New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-01-28
THE GUILTY. IN TORMENT.


North is amazed at the fact that the re-
turning board made its decision aSd de-
clared the result of the last election with
out having single election return before
it. This is no! the way the people IN
other States perform their political func-
tons. and it is not way that we expect
to see adopted as a permanent rule IN
Louisiana; but it is fact that must be adj
mitted and defended in the best way
such q departure from the ordinary
and established methods can be de-
Tended. Fortunately for US. the
amazement and surprise that have arisen
in the North aud IN Congress can not be
very great. for the record Of Louisiana in
her struggle to give the nation trouble III
regard to the work of reconstruction has
prepared the country to be aston
ighed at but few events that might
occur within her distracted limits.
4 State that has made as many eff
forts to escape from the results OF the
national victory as Louisiana has. can
no. expect to surprise the nation with
another contortion. and therefore we as
sumo the wight to deny the extent Of the
attention that has been given to the
point raised about the returning board
that acted without returns. And herein,
perhaps, the Picdyuae and its ultra friends
may pick up lesson that will be Of ad-
vantage to them, that until they learn how
to be law abiding and respectable, they
will always stand in a very unfavorable
attitude before the bar of justice, even as
supplicants.
The returning board did not act without
information, owing to the providential in
terposition Of that provision Of the federal
law which required the United States su-
pervisors to retain a synopsis Of what was
done at all the polls throughout the State.
This gave the board report of the re-
turns, and, what is more to the point,
here is where the information was had
concerning the frauds that were practiced
upon the colored people. The board had
enough information to justify it in making
the decision that was proclaimed through
the official journal as the result of the
election last November.
AS to the absence of the official returns,
that was the fault of the Democrats, and
if they have suffered by the theft Of these
documents, they must even abide by the
misfortunes and losses which resulted
from their own act. When they had the
official returns and set all judicial autho,
rity az defiance in order to maintain their
high-handed insolence, they created the
necessity that forced the returning board
to accept of such secondary evidence as it
could obtain. The reports Of the federal
supplied sufficient data to
enable the authorities to keep the State
in motion, and in the absence of the best
evidence the officers took the next best
testimony that was offered. If this action
has resulted in injury to the Democracy,
why, who but the Democracy is to blame,
since it suppressed its own witnesses?
Then. again, the country has heard so
much about the frauds that were practiced
upon the ballot boxes as against the ne
groes, and of the tricks that were origi
mated and carried into effect in order to
cheat the Republican party that it rather
demands to know the differ
enee between the absence of all returns
and the presence of batch of fraudulent
returns. Where is the necessity for a
general disturbance Of the entire country
because an attempt to cheat State has
been foiled by the men against whom: the
effort was j rected!
Now the Picay,a,c need not expect to
take advantage of the amazement Of Con-
gress to substitute its fraud for what has
been accomplished, simply because wick
edness can not be allowed to prevail by
creating its own opportunity. The alb
sence of the election returns was not the
fault of the returning board, neither
would that fact be allowed to suspend the
regular operation of the State authorities.
The law itself provided that the returning
board might predicate its declaration up
on the ''best information it could obtain,
and being deprived of what might or
might not have been the regular returns,
the board proceeded to arrive at a conclu-
sion from such knowledge as it had. This
was the best that it could do under the
and as nobody but those
who created the necessity for this extraor-
binary action has suffered thereby, why
hey must even curse their own folly as
they have done many time before now.
OUR ASIATIO TRADE.
"Shall we lose our tea trade? " asks the
San Francisco Mercantile DIRECTOR and
adds.