New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-05-03
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q, GOO and some hundreds. Undsr the ne-
cessity, q il seems, Of the Democrats party
IN the y6af 11c8 . o1tiJ 0t6t6 g AL
hazards, they instigated such scenes OF vio-
/ lence thfough oqtt the State thst. Oh the day
Of the election for Grant and Seymour n
1868 the colOred people RETAINED from 60
ing to tho pol. In the parish of Orleans
alone, which only five months before polled
IA 900 Republican votes, we had to content
ourselves with N0-240 white men who had
courage enough to 60 and cast their vOtsS.s
And go throughout the State; parishes that
had cast from 500 to 1000 votes for the Re-
publican candidate only q few short months
before were found without vote, and in
some instances casting one, or two, or three
votes. Is it any wonder, under such cir
cumstances, that Democratic majority of
fortyod thousand should be rolled up, and
that the Republican vote had fallen Oft
some fifty per cent? The Democratic vote
had increased 100 per cent, and the Repub-
lican vote had fallen off fifty per cent, so
that the election was farce.
Then when we coH,e to the election of
1870, when peace and tranquility prevailed
that intense political excitement, we find
that the republican State candidate re-
ceived s., 500 votes aud the Democratic vote
relapsed to its former number Of Al 900,
giving Republican majority on that Occa-
sion of "a 900 again. Now, assert, and l
can prove both by the testimony taken
before the committee and by the conclusion
admitted by the Senator from Wisconsin
himself, that the colored people of Louis
lana who were largely in the majority voted
almost en- masse in 1872 for the Republican
candidate. do not think any Senator here
will refute my assertion that as q class the
cOlOred men of the South are q unit as
Republicans. In some comments OF Senator
Trumbull, formerly Senator from Illinois,
on the report of the majority he commented
upon the division OF the races in Louisiana
and quoted the census to show that
there were hundred and odd more white
males in Louisiana than there were blacks.
He quoted the census correctly; there is no
doubt about that: there are that number.
The relative division is eighty-seven
thousand and odd whites, and sc, 9l3 blacks.
males twenty-One years old and upward;
but the Senator did not quote far enough.
He should have examined the column of
citizenship. aud he would have discovered
that the black citizens were 5000 majority
over the whites.
/ Mr.. Carpenter-Will give me the page2
Mr.. West-Page GIG. We have an aggre-
gate OF 1882 males, black and white, but
we only have an aggregate of 159,00l citi-
zens. black and white, and ask you where
arr yOu to look for your unnaturalized peO-
pie! Not among the blacks; We all know
how they became natura}ized. Now turn to
page 629 of the first part5f the census and
you will find the same result derived there
in classification particularly of the State,
and you will find also that in one single
parish, the parish of Orleans, there are 5000
unnaturalized foreigners. 1HH
Now, will admit that if we were to 90
by the census, or were we to go by such pre-
sumptions you have NO authority to estab,
lish q government in that State or in any
State. but when State government is in
existence the knowledge Of the choice that
it's people did very probably make should
make US pause before we assume that they
did not make that choice, and we should so
assume arbitrarily if without proper knowl
edge of the facts we order that people to
choose again.
1t is necessary that the Senate should be
asked once more to take a retrospective
view of the political events which preceded
the election in Louisiana in 1872 There
were factions in both parties, or rather both
factions embraced individuals and partial
organizations inclining to third-the lib
eral party. Several months before the
presidential election the main parties in
entered the field respectively as units. The
Republicans fell back upon their own lines
and presented an unbrOken front. The few
remaining Liberal Republicans were gradu-
ally dissolved in the Democratic Organiza-
ton. They first dropped the name of Re.
publican ard finally surrendered and be-
came part of the Democratic party, which,
to signalize the event. took unto itself a
new name, and was known thereafter in the
canvass by the title we also ascribe to it
here, the Fusion party; SO that parties re-
lapsed into their own normal elements,
black and white.
Assuming that we have no white Repnb-
icans there, and referring to the testimony
of the parties particularly interested to
prove that the black menivoted the Demo-
cratic ticket, we find it is the reverse. l
will quote now from the testimony of Mr..
McMillen. Mr.. McMillen, who appeared
here as q candidate for a seat in this body
and consequently desired to make as favor
able showing for his side Of the question
as he conscientiOusly and hOnorably could,
when asked as to that election show many
thousand votes were there in the cOlOred
vote that voted for Greeleyv he replied:
"My impression has always been that
there have been about as many cOlOred
people who voted in opposition TO the Re-
publican ticket from one cause and another
as there we're of white people who voted the
Republican ticket, and that four or five
VAOOooAA WVuAA OOSCA CuO OnV11O uumOCI
throughout the State"
There was the admission which probably
forced the conclusion upon the Sena-
tor from Wisconsin that the cOlOred popu-
lati0n of the State, OutnumberiDg the white,
in the last election were almost unanimous
in their support of the Republican ticket
Now what testimony did they bring for
ward to rebut that! and this is the only re.
butting testimony in the whole book; all
tho O<hor fosf;nsNnV7 In
clusion that the Senator admits. They
brought toward a colO.ed Democrat; they
did get one. They had man by the
name OF Armstead, colored man, nomi-
mated as Secretary of State on the Dem.
ocratic ticket, for the purpose of catch
ing probably some votes of that race;
and he admits that about 1000 up in
Northern Louisiana voted the whole ticket |
from his information. He was cross
MeMillen, who also wanted to establish the |
fact, if he could, that the colored men voted |
the Democratic ticket, and Mr.. McMillen |
on that same day, being asked by the Sena-
tor from Wisconsin whether the testimony |
of Mr.. Armstead had occasioned him to |
form any different conclusion, admitted |
under oath that it did not. After Mr.. Arm.
stead's testimony was closed, the Senator |
from Wisconsin asked Mr.. McMillen 'if the |
answer them now the same as you have
answered them 2" after hearing this witness
testimony that 80 many black men voted |
the Democratic ticket in that State. Mr.. |
McMillen says, ''as they are down in the |
record, it does not change my mind; there |
were scarcely over five thousand under any
Now we will see about this alliance, this |
Fusion party, this unholy alliance that was |
styled by the men who subsequently en-
gagged in it "as an alliance with infamy |
worse than infamy ITSELF" That was the |
alliance that the Senator from Wisconsin
himself said twas entered into for the pur-