The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1875-01-18

| tee there was found among them an sffi iayil
by Mr.. Wells, The president of the Board,
declaring that intimidation had EXISTED a.
certain polls in that parish, mud that the re.
! turns from those polls Should therefore be
rejected. The counsel for the Democratic
4 committee testified that they had no oppor.
tuuiiy to contradict the statement OF; this
paper; that they had never seen or Known
of it before, and that upon an examination
of the papers before the Board, when the
proofs closed, Il was not among them.e Tue
counsel for the Republican COMMITTEES re.
served the right to make explanation upon
this point, but offered none. -
The affidavit was dated the - day OF DE
cember, 1874. It appeared that Governor
Wells was not himself in the parish on the
day of the election, and though at the OPEN
ing of their first session your committee de-
clared their intention to examine into the
action of the Returning Board Governor
Wells never came forward as witness. At
the close of our proceedings leave was asked
that his deposition might be given in. This
was declined, and Mr.. Wells was invited to
appear befofe the committee, but he never
came. Leave was also given for taking his
testimony by commissioner If he declined,
but was not awaited Of.
Your committee are therefore constrained
to declare that the action of the Returning
Board in rejecting these returns in the pa:
rsh Of Rapides and giving the seats for that
parish to the Republican candidates was ar
bitrarv, unfair, and without warrant of law.
If the committee 90 behind the papers be-
fore the Board, and consider the alleged
charge of intimidation upon the proofs be-
fore the committee, their finding would ne
cessarilv be the same. It was asserted in
Governor Weiss affidavit that the McEnery
officials had usurped the offices Of the parish.
and thereby inundated voters. Immedi-
ately after the 14th of September, when the
Kellogg authorities in New Orleans were
put out by the Penn authorities, certain
changes took place in some of the parishes.
When the news from New Orleans reached
these parishes the McEnery officials demand
ed their places of the Kellogg officials, and
they were ut once given up. When the
Federal Government interviewed and un-
seated the McEnery authorities the Kellogg
officials demanded and received back their
places. But in Rapides some time seems to
have elapsed before the Kellogg officials took
their places back. Indeed, the McEnery
register of deeds was still acting as such
when your committee was in New Orleans,
| the Kellogg register never having come to
reclaim the place, which was said to be worth
nothing. Now, in Rapidcs the Kellogg clerk
was Mr.. Weiss son, having yielded his
place to the McEncry competitor in Septem-
Der. He does not appear to have reclaimed
| it, and he was accordingly sent for after the
| election to come from his residence, some
miles distant, to sign the returns of the cleo
ton; which he did. Your committee are at
loss to see in their action any intimidation
of Mr.. Wells, still less Of the electors Of the
parish.
1t so happens that the parish was taken as
q sample parish Of intimidation. Many wit
nesSeS from both parties were examined with
reference to it. They show beyond question
that there was free, full, fair, and peaceabl
election and registration there. There was
no evidence of any intimidation of voters
practiced on the day Of election, although it
was asserted that intimidation Of colored
men before the election had been effected by
threats Of refusal to employ them or dis.
charge them if they voted the Republican
| ticket. No evidence either of discharge or
Of refusal to employ was produced. Certain
witnesses, themselves every one office-hold-
ers, testified generally to such action but
hardly any one was able to specify a single
instance in which he heard any employer so
threaten or discharge any voter, or knew OF
any emplole being so threatened or dis
charged. Not one single colored man
throughout the entire parish was produced
to testify either to such threat or TO the
execution of such purpose, whether before
or after the election.
The action of the Returning Board in the
parish of Rapides alone changed the politi-
! ,,l oo,,, of 1ouar Honeo h,,t tho; IN
action in other parishes was equally objec.
tiopabe. For instance, in Iberia parish it
was claimed before your committee that the
vote of Poll No. in that parish had been re-.
jected on account of intimidation; but the
papers produced by the clerk of the Board
showed no such proof whatever. One of the
counsel, Mr.. Ray, produced some atidavits,
which be declared had been submitted to the
Board by another of the counsel, General
Campbell. The Conservative counsel in
sisted that these papers bad never been be-
fore the Board. Opportunity was given to
the Republican counsel to show that the
papers had been submitted, but the testimony
offered for that purpose by them SO far, how
ever, from establishing that fact, establishes
the reverse.
it was then asserted that the returns were
rejected because the accounts of the election
were not delivered to the supervisor of re-
glStratlon within twenty-four hours after the
close OF the election, which was O'Clock
on the Sd day of November, whereas it ap-
peared that both IN the morning and after
noon of the Sd of November search was
made for the supervisor of registration for
that parish in order to deliver to him these
returns, and he was not to be found until
after o'clock but that as soon as he could
be found on the eve of that day they were
offered 10 him, and again reotfered the next
morning, but were refused to be received.
Yet this same supervisor of registration re-
ceived other Republican returns after he had
refused to receive these Conservative ones
on the ground that they were too late, and
the Returning Board, although it had held as
to the other polls in the State that the re-
turns were not to be rejected merely because
they were sent too late, rejected the returns
from this poll, thereby changing the repre-
sentation OF the parish from Conservative to
Republican.
So in the parish of De Soto the returns
showed Conservative elected by over ZOO
majority. 1t was alleged that the supervisor
of registration had brought the returns to
New Orleans, and had left them with
woman of bad character, who offered to pro-
duce them on payment OF Sl,OOV. lne Coh-
sentative committee took legal proceedings
to compel their production, but the court
held that it had no jurisdiction to that end
They then caused to be produced before the
Board the duplicates of those returns from
the office OF the Secretary of State, together
with the tally.sheets, poll-ists, &C., filed there
according to law. These duplicates CORES
pended exactly with thealleged result of the
rompilpd RETURNS which the said woman had
produced, and of these alleged facts unds-