River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1875-01-22
LOUISIANA AFFAIRS.
Report Of Tie Congressional Sub. Committee

new OIIeaiis lot tine purpose oil lnVeStl-
CATION has reported to the general com.
mittee. After giving full account Of
the action of the returning board, the
committee report that they are con-
strained to say the action of the board
in the rejection Of the parish of Rapl.
des, and giving the seats for that parish
to the Republican candidates, was arbi-
trary, unfair and without warrant of
law. Ii the committee were to 90 be.
hind the papers before the board
and consider the alleged
charge Of intimidation upon the proofs
before the committee, their findings
would necessarily be the same. Rapi-
des parish was taken as a sample par
sh Of intimidation, many witnesses Of
which, Of both parties, show that there
was free, full, fair and peaceable reg.
istration and election. There was no
evidence Of any intimidation Of voters
practced on the day OF election. al
though it was intimated that intimida-
ton of colored men before the election
had been effected by threats Of refusing
to employ them, or to discharge them
if they voted the Republican ticket.
No evidence either Of discharge or of
refusal to employ was produced. Ger
tain witnesses, themselves every one
office. holders, testified generally to
such action, but hardly one was able
70 specify single instance in which he
heard any employees so threatened, or
the discharge of any voter, or knew of
any employee being threatened or dis
charged. Not one single colored man
throughout the entire parish was pro-
duced to testify either to such threats,
OF to the execution Of such purposes,
whether before or after election.
The committee alludes to numerous
illegal acts of the returning board, and
say again, 1--WE are constrained to de-
clare that the action OF the returning
board on the whole was arbitrary, un-
just, and in our opinion illegal, and that
this arbitrary, unjust and illegal action
alone prevented the return by the
board of majority of Conservative
members to the lower House The
committee confined their investigation
to the two parishes, and find that no
general intimidation Of Republican
voters was established. No colored
man was produced who had been
threatened or assaulted by any Con-
servative, because of political opinion,
or discharged from employment or re-
fused employment.
OF all those who testified to intimi-
nation, there was hardly any one
who of his own knowledge could specify
a 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 a
holder of office. No witnesses, We be-
lieye, succeeded in naming in any
parish five Republicans, who supported
the Kellogg government, who were not
themselves officeholders. or related to
otficeholders, or those having official
employment. On the other hand APP
phcations to the United States commits
| sloners in various parishes, not only for
alleged crimes, but because of alleged
threats of discharge and non-employ-
ment or other interference with politi-
cal preference, were frequent. Upon
these applications warrants we're after
issued, and white citizens arrested and
bound over for trial. In many local..
ties federal troops were detailed for
service under marshals and deputy
marshals, and not only made many ar
rests Immediately before the election, but
the reports that they were coming to a
particular neighborhood about the time
OF election for the purpose Of making
such arrests served, as the Conserva.
tives claimed, to intimidate and some.
times even to produce a stampede among
white voters. How differently the two
parties look upon the same fact will APP.
pear from the testimony of Mr.. Riddle.
lie was U. 5 commissioner in the par
ish of iberia. Shortly before the cleo.
ton, upon the application of colored
persons, he issued large number Of
warrants. He considered it his duty,
upon the arrest of the persons
charged, to require bail from sureties
who possessed landed estates 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 necessar,
lily produced delay in presenting bail fol
the persons arrested, and he was waited
on in one easel by a. procession 70
citizens, who offered him bond signed
by every man in the procession. This
he regarded as in derision Of his pro
ceedings, and refused to receive tn,
bond. lie was called as a witness t
prove the intimidation that existed il
that parish. lie had himself no knowl
edge Of any act Of the kind, excep
| the procession, which he thought wa,
calculated to intimidate colored voters
He had no idea that the arrests made
upon his warrants, and the proceeding,
under them had any effect in interfer
ing with conservative voters. On tn,
other hand the conservatives in tina
neighborhood thought about this jus
the reverse. Indeed the reports o
military officers in command Of the
forces Of the United States in the coun
try, though generally indicating con
dition Of quiet and order, take som,
times entirely different views of tn
situation. On the other hand it was il
evidence that the blacks, who sought I,
act with the conservative party, wer,
on their part sometimes exposed to en-
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