, 1873-01-29

Y, JANUARY 90, 1873.
places. The circumstances under which tn
Lynch Board VAS formed may be recalled briefly
to assiAt in the comprehension Of Mondays tes
timony- Tho regular Returning Board consiste'
Of the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, tn
Secretary Of State, john Lynch, and MAJ
named Anderson Pinchback, the Acting Lieu
tenant Governor, and Anderson, having bee,
candidates, were disqualified from serving
Their places wore to be filed by the majority o
the remaining members. 4 man named Heron
formerly Of Iowa, was Acting Secretary OF State
appointed by Governor Warmoth- Before TIL
! Board voted on filing the vacancies, Warno.1
removed Heron from the Office to which he hat
appointed him. and named his successor, which
he had full authority to do. Her1or
thus ceased to DO a. member Of the
Returning Board, his SUCCESSOR, as Act
ing Secretary Of State, taking his place. Tho
vacancies were then filed according to the law.
Heron, however, induced Lynch to withdraw
from the Board, and these two proceeded to
make another Returning Board Of fro members,
| including themselves They went into the
United States Courts for an injunction against
the regular Board, though the United States
Courts had no Jurisdiction in the matter. There
they found Judge Durel, who, it is said, had
given his private assurance that he would eus-
tain The Kellogg party, even before ho had heard
any Of the evidence. Dureu granted the desired
Injunction, the Administration at Washington
gaTe notice OF it's recognition Of the Kellogg
Government, and General Emory was instructed
to sustain it with United States troops.
It will be seen. that the Lynch Returning
Board was arbitrarily created, and had no
authority to sit, or count votes or issue the re-
turns. Admitting, however, that there was
possible construction Of authority on their part,
the evidence Of John Lynch, their Chairman,
which IVES submitted to the Senate Committee
on Monday, shows chat their proceedings were
irregular and Illegal. Lynch admits that there
we're several parishes from which they had no re-
turns whatever, neither from the United States
nor from the State Supervisors. He also
admits that much OF The Information
upon which the Board acted was
vota Of parish was thrown out, upon an ire
sponsiblo statement. In other cases. the votes
Of persons who stated that they had not voted at
the election were accepted and counted There
-, ~ r.
other, the original vote was thrown out entirely,
and ! ,260 such ballots we're counted as the legal
vote OF the parish In other words, no yotes in
this pariah wero counted, except those which
the returns OF the United States Supervisors
where they had any returns before them, and
Lynch cannot remember that they received any
returns which were certified by both the Repub-
lican and Democratic Supervisors. He admitted,
however, that they had e: official returns ac-
cording to the lava OF the State Of Louisiana, !
and that they had counted votes which had not
been cast under the United States law or any
other. In some Of the New Orleans wards the
Board made no returns whatever, and Lynch
testified that these were all Greeley wards,
though he could not form an estimate Of the |
majority within Thousand votes.
This evidence Of the utter irregularity and
reckessness Of the Lynch Returning Board
comes from Lynch himself General Long
street, a member of the Board, testihes that he
made demand upon Governor Wrrmoth for
the official returns, but the latter will not give
them. Governor Narmoth testifes that the
votes, 80 that it does not appear that ho was in
. position to do what General Longstreet de-
handed. The evidence, therefore, places the
Kellogg Government in the following position:
l. Il was declared elected by Board that neTer
lad any legal existence.
2. This Board made its returns without a full
,ount OF votes, threw out votes upon i1esponsi-
lie statements that were not sworn to, and
ounted votes that had never been cast under
he laws OF the State, OF Of the United States
As matter of course, the investigation will
70 continued and dragged out to q tedious length.
7e doubt, however, whether any evidence Of the
and iuegality Of the Lynch Return
ng Board can be more complete and convincing
han that which has been given By Lynch him.
elf Tho Senate has full authority to decide
pon the eligibility and election Of it's own MEM
ers, and it is difficult to see how it can accept
ay for the unexpired term, or, Pinchback for ,
ae next term, when their election is due entirely
the returns made by the Lynch Board.
The Greeley Monument
As member Of the Greeley Monument Asso-
ation, respectfully request tho press and the
oople OF tho Northwest to eond to me such !.
inns as they may wish to contribute to that OBJ +