New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-10-20
JOURNAL OF THE SENATE.
NInety.sixth Days Session.

The Senate was called TO order by tht
President at twelve o'clock NJ.
The roll was called; present the follow
ing members:
Anderson, Antoine, Bacon, Beares
Braughn, Campbell, Coupland, Darrall
Day, Foute, FRANCOIS. Futch, jerks, Jewell
Kelso,. Lewis, Lynch, Monette, Ogden
0'Hara, Packard Pinchback, Poindexter
Pollard, Ray, Smith, Todd, Whitney, Viii
cox, Wittgenstein-30.
Prayer by the Rev. Mr.. Clark.
On motion of Mr.. Ray, the reading of the
minutes was dispensed with.
Mr.. Ray, from the Committee on the Judi.
clayv, reported unfavorably upon Senate bill
No. ISL an act for the relief of W. ".
Ha. lin.
Mr.. Darrall, from the Enrolment Com
ittee, reported as duly enrolled Senate bill
o. 235.
Mr.. 0Hara, from the Committee on Elec-
ons and Returns, presented the following
inority report: ....
the Honorable President and Members of the
Senate of Louisiana:
In the the case of George W. Ragan VS..
R. H. Day, the undersigned cannot agree
with the majority of the committee, and
begs leave to submit the following minority
report
From the evidence adduced, the under
signed is fully convinced that no fair and
impartial election took place at Baton Rouge
on April the seventeenth and eighteenth,
1868. 1t is in evidence that the ballot boxes,
police and others had been controlled by
parties in the interest of the Mayor and
Sheriff Bird, the Mayor q. E. Elam) being
then in office and a candidate for re.elec-
ton. 1t is ALSO proven that more than one
thousand voters were prevented by intimi-
dation from voting. The undersigned can
not agree with the majority in the presump-
tion that the said one thousand voters
would have voted for G.. w. Ragan. The
undersigned, therefore, recommends to this
honorable body that the election be set
aside, and the seat Of r. H. Day be declared
vacant, and that the Governor be instructed
to order new election.
PATRICK O'HARA.
Mr.. Thompson, also from the Committee
on Elections and Returns, presented the
following minority report:
Rooms SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, 1
October l9, 1868,
To the Honorable the President and the Member:
of the Senate of the State of Louisiana;
The undersigned, member of the Senate
Committee on Elections, having examined
with all the care to which, from its import,
ance, it is entitled, the evidence submitted
by George W. Ragan, contesting the seat OF
the Hon. r. H. Day, as well as that present
ed by DR.. Day himself, and differing and
honestly differing, with the majority Of his
colaborers in the work assigned them by
your honorable body, submits the following
minority report:
A careful examination of the immense
mass Of testimony taken in this case p.e-
sents the following:
l. That the list of registered voters in
the parish of East Baton Rouge amounted
il round numbers to-
Colored... 5000
White. OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. sl5O0
That the large amount of more than l00C
votes were not polled on the seventeenth
and eighteenth days of April, and yet that
Or. Day received a majority of more than
700 votes over his competitor for Senatorial
honOrs.
The whole current of testimony shows
that this contest was conducted with vigor
unusual in such cases.
Gentlemen of the very highest respecta-
bility in Louisiana have testified in behalf
OF the sitting member, and the certain and
couscntaneous opinion of the whole is that
the election was conducted as fairly as any
election at which they were ever present,
and they witnessed many in the city OF
Baton Ronge and East Baton Rouge. That
if fraud of any description was practiced it
wholly escaped their attention; and they
further state that they were at all times in a
position to have seen it had such been the
case.
In addition to the testimony OF civilians
we have the testimony of the distinguished
commander of the post of Baton Rouge and
his officers, completely negativing the
charge of intimidation with which it is
charged the election is tainted. The fiat
tering vote received by the contestant, a
stranger, is an evidence of the
high esteem in which he was held by the
party of his district, but both
the witnesses for the contestant and Dr. Day
assure us that many of the leading colored
men of Baton Rouge were the warm friends
and active supporters of the doctor; re-
garded by them as conservative in his no.
tions, known to them intimately, and en-
Toying measure of popularity with the col
ored population of his district, based as the
witnesses declare upon the kindliness of his
his attention to them when sick,
and his habit of bonding them when i'm
prisoned for alleged violations of the
criminal code of Louisiana, And it is to
the above that some of the witnesses at
tribute, as well IS the undersigned, the
very large vote received by him, nay, in
the language of one totally disinterested,
OF high respectabillty and of the
same political faith with contestant, whose
testimony was taken by commission, in the
State of Maine, in his answer to third and
fifth heterogeneous, page ls2, he declares he
voted for the Constitution, and on the same
page, and in answer to tenth interrogatory, he
declares that G. W. Ragan could control a
larger colored vote than DR.. Day. but that
DR.. Day could influence majority OF all
the voters in the parish and the same wit
ness declares that he expected some three
hundred or more to vote for the doctor, and
many OF them afterward declared they had
done so and in confirmation of the deep
hold of DR.. Day upon the affections of the
colored people of the parish of East Baton
Rouge, one witness, (colored), man of
much influence and very intelligent, page
l26, declares tnat he was and is Repubii.
can, voted the Republican ticket, except for
Mr.. Ragan, and through his influence at
least three hundred colored voters, he
thinks, cast their ballots for Dr.. Day; and
yet another, an old resident of the parish,
declares, page l75, that if 'Ragan were to
run to-day against DR.. Day, the. doctor
; The undersigned would further state, and
the testimony justifes the statement, that
the changing or swapping of votes has al
ways been regarded as legitimate mode OF
electioneefing and has never been esteemed
an act OF fraud until very recently; but ad-
mitting it to be fraud, and such fraud as to
the extent practiced would affect the result,
you have from the contestants own witnesses
this statement developed that at least sixty
votes were thus exchanged by the active
supporters of Dr.. Day, leaving the sitting
member at least six hundred and fifty ma
jority. The undersigned cannot agree with
the majority that colored voter1 were de-
to the testimony of General Sykes,
a part of whose command was near the polls
for the preservation of peace and order; as
well, perhaps, to secure to all their rights