Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1875-01-22
The Louisiana Report.
lFrom ihe Baltimore Sun. 4

| which have led TO them. The committee itself
deserves the thanks OF the whole country for
The fidelity and impartiality with which its
observations have been conducted, and the
candor and honesty with which they have
been reported 10 Congress and to the public.
The selection of the committee was a singular
| ly fortunate one. Of The three two were re-
publicans, while all were men, in point OF
character and ability, TO command the entire
confidence of the country. They have agreed
unanimously upon report which may be safe
ly accepted as an impartial aud truthful stale
ment of the present condition Of affairs in
| Louisiana The committee have no policy to
recommend. Their report deals only with the
facts, and here are its conclusions
| First As to the November election, the
committee stale explicitly that sin November,
| 1874, the people of the Slate of Louisiana did
| fairly have free, peaceable and full regisra-
sion and election, in which clear conservative
majority was elected to The lower house Of the
Legislature, of which majority the copserva-
lives were deprived by the unjust, illegal and
arbitrary action of the returning board.'' The
actual returns made by the commissioners OF
elections, (appointed in each parish by the
local authorities, . compiled and forwarded
by the supervisors of registrations" (appointed
by Governor Kellogg,) "gave the couserva-
lives majority of twenty-niDe members in
total of | members. In only three instances
were there any protests accompanying the
returns The returning board, after being
in session for many weeks deciding all ques-
lions in secret, or, as il was called, executive
session, preserving no records OF their deliber-
atoms, promulgated on Christmas day
port which gave fifty-three members to the
republicans and fifty 10 the democrats, one OF
whom, however, in the language Of the com
mttee, . was not regarded as staying demo-
GRAFT AS to the remaining Ave seats the
board made no decision The subcommittee
analyze the action Of the returning board in
the cases of Rapides, iberia, De Soto, VIM
and Terre Bonnie parishes, and concludes as
follows: /" Without now referring TO other
instances, we are constrained to declare
that the action Of the returning board.
on the whole, was arbitrary, unjust, and in
our opinion, illegal, and that this arbitrary,
unjust and illegal action alone prevented the
return of a majority of conservative members
10 the lower housei'
Secondly. Upon the subject of intimidation
Of voters, the committee say that mo general
intimidation ofrepnbican voters was establish
ed. No colored man was produced who had
been threatened or assaulted by any conserva-
tive because OF political opinion, or discharged
from employment or refused employment -
But, add the committee, on the other hand,
it was in evidence that the blacks who sought
TO act with the conservative party were, on
their part, sometimes exposed 10 enmity and
abuse. In the interior one colored man was
shot for making conservative speech, aud in
New Orleans it appeared from the testimony
that colored men who sought TO cooperate
with the conservatives were subjected TO so
much abuse from the police and otherwise that
an association Of LAWYERS volunteered to pro-
tect them, but to little effect The ntimida-
ton Of white conservatives by the vexatious
proceedings of United States commissioners
and marshals is also dwet npon.
Thirdly. AS to the q White League the
association which General Sheridan wants the
Presidents permission to shoot and hang us
g bandtli." the committee say that e in the
last campaign in Louisiana the opposition was
composed of various elements, democrats, re-
formers, dissatisfied republicans, liberal repub-
licaus, old wings aud in order 10 induce the
| corporation Of all, some Of whom refused TO
unite with an organization called democrats
they took the name Of the peoples party
called in some localities the conservative par
| ty,' in others the white mans party in
others the White League, and bad ordinary
| political clubs under these names throughout
the rural districts, which were ordinary poiti-
cal clubs and nothing more--nethcr secret nor
armed, nor otherwise different from usual
political organizations Even that associo-
tions of assasns and Thugs. according to
| President Grant and General Sheridan, 9 the
| White League of the city Of New Orleans, -
turns out TO be nothing more than an assoc
citation for mutual defense and self-protection,
numbering in all from two thousand five hun
bred TO two thousa nd eight hundred members
| and comprising g large number Of respecia-
| BILE citizens and OF property holders in New
| Orleans
| BourthIy. As TO the present reasonable and
disloyal spirit OF the people of louisiana
which suggested the necessity OF such heroic
| treatment to Geu. Sheridan, aud imposed upon
| the President the necessity of sending Sheridan
| to New Orleans, the committee say ''lf
Louisiana were country by itself, McEnery
and his associates would 1T once be installed in
| power, but the conservatives OF Louisiana do
not propose 10 fight the federal government
Indeed, in our judgment the substantial eiti-
zens of the State will submit to any fair deter
mination Of the question Of the late election
or to anything by which they can secure a
| firm and good government. What they seek
is peace and an opportunity for prosperity -
| To that end they will support any form OF
government that will afford them just protec-
ton; IN their distress they have got beyond
any mere question of political party And
these are the people whom Sheridan wants
| TO have turned over to him to be treated as
| ''banditti process which the President
while admitting to be Illegal, regrets that it
cannot be adopted
| It is unnecessary to repeat what the COM
mittee say in regard 10 the fruits of radical
1 misrule and Kellogg usurpation in louisiana
| the prostration of business the depreciation OF
property, the wholesale robbery by taxation,
and the partisan and corrupt legislation which,
in the language OF Keliogg's own counsel, has
vested q a degree of power in the Governor of
State scarcely exercised by any sovereign in
the world These are things already known
to the country. or the occurrences of January
4 it is only necessary TO say that the commit
tees report themselves witnesses of the
facts, corroborates the version given by the
Associated Press and by Speaker Witt.
We again say that the report is the most
complete and crushing answer that can be
made 10 the reckless assertions by which men
like Morton and Logan and Frelinghuysen
have attempted TO blacken the character OF the
people Of Louisiana, TO misrepresent the true
condition of affairs there, and to justify the
enormous crime which the federal administers
ton perpetrated against that unhappy State.
The fasehoods of Sheridan and the sophistries
of the Attorney General are alike blown to the
/ winds by the g plain. unvarnished talei which
Messrs. Foster, Potter and Phelps have deliy-
cred.
SHEBIDAN's PoLIcY AT VIcKsBURG A dis
patch from Vicksburg SAYS, that Major Geo. Z
Head, with squad of Federal troops with
fixed bayonets, acting it is said, under orders
from General Emory, on Monday entered the
sheritfs Office there, and forcibly elected Sher-
if A. J. Flanagan, who claims to lie 10 posses
sion by virtue of the recent election, about
which there is a constitutional question The
| mill b,v .aI .1.,r