Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1872-12-24
LOUISIANA.

Our dispatches last night brought us the
following address of the Louisiana Com
mittee now in Washington.
After reciting how they were appointed;
how they found the public misinformed as
to the facts, and that they had no politi-
cal or personal motives governing them,
they say:
l. There was general election held in
Louisiana on the fourth day of November
last, for the election of Governor, Lieut..
Governor and members of the General AS
sembly, and other State and Federal offi-
GERS. AT this election William Pitt Kel-
logg, a mmber of the Senate of the Uni
ted States, and G. G.. Antoine, Collector
/ of the port of Shreveport, were candidates
for the offices of Governor and Lieutenant
Governor, and were opposed by John Nc
| Emery and Davidson B. Penn. The pres
ent Governor Warmoth was not candi-
date for reelection.
This election was conducted without
disturbance or violence and the number of
votes cast was unusually large. The re-
turns of the election were made to the
| board appointed for the purpose.
This board was composed under the law
| of the Governor. Warmoth, the 1t. Gov,
the Secretary OF State and two other per-
sons, named in the law, Wise John Lynch
| and Thomas c.. Anderson. The office of
| Secretary of State was filled at the time by
| f. G.. Heron, who had been appointed by
Governor Warmoth to fill the vacancy
| caused by the removal several months be
fore of George-E. BOvee the legality OF
| which removal and appointment was then
| in contest before the State courts. The
| board met and it was resolved that Ander-
son and Pinchbeck were disqualified by
reason of their being candidates for office.
Warmoth then removed Heron, whom
| he had appointed, from the office of Secre-
| tary of State as a defaulter and appointed
and commissioned Whiten in his stead.
We have no reason TO believe that the
| action of Governor Warmoth, in the re-
moval of Heron, was based upon desire
| to commit fraud, but under the returns
there was no necessity of fraud. 1t was
Heron and Lynch, to falsify returns and
defeat the will of the people. This is
manifest from. the fact developed in
| the evidence before the Court that
| Heron anticipating the thwarting-o his
scheme, had several days before ordered a
| duplicate of the seal Of the State to be en-
| graved by which means he hoped to pre-
serve the insignia of the office in the event
| of his removal by the Government. Omit
| ting further details, Warmoth and Wharton
on the one hand, assuming to be
and in the presence of Lynch proceeded to
elect Hatch and Duponte to fill the vacan-
cies caused by the withdrawal of Pinch
beck and Anderson, while Lynch and Her.
ron afterwards assembled, and under the
| same assumption elected Longstreet and
| Hawkins.
Thus there came to be two bodies, each
claiming to be the returning board, one
presided over by Gov. NVarmoth, the
| hiOhncf ovooT1fiy-a nffi Of tha Stata on6
under the law, the presiding officer of the
board, and which had possession of all
| the election returns and every thing nee
essary to ascertain the result, while the
| other, constituted of Lynch, the removed
Secretary of State Heron, and their two
| appointees.
After these proceedings the State Su-
preme Court decided that the removal of
Bovee and the original appointment of
Heron were illegal, and Bovee was rein
stated in his office. Whatever may be
said of these contesting boards it is clear
that the Courts of the United States had
no resemblance of authority to decide be-
tween their conflicting claims to office.
After it had become probable that the
second candidates, William Pitt, Kellogg,
and G. G.. Antoine had been defeated, and
that their opponents would be declared
elected, they respectively filed bills in the
Circuit Court of the United States, for the
District of Louisiana, for injunctions and
relief. The Governor of the State, the
members of the canvassing board, and
the PRONUNCIATION of the returns, and GER
tain persons elected or claiming to have
been elected to the Legislature, and to the
GOvernOrship were made defendants in one
or the other Of these suits.
The cause of complaint was that they
severally apprehended that they would be
deprived of the offices for which they had
been candidates. They claimed to have
had a majority of the votes at the election,
and that there had been ten thousand vot-
ers prevented from voting because of their
seryitude, whose votes they would
have received. The bill of kellogg
professed to be for the preservation and
perpetuatiOn of the evidence of the elec-
ton and to have reference to the support
of suit he might have to bring to recover
the office. Antoines suit was similar in
the claims of title and had reference in its
prayers for relief to the organization of the
General Assembly, at its meetings under
the proclamation of the Governor OIL the
| 9th of December, 1872.
The parties to these suits were all citi-
Zens of the State of Louisiana.
The object of the suits was to assert IT,
ties to officers of the State in advance OF
any decision or announcement by any
board of any person as elected and to de-
termine the persons and make the decision
and the announcement by the judicial au
thority of the circuit court of the United
States, pending the suits on ex parte and
private order was made in the suits of Kel-
iogg, to the effect that the defendant II. G.
Warmoth, the Governor, had, in violation
of the restraining order of the court, is
sued proclamation and return of certain
persons claiming to be the board of return
ing officers. The terms of said order were
as follows:
Now, therefore, to prevent the further
distractions of the proceedings in this
cause, and further, to prevent the viola
ton of the orders of this Court and the
imminent danger of disturbing the public