New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-01-05

tons he was refused registration until b
could swear that he was tWenty-one year
: of age.
In many instances colored men applyin
for registration who had just become OF age
were refused registration without write
certificate that they were twenty one year
of age from their former masters or mis-
tresses, the word or oath of their paren
: not being taken as sufficient evidence D.
the supervisors of registration.
In many parishes Lcounties where tn
, cOlored voters outnumbered the whites II
, account Of color, was made by putting Tn
colored men in line, while the white mel
were called up to the Office from the stree
and registered at once; and on the groune
that one white man must register and the1
colored man. By actual observation
took ten minutes to register white man
and no questions were put to him, and thirty
minutes to register each colored one.
White men were permitted to enter Dy 8
private entrance and register, while croWds
OF colored men were waiting tor reglstra
ton at the main door.
| Again, il has.been sworn to and proved
| in innumerable cases, that where colored
man had given the name OF John johnson
for instance, that advantage was taken OF
his ignorance, and, upon the poll list, the
number of his registration certificate and
his name were entered differently. His
name would be put down as Jack Johnson
and his number, if correctly sixty-seven,
would be entered on the poll list as 10y
His registration papers falling to correspond
with the poll list his vote was rejected. The
leaving off of single letter from the name
| of a cOlored voter was sufficient to deprive
him OF his vote. For example, if his name
was John Williams it was written John
| William; if Antoine, it was written Tony.
In many of the parishes [counties] where
| the white men were all registered and col
ored men presented themselves for regis
tration, the supervisor of registration alb
solutely refused to register them, and
closed up his Office and went Oft, and, con-
| trary to law, opened an office IN some remote
part Of the parish and when found by search,
would go from there to somewhere else.
| United States supervisors had, in some
cases, to ride twenty and twenty-five miles
| in single day to find the supervisors Of
| registration.
Another means of defrauding the color ed
N an OF the right to vote on election day
| was by the supervisors stating, when large
numbers of colored men presented them
| selves for registration, and no white men
| presented themselves at the same time,
| that they were without any blank forms for
registration purposes.
Previous to the election every induce
ment was put forward by the Democrats to
procure the votes of the colored men, even
to the placing of a colored man on their
ticket. for the purpose of exhibiting to the
colored voter the desire to give him repre-
sentation, while on the stump the Demo-
cratic orators publicly announced that the
placing of a colored man there was for the
purpose of trying a political experiment,
and that they had given him an insignifi-
cant office for that purpose. Finding that
the cOlOred men were determined TO vote the
Grant Republican ticket throughout they
gave up their schemes, and proceeded. to
downright fraud.
This scheme was abandoned and the
campaign conducted to its close by whole
sale denunciation of the "nigger y and ap-
pealing to the white people TO etert them
selves to keep the negro out of office.
In no single il stance, to the nowledge
OF this committee, was there Aingle Re
publican commissioner of election through
out the entire State, appointed al any poll,
the election being exclusively managed and
controlled by the Democratic party of the
State, by and with the connivance of Gov
ernor Fl. G. WaImoth and his supervisors of
registration.
These were some of the difficulties by
which the colored voter was surrounded in
his attempt to exercise the right of citizen
ship. Again, in several parishes [countiesl
a double set of ballot-boxes were provided
for each election poll, in one of which boxes
persons registered in 1872 were permitted to
vote, and the votes counted therefrom
while IN other boxes were placed the votes
of colored men who had registered previous
to the year 1872, and which were not
counted nor returned by Warmoth's COM
missioners and supervisors of election. BY
this means not less than 1900 to 20. 600
colored voters were deprived of their right
OF suffrage.
AGAIN. In tbp raricb I'll 90
son, where the colored vote is six to one in
excess OF the white vote, but three boxes
were counted and the remainder thrown
into the river or made away with. In the
PARISH OF St. James, giving a Republican
majority, and which has heretofore given a
cOlored majority of eighteen hundred the
returns were suppressed by the Warmoth
returning board. In the parish [countyI of
lberville, giving a Republican majority of
over two thousand, no return of the election
held was made by the Warmoth returning |
board. In the parish of st. Martin, giving |
a Republican majority of from four to six |
hundred, there was no return made. In |
the parish of Iberia; giving a Republican |
majority of five hundred, there was no re- |
turn made. In Caddo, in order to obtain |
Liberal majority, only six election precincts
were provided for instead of eleven as here
totore, and two polls, giving a Repub-
Ilcan majority of over eight hun
dred, were not counted, the Liberal
Democratic candidates themselves assist.
ing in destroying the baliot-boxes and
suppressing the vote on account of its
being almost unanimously Republican. In
the parish of Bosser the frauds were ac-
cUmplished by crOwding the colored men
from the polls by armed bodies of men.
This is the parish tcounty in which over
three hundred colored men were murdered
n 1868. In the parish of East Baton
Rouge at the election in 1870, the Repub-
ican vote was 1853, and the Democratic
vote 954. In 1872, the Republican vote was
1nly ll5O, while the Democratic vote was
'un up TO over 1000 Eleven hundred and
Eighty men in this parish were prevented
rom registering, through no fault OF their
'wn. This is one of the parishes in which
he registra. Jon books were DESTROYED and
he farce OF new registration gone through
With.
in the parish of DeSoto where the Re
'ubicans have $40 majority, Democratic
supervisors and commissioners of election
eturned majority for john McEnery of
OOo. In Rapides parish the Warmoth re.
urnlng board returned a majority of 7gI |
or McEnery. The Republicans carried |
his parish at every election by majority
4 over 1900. The parish of st. Mary, with
majority of over 1l00 Republicans, was re-
urned as having given a Democratic ma
GRITTY OF $50. From a carefully prepared
tatement by John +. Leet, compiled from
1ldavlts and other official documents on ,
lie in the office of the clerk of the United :
tates Circuit Court, the committee cx- !,
racts the following:
A comparison OF the population OF seven :
cen parishes with the return of the War :
10th board completely explodes, of itself. .
very .pretense McEnery can set up TO be
* ialrly elected Those seventeen par e
hes are: AvOyelles, Assumptiop East
alton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Bossier, +
addo, DeSOtO, Iberville, Madison. Natchi f
'ehes, Plaquemines. Morehouse, Pointe t
oupee. kapides, ST. James ST Martin and |