The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1876-12-02
THEW WEAKEN.


a LittIe Republican Sentiment on the sItua
ton.
The republican papers of the better class
are already beginning to realize that no mys
terious gable about buldoZlng or opera
tons Of the long ago played out "southerr
outrage MILL" and no unintelligible hair
splitting and theorizing about the extraordi
nary powers of the unconstitution and cor
ruption stained southern returning boards, art
going to satisfy the people that setting asid,
or overcoming a square, honest majority o
5000 votes cast for Tiden in Louisiana ani
counting in 10000 votes that were not cast
is not a rascally operation and an unmltlgat
ed fraud and the same papers are beginning
equally to realize that no fine spun specia
pleading in reference to the powers OF the
supreme court of South Carolina can cover tn,
open, glazing fact, that its mandate was dis
Obeyed and defied by the returning board fol
the sole purpose of committing an undeniable
dastardly, villainous fraud. Such papers
have the shrewdness to see that no party car
stand up under such load Of rascality, and
they are preparing either to have the party
unload, or, if they cannot accomplish that
then to unload themselves.
We propose, in the ensuing column, to
give such extracts from republican sources
as to show the extent and drift of the weak
ening process
AS TO THE LOUISIANA RETURNING BOARD.
The following extract from report he
made in 1865 to congress shows what the
Hon. w. A. Wheeler, the republican candi
date for the vice presidency, thinks of the
powers of the Louisiana returning board:
Upon this statute we are all clearly of
opinion that the returning board has no light
to do anything except to canvass and compile
the returns which were lawfully made to
them by the local officers Ii
never could have been meant that this board
of its own motion, sitting in New Orleans, al
a distance from the place of voting, and with.
out notice, could decide the right OF persons
claiming to be elected. * Il The PEG.
pie Of the United States have an interest in
the question whether senators and represen
tatlves of Louisiana, thrust into their seats by
illegal means, shall sit in congress to make
laws for them, ana whether electors, gaining
their office in like manner, shall turn the
scale in the case of the president Of the Unit
ed States
The evidence IN 1874 certainly indicated
no general intimidation of colored voters, and
that such intimidation as did exist IN the
state was rather in the interest of the repub
lCans than Of the conservatives.
The following, from a like report, shows
Matt. Carpenters opinion of the board:
One pleasant little gentleman swears, with
a smiling face, that he himself forged twelve
hundred aflidavits on one day, and delivered
them to Mr.. Bovee, sitting in the board, and
Bovee said that he was hell of fellow
and asked ii he could not get more of the
same kind, and he said he could get three
hundred or four hundred more of the same
kind by nine o'clock the next morning, if
necessary.
From the Philadelphia Evening telegram
Nov. nth, a republican paper:
This Returning Board, it should be remem
bered, is discredited body, and it enters
upon its present task of counting the votes
Of Louisiana for Presidential electors with
good reasons for suspicion of its fairness. a
Republican House of Representatives con
demned the same Board in 1875, and the re-
port of the Special Committee which investl
gated its doings in the way Of manipulating
the returns of 1874 was unanimous one
Mr.. Wheeler who is now the Republican
candidate for the Vice.Presidency, being one
OF Its slgners.
Can the Republican candidates afford to be
declared the winners in the great contest
which has just closed on the strength of d
canvass made by this same board? We do
not think it can, and if the present dOlngs
and prospective doings in New Orleans do u
lasting injury to the Republican party, the
men who at this critical juncture are assuu..
ing to represent the party will be responsible
for it. 1t is never good policy to do evil that
good may come of it, and 1t is a thousand
times preferable that the Democrats shall for
the next four years have control of the Exc
cutve branch Of the Government than that
the Republicans shall continue to keep con.
troll of it by lllegltimate means or by means
that there is reasonable ground for suspect.
ing to be illegltimate.
The n, Y. Nation, Nov. 29,) very high re.
publican authority, don't want Hayes elected
by the Louisiana returning board:
There Is to us, considering the his
tory of the Federal Administration in
Louisiana, with its Packards and Caseys
and Durels and Billlngses, something absp-
lutcly solemn IN the retribuion which makes
ii possible for that wretched Returning
Board-so sternly condemned last year for
lis frauds by Messrs Wheeler, Frye, and
Hoar-to elect Hayes, and makes Hayes's
best friends tremble AT the thought of his en-.
terng the White House by such means. The
time for settling this matter by the aid of OLD
passions or memories is clearly gone by.
The situation is one which needs hard, manly
thinking and manly facing of unpleasant and
disappointing facts.
From the Boston Globe, republican, in the
same key:
1t would be Il calamity to the country, not
to say to the Republican party itself, to have
Mr.. Hayes returned as elected by any count
of votes which would not be recognized oy
the great people as strictly fair and honest
THIS is what the gallant Phil. Sheridan
in 1873, thought of Gov Wells, the head and
brains of this Louisiana returning board:
say now, uneQuivocally, that Gov Wells