New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-11-18
ANOTHER LETTER
A RESPONSE FROM THE DEMOCRATS
Courteous Regrets and an Implied
Threat.

1no following QOcQM0nG WIS 6e1 Veu Iast
evening upon the Northern Republicans in
response to their letter which appeared yes
terday morning:
NEW ORLEANS, November II, 1876.
To the Honorables John Sherman Stanley Mat
thews, J. A. Garfield W. d. Kelley. John A.
Kassoa. E. W. stoughton, G: Irving bitty, J. n.
back. E. $; Noyes, job f. stevenson. John Co.
burn, Lew Wallace: John Tuttle, n. A. McGrew.
Nv Chapman, william 3: Smith; Aoner Taa IsH
Courtlandt Parker. Sidney Clark, J. c. Wilson:
GENTLEMEN-Ws ars in receipt of your
answer to our letter Of the fourteenth in
slant, in which you inform us of your de-
termination not to confer with US for the
purpose of exerting such influence as We
may possess IN behalf of such canvass OF
the votes actually cast at the recent cleo
ton in Louisiana, as by its fairness and i'm
psrtislity shall command the acquiescence
and respect of all parties. We sincerely re-
gret this failure of our attempt to secure
the cooperation of all the citizens from
other States in turtherance Of the purpose
which, as we supposed, had brought them
hither at this juncture. We regret 1t all
the more because your refusal to confer and
cooperate with US appears to be based
guage no less than the spirit of our COM
munication.
1t can hardly have escaped your notice
that our statement of the result to be at
tanned by the cooperative action which we
sought to bring about was simple repro
duction of the language of President Grant
lat whose request, we understand, you are
here) in his recent order to General Sher-
man. That language was deliberately used,
no doubt, in view of the fact, about which,
as we conceive, there can be no dispute,
that the first and most essential prerequisite
to an honest and just declaration OF the re-
suits of the recent election in Louisiana is
fair and impartial canvass Of the votes
actually cast. And it seems to US that you
do the President great injustice in suppos-
ing that in speaking of "votes actually
cast" he meant to include votes illegally
cast, as you certainly do US injustice by the
imputation of desire to insist upon go
narrow and vicious an Interpretation. In
our Judgment, the expression ''vOtes actu.
ally cast" eof necessity designates votes le-
gally cast, and as consequence of such
votes only did we desire to secure fair and
impartial canvass.
We beg leave to say, therefore, that you
are mistaken in the belief that we sought
unduly to narro " the basis on which We in
vited your cooperative action. And you
are no less in error in attributing to us q
purpose to interfere with the legally consti-
tuted authorities of this State in the dis
charge of their duties-to claim rights and
to arrogate to ourselves powers which We
do not possess. In writing our letter we
were fully aware that both the organization
and the action. whether judicial or minis
terial, of the Returning Board of Louisiana
were beyond any authoritative control from
without, and that it would be the height Of
arrogance and folly to attempt to alter the
laws of a State Of which we are not citi-
zens, or to obtrude our Interpretation of
these laws upon those whose duty it is to ad-
| minister them. But we had supposed, never
| theless, that there was an influence which
might be righrfully exerted even by citi-
zens of this republic who are strangers in
| this State; and We had taken it for granted
| that your presence here in response to the
! suggestion of the President was a recogni-
| ton of this fact.
We had supposed that it was not improper
| for US to remind the authorities of this
| State, by our mere presence at least, that
| there are certain rules Of fairness and JUS
| tice which uncerlie all constitutions and
| laws, and upon whose observance must de-
| pend the acquiesence of the people of all
parties in the declared result OF the Louis
| lana electior-rules such as these: That
no one ought to be judge in his own case;
| that the decision of any contest ought not to
depend upon the mere arbitrament of one of
| the parties thereto; that before such q deci.
l
| and fairly heard; that all questions OF
| law ought to be decided in conformity
with its established general principles, and
| all questions of fact upon evidence duly
| presented and weighed under the rules
| which are of universal recognition in all the
| States of this Union; that the trial of all
causes involving public intere SITS at least
| ought to be public, and that all the pro-
| ceedings resorted to for the purpose of de-
i %bo in ho
| contest ought, by their manifest impartial
| itv, TO disarm the suspicion that the forms
| of Law have been perverted into instruments
| for the violation of its spirit.
| In this connection, we may be permitted
| to observe that, while undoubtedly, as you
| saw, q sedulous inculcatiOn and cultivation
| of the habits of obedience to the forms oi
law is vital to the preservation of constitu'
| tioual liberty, it is no less important that q
refusal to Weld such obedience be not pro
yoked by using these forms as means for
| subyerting the very ends for which they
| we're designed.
| Without undertaking to question the sin
! cerity of the belief which you are at pains
| to express, that you know Of no reason to
doubt that the Louisiana Returning Board
| will make perfectly honest and just dec
laration OF the results OF the recent eleo
ton in Louisiana, we deem it not improper
to remind you that the very presence IN
! this CITY of SO many citizens from all parts
| of the Union at this moment seems to be
| evidence of widely prevalent distrust Oi
the action of this board. and that such dis
trust has this foundation at least, that the
constitution of the board has not beer
| changed since Its returns were set aside BY
| q congressional committee Of which the Re
| publican candidate for the wee PRESIDENCY
was member.
/ Al.: l:-x~ MT n n n a n
| of the fact that, as we understand, one o
| the members of the Returning Board is s
candidate voted for at the recent election
another. the holder of an Office of profit anc
| trust by appointment of the present execu
| tive of tine national government, While al
the members of the board are believed tt
/! be in afiliation with but one OF the parties
to the present political contest.
| In view of all this it is hardly necessary
| to add that the terms of our letter were no
designed to PREJUDICE the question whether
| the functions of the Returning Board were
| judicial or ministerial, or both, but simply
to invite YOU to see, with us, that, whatever
may be the character of these functions
they are openly, fairly and honestly dis
| charged. And while we thus refrained from
any attempt at stating or constituting the
laws of Louisiana, we deemed it equally ir
relevant to the subject OF our correspond
ence with you, to allude to the duties de
volviEg upon officers other than the
constituents Of the Louisiana Return
| ing Board under the laws and con
| stitution of the United States. Whether
as you observe by way Of illus
tration, under the constitution, the Presi
dent of the Senate both counts and declares
the votes Of the electors of the several
States, his duty being purely ministerial
| and not subject to the control Of Congress
| or whether, as has been the practice for
more than eighty years--a practice in