The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-12-02
The RECENT ELfCrIoN.

| cent presidential election in this State. Ii
| only needed this document to complete the
evidence of the conspiracy long ago planned
by the carpet-baggers to suppress the voice
| of the people of Louisiana, and to thrust into
| Congress set of rejected and defeated can
| didates. The appointment of Baker was the
| first step in this conspiracy because 1t was
| supposed that through the willing agency OF
| this facile and experienced tool OF "rooiy
| loil rascality the object might be effected by
| means of those ingenious perversions, or au-
| dacious violations of the law which had pre-
viously been found SO eficacious In the SER
| vice of Southern Radicalism. No sooner had
Baker entered on the functions of his Office
than he showed that his design was not to
secure the right of suffrage to legal voters,
but to prevent the registration Of the white
| vote. No other Interpretation could be
| placed on his conduct, and no other
| Interpretation ,rds placed on it. The official
to whom his report is addressed reprimanded
| him for his illegal excuses I; the Republican
leaders, in order to mitigate the odium which
they saw that his course was bringing on
| their party, freely criticized, censured and de-
nounced his action. The courts declared that
his instructions were adverse TO law, and en-
joined his supervisors from obeying them,.
and even the Republican members of the
| Dryades street concern were shamed into
sort of fitful display of virtuous indignation.
Baker was, it must be remembered, an official
charged with the guardianship of the rights
of the citizen, and he deliberately and wick
eddy devoted the powers which his position
conferred on him, to persistent effort for
the destruction of those rights which it was
his duty to protect. 1t would be useless for
Governor Warmoth or any of his fellow Rad
icals to deny this fact. Even "trooly loil'
assurance, even the cool assumptions OF the
Republican, even the pious invectives and
prayerful libels of Parson Newman, even the
superhuman mendacity of Conway and Shell
ley, cannot weigh feather against the
weight Of evidence that Baker intended II
| possible, to disfranehise the people OF New
Orleans and against the reasonable inference
that he was appointed for this very purpose.
To suppose that a whole population would
quietly submit to so audacious an attempt to
destroy their legal rights, is to suppose that
men can cease to be men, or that the white
people of New Orleans have relapsed into
that state of servile subserviency which would
indeed unfit them to exercise the rights of
free men. 1t is strange, not that they re-
volted against this fragrant assault upon their
inalienable rights; not that the open attempt
to disfranchise them by the agency of the
very laws which pretended to guard their
rights should have wrought intensely upon
their feelings, and aroused bitter and insuper-
able opposition, but that they displayed, under
this great provocation, moderation which
would scarcely have been possible in any other
community than New Orleans.
In the face of the determined spirit of the
people, of the decisions of the courts, of the
censures of the governor, and of the denun-
Citations of his own allies, Baker was unable to
consummate his project. The registration
went on, and, at its close, Al, 7l2 persons had
been registered in the city of New Orleans.
Baker says that the supervisors were fire.
auently threatened in the discharge of their
duties. By whom threatened, and for what
If they were menaced at all, it was by persons
Justly outraged at the fagrantly illegal effort
to deprive them of their rights. Baker does
not dare to say that the Democrats tried to
prevent the negroes from registering In
deed he says that $4,000 negroes did register
in this city. which is number certainly in
excess of the real negro vote. If the Demo-
Gratis had chosen to bring intimidation to bear
on their adversaries, they could have operated
far more effectively on the registration than in
any other way. But, in spite of Bakers
efforts to disfranehise the white people, the
registration was nearly full aud, if the whole
registered vote had been cast there would
still have been Democratic majority of nine
thousand in this city. The truth is
that the white registration was about
$4,000, of which number $4,000 voted,
and the negro registration was about
$1,000, which is fair proportion
of the negro population of the city, say eighty
thousand. The assertion that there are 6000
white Radicals in New Orleans is supremely
ridiculous There are not more than 1000.
Last April, when every Radical voted, in
Guiding all the carpet-baggers and all the
scalawags in the city, and when some few
hundred Germans were deluded into voting
the Republican ticket, the white Radical vote
was only 1900. If Baker knew how to tell the
truth he would say that the cause Of the
popular excitement against the registrars was,
not that they registered too many Radicals, but
that they refused to register Democrats. Zone
OF the newspapers called upon the people to
hang the registrars to the nearest lamp post"
| Why? Because the registrars attempted to
| disfranchise WHITE peopfc. e. sfuny--vs sss--
supervisors were afraid to sleep in their own
houses" Why? Because they were conspir.
ing against the legal rights of a whole people
some of the registrars was hung in effigy at
his own door," Why? Because he was daily
engaged in violating the law, and in endeav-
oring to clothe a scheme of fragrant and
audacious fraud in garment of legal forms
For this person now to volunteer his testi-
mony in the case which the Radical leaders
are making up, is quite consistent with his
character, and. it is indeed, the logical
sequence of the plan which was contrived