executive, by
credentials, borne by Congressmen and by Senators--and in no case
has the legitimate authority of the Legislature been excepted to
save in the action of electing a United States Senator; and in no
instance has the sufficiency of the executive's credentials been
questioned, in either House, except in the matter of the
senatorial claimant.

Now, sir, shall we admit by our action on this ease that for
three years the State of Louisiana has not had a lawful
Legislature; that its laws have been made by an unauthorized mob;
that the President of the United States actively, and Congress,
by non-action at least, have sustained and perpetuated this
abnormal, illegal, wrongful condition of things, thereby
justifying and provoking the indignant and violent protests of
one portion of the people of that State, and inviting them to
renewed and continued agitation and violence? Such action by us
would be unjust to the claimant, a great wrong to the people who
sent him here, and cruel even to that class who have awaited an
opportunity to bring to their support the overwhelming moral
power of the nation in the pursuit of their illusion--which has
so nearly ruined the future of that fair State--a government
based upon the prejudices of caste.

I respectfully ask attention of Senators to another view of this
subject, which is not without weight in determining the
obligations of this body to the State of Louisiana and in
ascertaining the title of the claimant. If the assumption that
the present government inaugurated in 1873 is without legal
authority and usurpation is true, the remedy for the state of
things was to be found in the exercise of Congress through the
joint action of the two Houses of the powers conferred under the
guaranteeing clause of the Constitution relative to republican
forms of government in the several States.

Failing to exercise her power and perform her duty in this
direction, and thus practically perpetuating the present
government, I submit that, in my judgment, we cannot now ignore
our obligation to give the State her full representation on the
score of the alleged irregularity of the government through which
she has expressed her will; and there does seem to me, in this
connection, something incongruous in