Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-12-02

/
decision by it now remains. The Law
of Louisiana requires the returns frou
polls to be delivered to the supervise
of the parish (county) within twenty
four hours after the closing of tn
polls-that is-by 6. p. m. of the da,
| following the election. In Ibera tn,
messenger who took the returns, show
ing a Conservative majority, to the su
| pervisior arrived in the morning, anC
not finding him, waited through. tn,
day for him to return and receive
them. After six o'clock he came anC
refused then to receive the returns
because the twenty-four hours were
up; and yet the same supervisor sub
sequently received returns from other
polls giving Republican majorities
which returns were counted by the
Returning Board, and those showing
Democratic majorites were rejected BY
it, thus choosing Republicans the re-
presentatives of the parish.
In Rapides parish the returns elect
ed all three Conservatives to the Leg
islature. When the proofs closed, the
only proof before the Returning Board
was the affidavit of the United States
supervisor that the election was in all
respects full, fair and free. Itwas not
known in the parish that any contest
existed against the members. They
left their homes and proceeded to New
Orleans to be present at the opening
of the Legislature, no intimation of
contestlng the seats or objection to
their election having been given by
their opponents. At one of their last
sessions the Returning Board declared
all the Republican members elected
from that parish. When the papers
OF the Returning Board were produced
before your committee there was found
among them an affidavit by Mr.. Wells,
the president of the board, declaring
that intimidation had existed at the
polls, and the returns should, there
fore, be rejected. The jurat to this
affidavit was without date, and it turn
ed out that Wells was not in the par
ish at all on the election day.
HOW CONSERVATIVE MAJoRITIEs ARE
Whitfield DOWN.
In the parish of De Soto the returns
showed Conservative elected by over
1000 majority. The supervisor of
registration had brought the returns to
New Orleans and had left them with
woman. The Conservative took legal
proceedings to compel their produc-
ton, but the court held that it had no
jurisdiction to that end. They then
caused to be produced before the
board the duplicate of those returns
from the Office of secretary of State,
together with the tally sheets, poll
lists, &c, filed there according to law.
These duplicates corresponded exactly
with the alleged result of the compiled
returns which the said woman had
produced, and of the facts undisputed
proof was also submitted to the board.
Nevertheless. the board refused to
count the vote for that parish. So
in Winn parish. where 404 Conser-
vative and .164 Republican votes.
were cast, upon a verbal protest that
the registrar of elections was not prop
erly qualified, of which the only proof
was that he had failed to forward his
oath of Office to the secretary of State
there was no pretense that
the election was nota misrepresentation
of the will of the people-the whole
vote of the parish was rejected.
So in Terre Bonne parish, where there
was a conservative majority, it was
proved that the commissioners of cleo
ton, through misrepresentation of their
duties, enclosed all the returns in the
ballot-boxes and deposited them with
the clerk of the court, with whom the
law required the boxes to be left. The
judge of the court thereupon issued a
mandamus commanding the clerk to
take the votes from the boxes and for
ward them to the secretary of State,
which was done. Nevertheless, the
board rejected the returns from these
polls, thereby giving the parish to the
These cases were, every one of them,
cases of the rejection of Conservative |
votes, by which rejection Republican
members were elected.
Of course men who will thus act |
will do anything. and it would there
fore make no difference whether the
real Democratic majority in Louisiana
was 10000 or 10000. This board |
claims power to consider the subject |
of intimidation at any poll, and upon |
proof satisfactory to them to strike out |
the whole vote at that poll. Expert
ence has shown that any kind of proof |
will be satisfactory to them; and proof |
of some sort is not difficult in State |
in WHICH one United States supervisor
admitted to Congressional committee |
he was appointed at the instance of |
Kellogg, that he isued 500 duplicate
papers, to negroes who |
voted on them, and that, after election,
he forged 1874 afidavits purporting
to come from negroes denied the right |
to vote by the Democratic party" On |
which, among other kindred evidence,
the Returning Board found Kellogg
elected.
MULTIPLYING THE CoLoRED VOTE.
! know that it is said that Louisiana
ought to be a Republican State, be-
cause the black population exceeds
the white; but such is not the fact. /
And here again quote from the second
report of the special Committee on the
South (Rep., 261): THE census of
1870 shows 81 ,076 whites and 86,9I3
colored males over Fl years of age.
All the statistics and evidence before
us has indicated change in this pro-
portion in favor of the eolored voters.
The registration was incorrect. and ex-
ceeded the true colored vote. 1t was
wholly in the hands of the kellogg
officials, With whom Republican
with Marshal Packard at
their head, co-operated. In only three
parishes did even the Republican su-
pervisors of registration make any
complaint of the registration. On
the other hand the Conservaties spec
fled. with proof, $500 cases of conce-
ded false registration In New Orleans
alone, and these Conservatives, who
had been cooperating in joint party
to secure fair registration,
gave up the effort in despair" And
then the report, after giving various
reasons why the blacks naturally Yoted
the Conservative ticket concluded
g All experience shows that the result
of the election of 1874 in Louisiana,
as returned to the Returning Board,
was natural and to be only accounted
for by the reasons we have given. In
fact, after the visit of the first COM
mittee and the revisit of the special
the Kellogg party, with all
their machinery for collecting evil
dence, were unable to produce in the
entire State more than half dozen
persons to testify to anything impeach-
ing the freedom of the late elections
who were not off1ce-holders or connec-
koI bo1lo-e W.