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


their especial examination t0ftwo parishe
most accessible. AS to these parishes the,
received all the testimony thai was offered
and In addition they received ali'the testi
mony that was then on hand in New Or
leans offered by either party as to the condi
/ ton Of affairs In other, parts DC the State.
Asawhoie they are constrained to soy thai
the intention charged Is not borne out by
the facts before us. No general Intimidation
OF Republican voters was established; nc
coloted man was; produced who had been
threatened or assaulted by any Conservative
because Of political opinion, or discharged
from employment, or. refused employment
OF all those who testified to intimidation
there was hardly any one who Of his own
Knowledge could specify reliable instance
Of such acts !; and Of the white men who
were produced to testify generally on such
subjects, very nearly all, it not every single
one, was the holder of an office. Through
out the rural districts Of the State the white
Republicans are very few they hardly ex
tended beyond those holding Office and those
connected with them. No witnesses, we be.
lieye, succeeded in naming in any parish five
Republicans who supported the Kellogg
government who were not themselves office.
holders, or related 10 ffice.holders, or those
having official employment .r
On the other hand, applications to the
United States commissioners In the various
parishes not only for alleged crimes, but
because of alleged threats of discharge, non
employment, or other interference with po-
litical preference, were frequent. Upon
these applications warrants were often issued
and white citizens arrested and bound over
for trial. In many localities the Federal
troops were detained for service under the
marshals and assistant marshals, and not only
made large arrests Immediately before the
election, but the reports that they were
coming to particular neighborhoods about
the election-time for the purpose of such ar
rests served, as the Conservatives claimed, to
intimidate and sometimes even 10 produce a
stampede among the white voters. How diff.
ferently the two parties look upon the same
fact will appear from the testimony of Dir.
Riddle. He was United States commits
sioner in the parish of Iberia. Shortly be-
fore the election, upon the application Of CO.
lored persons, he issued large number of
warrants. $500
He considered it his duty, upon the arrest
of the persons charged, to require bail from
sureties who possessed landed property
within the parish, certified to by the assessor
of the parish to be Of sufficient value, and OF
which the title was approved by the register
of deeds. This rule necessarily produced
delay ir procuring bail for the persons ar
rested, and be was waited on in one case by
procession Of citizens, who offered him u
bond signed by every man in the procession.
This he regarded as derision. Of his pro.
ceedings, and he refused to receive the bond.
He was called as a witness to prove the in.
timidation that existed in that parish. He
had himself no knowledge of any act Of the
kind except this procession, which be thought
was calculated to intimidate the colored
voters. He had no idea that the arrests made
on bis warrants and the proceedings under
them had any effect in interfering with the
Conservative vote. On the other hand, the
Conservatives ia that neighborhOod thought
about this just the reverse. Indeed, the re-
ports of the military officers in command of
the forces of the United States in the coun-
try, though generally indicating condition
of quiet and order, take sometimes an en-
trely different view of the situation.
On the other hand, it was in evidence that
blacks who sought to act with the Conser-
vative party were on their part sometimes
exposed to enmity and abuse. In the int.
rior one colored man was shot for making q
Conservative speech, and in New Orleans it
appears from the testimony that colored
men who sought to cooperate with the Con-
servatiyes were subject to so much abuse
from the police and otherwise that an associ-
alton of lawyers volunteered to protect
them, but with little effect.
The general condition Of affairs in the
State OF Louisiana seems to be as follows {:
The conviction has been general among the
whites since 1872 that the Kellogg govern.
ment was an usurpation. This conviction
has been strengthened by the acts of the
Kellogg legislature abolishing existing
courts and judges and substituting others
presided over by judges appointed by kel-
logg, having extraordinary and exclusive
Jurisdiction over political questions; by
changes in the laws centralizlng in the Gov
ernor every form of political control, inclu-
ding the suspension of the elections; by
continuing the Returning Board with abso-
lutte power over the returns OF elections; by
the extraordinary provisions enacted for the
trial of titles and claims to office; by the
conversion of the police force maintained at
the expense Of the city of NeE Orleans into
an armed brigade of State Militia, subject
TO the command of the Governor; by
the creation in some places of mo-
nopolles in markets, gas-makipg, water
works and ferries, cleaning vaults, removing
filth, and doing work as wharfngers; by
the abolition Of courts with election judges
and the substitution Of other courts with
judges appointed by Kellogg, in evasion OF
the Constitution of the State by enactments
Furnishing criminally all persons who at
tempted to fill official positions unless re.
turned by the Returning Board; by unlimit-
ed appropriations for the payment of militia
expenses and for the payment Of legislative
warrants, vouchers, and checks issued during
the years 1870 to 1872; by laws declaring
that no person in arrears for taxes, after de-
fault published, shall bring any suit in any
court OF the State, or be allowed to be wit
hess in his own behalf measures which,
when coupled with the extraordinary bur-
denS OF taxation, have seemed to vest, in the
language of Governor kellogg's counsel, ga
degree Of power in the Governor of State
scarcely exercised by any sovereign in the
world"
With this conviction is general want of
confidence in the integrity of the existing
State and local othcials-a want of confidence
equally in their purposes and in their per-
sonnet, which is accompanied by the paraly-
cation of business and destruction of values.
The most hopeful witness produced by the
Kellogg party, while he declared that BUSH
ness was in a sounder condition than ever
before because there was less credit, has
since declared that " there was no prosper
ity." The securities of the State have fallen
in two years from 70 or so to %; OF the city
of New Orleans from 80 or 80 to so or 40,
While the fall in bank shares, railway shares,
city and other corporate companies, have in
degree corresponded.
Throughout the rural districts of the State
the negroes, reared in the habits of reliance
upon their masters for support, and in q