 

 cal principles conferred by the Constitution of the 



United States upon all citizens ; the maintenance and 

 protection of those rights and privileges by all con- 

 stitutional means, or by every just, moral, and social 

 influence, are the settled purpose of the President 

 in his administration of tne government. He will 

 hope to learn from your investigations that this pur- 

 pose will be aided in, and not resisted by, the sub- 

 stantial and effective public opinion of the great body 

 of the people of Louisiana. The President does not 

 wish to impose any limit upon your stay in Louisiana 

 that would tend to limit the full objects of your visit. 

 He is, however, extremely desirous to find it in his 

 power, at the earliest day compatible with a safe ex- 

 ercise of that authority, to put an end to even the 

 appearance of military intervention in the domestic 

 affairs of Louisiana, and he awaits your return with 

 the confident hope that your report will enable him 

 promptly to execute a purpose he has so much at heart. 



The President desires me to add that the publica- 

 tion of the results of your visit he shall hope to make 

 immediately after their communication to him. 



I have the honor to be, with great respect, your 

 obedient servant, \VM. M. EVARTS. 



The Commission arrived in New Orleans on 

 the 5th of April. The same day Packard ad- 

 dressed an appeal to the President, in which 

 he maintained at some length that it was es- 

 sential to determine three points which were 

 not covered by the instructions to the Com- 

 mission, viz. : 1. Which is the legal Govern- 

 ment entitled to recognition ? 2. "Which is 

 the legal judiciary ? 3. Do domestic violence 

 and insurrection prevail, within the meaning 

 of Section 4, Article 4, of tlie Constitution of 

 the United States? His appeal closed with 

 these words: 



I earnestly urge that the investigation by the Com- 

 mittee be not confined to the narrow inquiry how 

 Nicholls can be sustained and Packurd starved to 

 death for lack of money to support his Government. 

 If the inquiry be thus restricted, a grave wrong will 

 be done to those by whom I was ciilh d to the execu- 

 tive chair, and whose votes, cast often at the peril 

 of their lives, Imve elevated your Excellencv to the 

 Presidency of the American people. In their name 

 and on their behalf, I at-k that the instructions given 

 to the Commission may be so amended and enlarged 

 that right can be ascertained, and tlint the Govern- 

 ment tnns found to be republican in form nnd to 

 have been chosen by n majority of the people, ac- 

 cording to the legal method sanctioned by the Con- 

 stitution and laws, may be recognized and sustained. 



The scope of tho Commission's labors was 

 not, however, extended. On the day after 

 its arrival there was a largely attended mass- 

 meeting of the citizens of New Orleans, to 

 give expression to the popular feeling, and 

 a long series of resolutions was adopted, de- 

 claring the loyalty of the people to the Fed- 

 eral Government, claiming the right of local 

 self-government, dwelling on the wrongs and 

 usurpations from which they had suffered, ex- 

 pressing confidence in the right of Governor 

 Nicholls's claim to the office of Governor, and in 

 the good results that would come from its recog- 

 nition, denouncing Packard's pretensions, ex- 

 pressing satisfaction with the avowed purport 

 of the President, and welcoming the Commis- 

 sion. The Legislature appointed a committee 

 to wait upon the visitors and extend to them 

 the hospitalities of the State. The efforts of 



