The New York herald., 1874-12-17
The Louisiana Returning BOARD and
Its Frauds.

clave of desperate conspirators against the
rights of the people and public order Their
legal duties are the same as those which
New York-not more difficult and requiring
no more time for their proper discharge Our
similar Board always completes its work IN
few days, but the Louisiana Returning Board
has been in session a month and is not yet
ready to declare the result of the November
election; TLsy are passing all this time in
plotting frauds against the -anti-KeIiogg cleo
tors and candidates. They do not find it easy
to perfect plan for transforming the con-
servative majority given in November into
radical minority, which is the prob
lem they have dishonesty set them
selves to solve. Our State canvassers in
New York had, this year. an unusually
complex and intricate task, in consequence of
the separate submission of number of con-
stitutional amendments which we're voted on
in such way as to impose great additional
labor. and yet the counting and the official
declaration of the result was long ago COM
pleted. while the Louisiana Board, with
merely the ordinary election returns to count,
in smaller State than New York, are not yet
ready to certify that either party carried the
election. This scandalous delay results from
attempts to circumvent the actual figures and
the inability of the Board, as yet to discover
| method of masking the intended frauds.
| Their first plan was simple, but the OBJ
stacles proved too great 1t was to raise
| tho
from the heavy conservative parishes and put
them over until the other returns had been
canvassed. This plan would enable them to
discover to precisely what extent they needed
to cut down, throw out or falsfy the con-
servative vote. 1t was a plan modelled on
that of the Tweed Ring in this city
in the election of 1868. when they
their friends to telegraph the majorities at
once on the evening Of election day, the
object being to enable the Ring 10 determine,
before counting the city vote, how large they
must make the democratic majority in the
city in order to carry the State In like man
ner the Louisiana Returning Board sought to
ascertain how much it was necessary to cut
down the actual conservative vote to make
Kellogg majority.
But their secret study of the returns con-
vinced them that they had undertaken to play
too daring game; that the conservative
vote, as actually sent in, was too much for
them that they could attain their dishonest
purpose only by adding forgery to fraud. As
to forgery they had no scruples, but feared
legal penalties; SO the members of the Return
ing Board found it convenient to be absent
for several hours one day, leaving the returns
in the custody of clerks. During those
three OF four hours the clerks prac-
tised more industry than virtue; knowing
what service would be most acceptable to their
employers, they rendered it with the unshrink-
ing loyalty of confederates in crime. They
broke open envelopes, altered the contents to
suit the known wishes of the Board, resealed
them to cover their tracks and put on an air
of unconcerned innocence as if nothing hal
happened. This was on Thanksgiving Day.
When the Board, who had given this oppor-
tunity, came back they found everything
apparently as they had left it, but during that
convenient absence silver lining had been
inserted behind the cloud which obscured the
prospects of the Kellogg party. When the
envelopes were opened this silver lining would
appear to cheer their eyes and irradiate the
political night. But the slip which SO often
happens between the cup and the lip verified
the proverb in this pretty case. The forgeries
had been perpetrated with more zeal than
skill, some of the changes having been SO
glaring and outrageous as to lead to immedi-
ate detection. The discovery and exposure of
these frauds prevented the declaration of the
result of the election on last Monday
which had been promised when the Board
adjourned over on Saturday. The scheme
was brought to o dead halt on Monday by
the presentation Of affidavits proving that
forged returns had been substituted for the
genuine ones. The members of the Board
were put on their defence, and averred in
selt-exculpation that they had no hand in the
undenable forgeries, which they would have
accepted as true returns had it not been for
these outside exposures. The frauds were so
gross that they were denounced and repudi-
ated by some Of the republican candidates
who would have profted by them. Mr.
Floyd, whom the cooked returns would have
elected to the Legislature from st. Helena
parish, honestly declared that he was de-
feated at the polls, and would not serve if
counted in. The republican candidate for
Sabine parish, whom the altered returns
would have elected, telegraphed that he was
fairly defeated, and refused to profit by the
fraud Under these circumstances the Return
ing Board dare not declare the result of the
election, and resort to expedients for excusing
further delay. They adjourned on Monday on
the false pretext that they were menaced with
violence. 1t is true that public feeling runs
high in New Orleans, and it ought to run