Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-01-28

closing his speech, he said, "Now, as we
stretch forth one hand to strike down this
great destroyer of our liberties, let US, with
the other draw in close embrace Of brother
hood, our Southern friends from whom we
have been so long separated"
Since attending this meeting, feel more
hopeful of the South and the whole country
than for many years past. HOPEFUL
From the Baltimore Sun.
THE LOUISIANA REPORT.
The report of the special House committee
of three on Louisiana affairs, made to the
House of Representatives, gives correct Ver'
sion of the present troubles and the causes
which have led to them. The committee itself
deserves the thanks of the whole country tor
the fidelity and impartiality with which its
observations have been conducted, and the
caudor and honesty with which they have been
reported to Congress and to the public. The
selection of the committee was slngulariy y
fortunate one. OF the three, two were repub'
licans, while all were men, in point of charac-
ter and ability, to command the entire con-
6dence of the country. They have agreed
unanimously upon report which may be
safely accepted as an impartial and truthful
statement 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 state explicitly that "in November,
1874 the people of the State of Louisiana did
fairly have free, peaceable and full regis
tration and election, in which clear conser.
vative majority was elected to the lower house
of the Legislature, of which majority the con.
servatives were deprived by the unjust, illegal
and arbitrary action of the board" The &C.
tual returns made by the commissioners OF
elections, (appointed in each parish by the
local authorities,) "compiled and forwarded
by the supervisors of registration" (appointed
by Governor Kellogg,) "gave the conserva-
tives majority of twenty-nine members in
total of III members. In only three instan-
ces were there any protests accompanying the
returns" The returning board, after being
in session for many weeks, deciding all ques.
tions in secret, or, as it was called, executive
session, preserving no record of their delibe-
rations, promulgated on Christmas day re-
port which gave ffty.three members to the
republicans and fifty to the democrats, one of
whom, however, in the language of the COM
mittee, "was not regarded as staying demo-
crat." AS to the remaining five seats the
board made no decision. The subcommittee
analyze the action of the returning board in
the case of Rapides Iberia, De Soto, Winn
and Terre Bonnie parishes, and conclude as
follows: "Without now referring to other in
stances, Ghan those just enumerated) 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 majority Of conser-
vative members to the lower house."
Secondly. Upon the subject Of intimidation
of voters, the committee say that mo general
intimidation of republican voters was estab.
lshed. No colored man was produced who
had been threatened or assaulted by any con-
servative because of political opinion, or dis
charged from employment or refused employ
ment." But, add the committee, "on the other
hand, it was in evidence that the blacks who
sought to act with the conservative party were
sometimes exposed to enmity and abuse. In
the interior one colored man was shot for
making q conservative speech, and 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 associa-
tion of lawyers volunteered to protect them,
but to little effect" The intimidation of white
conservatives by the proceedings of U. S.
commissioners and marshalsi is also dweltupon.
Thirdly. As to the "White League" the as
sociation which Gen. Sheridan wants the Pres
ident's permission to shoot and hang as "ban-
dtti," the committee say that ''in the last cam.
paign in Louisiana, the opposition was COM
posed of various elements, democrats, reform
ers, dissatisfied republicans, liberal republi-
cans, old wings, and in order to induce the CO.
operation 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
party" in others "the white mans party" in
others "the white league" and ordinary 20.
itical clubs under these names throughout
the rural districts, which were ordinary pollt-
ical clubs and nothing more-neither secret
nor armed, nor otherwise different from "usual
political organizations" Even that associa-
tion of assassiDs and Thugs, (according to
President Grant and Gen. Sheridan,) "the
White League Of the city Of New Orleans"
turns out to be nothing more than an associa-
ton for mutual defense and selfprotection,
numbering in all, from two thousand FIVE hum
dred to two thousand eight hundred members,
and comprising "a large number of reputable
citizens and property holders in New Orleans
Fourthly. AS to the present reasonable
and disloyal spirit Of the people of Louisiana,
which suggested the necessity of such heroic
treatment to General Sheridan, and imposed
upon the President the necessity Of sending
Sheridan to New Orleans, the committee say:
"If Louisiana we're country by itself, Me-
Emery and his associates would at once be in.
stalled in power, but the conservatives of
Louisiana do not propose to fight the federal
government. Indeed, in our judgment, the
substantial citizens of the State will submit to
any fair determination Of the question of the
late election, or to anything by which they
can secure 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 protection; 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 treat
ed as "banditti" process which the Pres
ident while admitting to be illegal, regrets
that it cannot be adopted
1t is unnecessary to repeat what the COM
mittee say in regard to the fruit of years of
radical misrule and Kelogg's usurpation in
louisiana the prostration of business, the
depreciation of property, the wholesale robbie