Litchfield enquirer., 1875-03-04

colored man undisturbed in his new con stitutional rights, and that it wastheir de- sire and their interest that the labofer and the employer should live together in confidence and amity. They declared that no honest Republican would be affect \ ed in his social or personal relations by hiB political opinions. On the other hand, men \ in great numbers sought private interviews \ with the Republican members of the com- mittee to declare that reign of terror ex- \ isted worse than existed durning the war; that they did not dare to express openly Republican sentiments; that destruction
 to their business and risk to their lives
 would result. There were some of them
 known to members of the committee. They were not politicians. held and deslred no office, and were in many cases business ! men of high standing and distinction. \ They urged the committee not to require
 them to testify, saying they did not dare
 to risk the consequences.
 The American people are now brought
 face to face with this condition of things. In the State of Louisiana there is Cover no rin office who owes his seat to the inter. ference of the national power which has ro. ! cognized his title to his office, not by req son of any ascertainment of the facts by legal process, but has based it's action solely on the illegal order of Judge. In the same State there is Legislature, one branch of which derives it's authority part ly from the same order, the other being organized by majority who have been established in power by another interfer. | ence of the National Government, and | which majority derives it's title not from any legal ascertaining of the facts, but ! from the certificates of Returning Board \ which has misconceived and exceeded its legal authority. It is not strange that the Republicans of Louisiana should delude themselves by any plausible views of law | which will enable them to occupy the places which they believe the will of ma | jority of the legal voters of the State, if | free from violence and intimidation, would | award to them. It is not strange that the | Democrats O. Louisiana should believe the whole State Government a usurpation, should give it no credit for it's best acts, ! shonld seek to embarras, to thwart, and resist 1t to the extent of their power, and ' should be unwilling to wait for the slow
 but sure operation of lawful remedies to cure whatever evil really belongs to it. We were unable to make any direct and
 thorough investigation of the election of 1872. It is apparent from the facts stated
 in the report of the Senate committee ] Senate Report, Th1rd Session Forty-sec-
 ond Congress, No. 457,) that the return of the officials was so tainted with fraud
 aud illegality that the action of neither of | the pretended Returning Boards or the
 certificates of the local election officers
 can be relied on in the least as basis for
 making up an opinion as to the true re-
 suit. Indeed, this is conceded by sever
 al of the most intelligent of the Conserva-
 tive witnesses. It would be impossible
 at this distance of time, and probably at
 any time, to go beyond the rteurns and
 ascertain the true expression of the peo-
 ple's will. But our best judgement is
 that Gov. Kellogg was elected; we find
 that many of the more moderate of his
 opponents concede his election. There is
 no argument to show the election of
 McEnery which is not met by one equally
 strong in proof of the election of Kellogg.
 The registration shows a considerable
 majority of colored voters it is not
 denied that Kellogg recefSed hthstantiaI-
 ly all the colored votes, besides some thousand white.
 Taking the Democratic returns in 1872 for all the parishes except four, for which the returns are conceded to be forgeries,
 and six others, from which they threw out
 the returns for fraud and violence. and
 get at the true vote in those parishes in
 any way you can-by canvassing the vote with registration of white and colored
 voters, or by taking the Republican and
 Democratic votes at the election of this
 year, and it gives Kellogg 0 majority of
 several thousand. Besides, Kellogg is
 now in office The frauds which make it
 impossible to ascertain in any better or
 more satisfactory mode the true will of
 the people were perpetrated by the ap. pointees of Yarmouth in the interest of
 McEnery.
 On the other hand, the order of Judge
 Durell and the so-called canvass by the
 Returning Board in the interest of Kel-
 logg, seem to us to have DO reliability
 and to be entitled to no respect whatever. 1 We concede and declare emphatically as
 anybody can desire the unsatisfactory
 character of the methods above adopted
 for arriving at this conclusion. There is,
 in our judgement, whatever may be the
 opinion we form from the statement of
 men familiar with the campaign of 1872,
 or from the registration of white and col
 ored voters, no legal evidence whatever
 which will warrant the declaration that either Kellogg or McEnery was lawfully elected.
 We have devoted much anxious 'refec-
 tion to the question of remedy for these evils. It is 8 question in considering
 which no person in Louisiana on either side has offered us any valuable sugges- tlon. The remedy, in great degree, lies out of the range of our powers. This great movement of the public mind in great States is not to be dealt with as if it was a street riot. You cannot change great currents ofsspublic sentiment. or the habits of thought and feeling of great
 bodies of men by an act of Congress.
 | In republic you cannot long or per- manently check their manifestation by the exercise of national power. Until the great body of white people of Louisiana shall learn to obey the law, to submit to the Constitution, to respect labor, to base l their institutions in liberty, equality, and justice, they can enjoy neither prosperity l nor peace. -
 The history of their State must be made up of exhibitions of tumults, vio- fence, and crime, alternating with extra | ordinary exertions of national authority to repress them. Between the two every thing that makes a people prosperous, happy, or honorable must go to decay. If the whites of Louisiana, with all their superiority of intelligence, spirit, and en- ergy, choose this course, their right to do so is ''safe from all enactments herein. The public sentiment of the rest of the country more potent than any legislation, might stop the whole trouble in month. If, instead of seeking to gain partlzan ad- vantages from two evils which aressruining this fair State, the two paKties of the North would each resolutely Set its face against the evil done by it's own side, little would remain for Congress or the Presi- dent. The difficulty of the Southern problem would have disappeared long ago if the Democratic party of the North had given it to be clearly understood that they would have no political association with men who would commit, tolerate, ex- tenuate, or overlook murder, and the Re- Ipublican party of the North had been unanimous in making it understood with equal emphasis that they would have no afiliation with men who would plunder