Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-01-29


ing but despotism upheld by federal bayo.
nets Aud the Same Of the Legislature"
now in power. Alessrs. Phelps, Foster, and
Potter, acknowledged to be fair, candid men,
two of them republicans, went aud investi-
gated the matter, and they report that The
November election undoubtedly gave a con-
sentative majority; that the acting return
ing board instead Of consisting of men of all
parties, as required by law, was entirely
composed Of republicans that conservative
voters were intimidatOd by republicans to as
great an extent as republicans were by con-
servativcs; that Kellogg could not maintain
his supremacy twenty.four hours were it not
for the presence Of United States troops.
The following language was used by the
committee in their report, after enumerating
various instances Of tho grossest unlarness
on the part of the board
Without now referring to other instances,
we are constrained to declare that the action
OF the returning board on the whole was ar
bitrary, unjust, and in our opinion illegal (;
and that this arbitrary, unjust and illegal nc.
ton alone prevented the return by the
board OF u majority of conservative MEM
bers to the lower house.
Before this report was received at Wash
ington the leading republicans there had
perpetrated the blunder of committing them
selves as in favor of the action of the troops,
so the report took them by surprise. We
do not know as the situation can be better
described than it has been by Warrington
in a letter to the Republican. He says:
After all came the report of Messrs
Phelps, Foster and Potter, three good mem
bers, us it is admitted, of m exceptionally
good committee The statement that Mr..
| lloar and the three other members of the
| congressional committee have concluded To
go down and see if they cannot find out u
new fact (even misstntenlent u hit of mis-.
| understanding, II typographical error will
| probably answer the purpose), is sufficient
to show how the matter stands, mp to this
time. The ground has rapidly narrowed il.
self down to this, that. whenever IN Louisi-
| ana the republicans lose the election, the ro-
| turns must be set aside or course, there
must be little preliminary work, such as
| sending down the rest of the congressional
| committee to get few new facts" Messrs
| Phelps, Foster and Potter got facts, but they
were Of the wrong sort What was wanted
was series of republican facts; adminstra
| ton Elcts; Grant flcts,-none of your demo
cratic facts. II the subcommittee had not
got republican (but only democratic) facts
in Louisiana, 1t was because the facts there
| were only of one sort Sheridan was sevora
miles away, with plenty of facts in his KNAPP
sack, but the committee forgot to call him
Everything in New Orleans conspiret
against the authorities. The facts were ~
| stubborn rs mules, and kicked away by in
stinct. or n two years habit ut Kellogg anC
the rest; Phelps, too, had only one thing tC
do. and that was to come back, and go tC
| the republican national committee for thcir
| facts. Grant had no difficulty in getting
facts there and u plenty of them, when II,
wanted them. Mr.. Iloar ought 10 know bet
ter than to go to Louisiana for facts. They
| don't keep facts there.-that is to say, any
facts which will be of any service to Grant
In the Washington room they have facts
! knee-deep on the right side, arranged, iilet
and indeXed already for 1876. That is thu
| place for facts.
But while we deprecato the illegal step
taken by the administration, we are far from
endorsing that spirit so prevalent at the
South which, having been reluctantly COM
PEELED to set the negro free, would now OPP
press him and crush him down. Persons
have been murdered in cold blood for being
conservatives as well as for being republi
cans, but the murder of conservatives is NJ
excuse for the murder ofrepub leans.
Instead of carpet baggcrs going south
getting control of the offices, filling thei
pockets and making those already bleeding
states bankrupt by their wholesale stealing
let us see those states for awhile allowed the
right of local sclf-government, the negro
vote counting on the conservative side wher
there cast as well as on the other side. lie
these negroes have the benefit Of that edu
cation which for nearly century has beef
denied them under the stars and stripes, an,
thus as the average intelligence Of the PEG
pie of tho South blacks included) is raised
so will peace and order be promoted. Blu
"haste makes waste" A little republican
haste at New Orleans has made a waste o
prestige to that sentiment which would &C
cord to the negro his every right 1--WE car
not how it affects either of the organized par
ties) which it may take years to recove
from.