The Opelousas courier., 1870-11-19
The Election frauds in New Or.
leans.

Speaking of the election in New Or
leans, the Democrat of that 9city, of the
10th, says:
1t becomes our duty to expose few
we say few, because there are thou
sands of similar frauds that our space
will not permit us to describe-of tho
unblushing and undisguised outrages
perpetrated by the managers of the cleo
tlon. We pretermit the frauds of the
registration which have already been
exposed by us and remain to this dav
undenied, to speak of the events that
trahspired on election day.
A colored man in the Fourth District
was arrested by deputy United States
Marshal for circulating scratched
ticket.
Throughout the First and Fourth
Districts, and in Jefferson and Carollton,
policemen and other officials threatened
the colored people with arrest if they
voted either the Democratic or Christian
, Republican ticket.
Throughout the upper portion of the
city all the tickets Of the Christian Re-
publican party were carried off and dcs-
tTnyed by the Warmoth Radicals before
eleven o'clock.
A gentleman and friend whom we
know personally to be reliable, informs
us that he followed colored man and
saw him vote four times ut four different
polls, and each time OH different regis
tration papers. We are assured that
this is but one of hundreds-perhaps
thousands-of cases.
On the third day of November, after
the registration had closed, an indivl-
ual, whose name we are prepared to fur
nlSh to any one who may apply therefor,
was registed as d voter upon his entering
INTO an agreement to vote the Radical
ticket. This one fact leads to the con-
lclusion that there were thousands OF
fraudulent certificates issued during the
| first two weeks Of registration when
there We're no Democratic inspectors
present to prevent such frauds.
Each ward constituted a precinct, and
! in each there were Il number of polls. A
man was allowed to vote at any poll
| The Commissioners of election did not
require voters to swear that they had
not voted at any other poll. At some
polls they did not wise the registration
! certificates or make any memoranda upon
them which would prevent them from
! voting at other places. We have in our
possession one of those certificates. At
| some polls the certificates Of colorrd
| men were marked "voted" in pencil in
order that it might be erased, and the
party allowed to vote at other polls on
| the same certificate.
| At ono poll in the 9th Ward, nocitizcn
or Democratic inspectors were allowed
to approach the polls for the purpose of
challenging illegal votes. When the poll
closed the people demanded to know
how many votes had been cast, and the
commissioners announced 2O3 as the
number. The voting place was then
locked. the blinds closed, and subse-
quently the ballet box taken to Me-
cIanics' Institute, and when the votes
were counted the box was found to con-
tain 307 votes, giving a small Radical
majority. The poll referred to was at
! the corner of Cotton Press aud Morales
streets.
There was a most significant occur
renee at the poll where Denis Cronan act
ed rs United States Inspector When
the poll closed policeman stepped up
and told the Commissioners and Inspec-
tors he had orders to arrest them and
! take them to prison. The Commissioners
| (RadicaD pretended resentment and re-
fused to 80 unless carried. A wagon
was procured for that purpose, when the
! question arose what should be done with
it was too heavy to carry and proposed to
leave it, but Cronan democrat Inspect
or) said it was not too heavy for him to
carry, and accordingly took it up and car
ricd it along, never allow ng 1T to 60
out of his sight, and thus defeated a very
/ adroit plan to have the box stuffed with
| fraudulent votes.
1t is stated to us that poll was open
ed in the rear of the First Ward, out in
the swamps, where nobody lives, and
placed under the adroit management OF
some we'll known thugs of the Crescent
City Republican Club. Result, large
Radical vote, and all fraudulent.
On the last day before the election
without advertisement or notice to any
body, a poll was illegally, fraudulently
and corruptly established in the extreme
rear of the ninth ward, for the express
purpose of giving the 'repeaters'' an
opportunity to cast enough illegal votes
to control that strongly Democratic
ward. Result, instead of six hundred
Democratic majority, as an honest cleo
ton would have shown, there is Re
publican majority.
But it is useless to proceed. A weeks
time would not suffice to itemize all the
frauds which the Radical party have
practiced in this election. About one
thousand Democratic names were lille
cally and fraudulently stricken from
the registration lists on the Saturday be
fore the election, aud more than five
thousand Democrats were refused the
right to vote on the day OF election:
We assert that the Democratic ticke
is legally elected; that the returns O
the election are false and 1raudntent
and that whoever presumcs to execute
an office under such falls se and frandulen
returns does SO i'll open treason TO th'
popular will, and Is an usurper, Whose
authority should be denied by all homes
men.
! sn A. Afoh;,o n choIi axDlole1 and