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The respectable source from which this bold and extraordinary declaration emanates entitles it to some notice. If our State Constitution, adopted in 1852, provided for a government Republican in its form, and contained no provisions conflicting with the Constitution of the United States, then it has not been overthrown, but still exists. The amendments referred to as having been adopted by the Convention of 1861, were no amendments at all, as they were in violation of the Constitution of the United States, and enacted by a treasonable vote of a Secession Convention. The very object of the army of the United States in coming here was to do away with the secession acts of the Convention and to keep Louisiana and the neighboring States in the Union. The presence of the army among us at this time, and the necessity of the establishment of martial law, of course sets aside and suspends for a time the active operation of the Constitution and laws of this State, so far only as they conflict with the orders and proclamations of the military commander. In all matters not provided for by martial law, the laws of the State are not suspended. Do we not see evidence of this every day? Go into our District Courts, named and regulated by our State laws, and you will there hear the members of the bar and the judges every day refer to the Constitution and laws of this State, which, we are told, have been “overthrown and destroyed by the rebellion of the people of Louisiana.” The statement that this is a rebellion of the people of Louisiana is news to me. Indeed, I think it is news to the gentlemen who make it; for, if I am not greatly mistaken, they have frequently declared that I Louisiana did not secede from the Union by a vote of her people. I should blush at the very mention of secession if I thought that a majority of the people of Louisiana had voted for a dissolution of this Union; and as a Union man, with my views of constitutional law, I cannot admit that a rebellion by all the people of a State has any legal effect, except such as may be produced by violence and brute force for the time being. As soon as this unlawful violence and insurrection is put down, the State resumes her position in the Union; and as soon as martial law is removed, her own loyal Constitution and laws, which have been temporarily suspended, regain their strength and go into operation. This proposition appears to me so plain, that I am really astonished to find a different opinion advanced by the able gentlemen whose language I have quoted.
But, because I argue thus, it must not be understood that I am an admirer of the present Constitution, or that I am in favor of continuing it in force. I have discussed the matter as a lawyer, in its logical and legal view; but, as a citizen, I am in favor of a convention of the loyal people of Louisiana for the purpose of framing a new Constitution. I could see no wisdom, no propriety, no common sense, in the effort which was lately made by some of our Union friends to restore civil authority by holding an election for State officers, etc., in the curious manner which characterized their proceedings, if their course had not partaken so much of the Know Nothing proceedings of former days, they might have succeeded in their undertaking. If, at a proper time, say about two month, before the day designated in the Constitution for the election, these gentlemen had come out openly, publicly and manfully, and announced their intention to hold an election, their action might have been traceable to motives of disinterested patriotism. But in doing as they did. enveloping their movements in mystery, meeting in secret, concealing their ticket and giving no intimation of their contemplated election until about three days before the election, they endeavored to fasten on the people of this State a government in opposition to their wishes, and without their knowledge. It is hardly necessary for me to tell you that I could not approve such proceedings. When I join in an election it must be one partaking of the char-
