The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1876-12-09
REPUBLICAN LOUISIANA.

al ~ l'i- i''ttNJ WI
who at the request of the President,
formed one of the Peace Commission "
to Louisiana, has returned to Balt-
more We regard his opinions as ent-
tied to strong consideration from the
fact Of his being Southern man bv
birth and education 1t is his unbiased
opinion that Louisiana is fairly Repub-
lican, as will be seen from portion of
reported interview had with him since
his return and published in a city paper:
have returned convinced that there has
been
SYSTEMATIC AND THOROUGH INTIMIDATION
of the negroes prior to the late election,
which prevented them from voting the Re-
publican ticket, and in many cases com
PEELED them to vote the Democratic ticket.
At the polls on the day of election it was
generally quiet. The means employed to
control the negro vote were by threats of
loss of employment, of personal violence,
and iii many cases the application of vio-
lence itself where milder means failed.
Actual violence was generally directed
parish or neighborhood, and the effect was
general over a wide extent of territory.
For instance, a cOlored man of intelli-
gence and more than ordinary nerve asked
the Democratic Sheriff of his county,
which was in Mississippi. adjoining the
Feliciana parishes of Louisiana, if it was
contrary to law to organize Republican
clubs He was told no. but that it was
exceedingly dangerous, and urged not to
attempt it. Nevertheless, he persevered
and organized 4 club and held one or two
meetings. \ few nights afterwards a
party of white men came to his house and
shot him dead in the presence of his wife. |
y white planter, a native of the State, /
says that the next morning after the muir
der it was known at his plantation, fourteen
miles distant, and his negroes all took to
the woods Any one who has any knowl /
edge of the character of the negro one
such case as this would account for won
derful conversion to Democratic doctrines
or a wonderful failure to vote the Repub-
lical ticket. | heard many people express
surprise that large maiorities of negroes
should permit themselves TO be maltreated
and deprived of their right to vote by a
minority of whites. These people simply
DON'T UNDERSTAND THE SITUATION.
The negroes have been raised and edu.
Gated as slaves and taught to obey impli-
city the men who now control them poiti
cally. The whites are armed with the very
best modern weapons and the negroes
almost wholly unarmed, and with no ca
pacity, except under the leadership of
white men or phenomenal negroes, to use
arms if they had them. If time were
given for organization and drill and dsci-
pine, and competent leaders furnished,
tb al 4 l..
made very fair soldier. But as matters
now are, unorganized and without leaders,
ten average white men are capable of cop
ing with fifty average negroes, as shown
ConCluSively by the result of every conflict
that has occurred. 1t must not be supposed
that all the whites in the South, even
majority of them. approve of the means
by which the negro vote is controlled. On
the contrary, they condemn it, and great
many disbelieve that such things as 8 bull
doing exist, Just as a great many eX-
celent people in Baltimore condemned VIC
lence and dlSbeleved its existence in fact
at the election in this State in 1873. But
the good people in Louisiana and the South
belong to the Democratic party, like the
good people in Maryland belong to the
same party, and accept the results of fraud
intimidation and violence without being
too anxious to prove their existence. 1t
will come about, however, in the South as I
it has in Maryland, that these things will
all be admitted.
There is one instance in the parish of '
Morehouse, however, to which | want to i
call your attention, wherein the white
Democrats took another and much more :
satisfactory view of matters. The white .
people of a certain neighborhood in that ,
parish called a meeting, at which they
ban,npnal ho 6 hn1 tbo- b.,l
driven their hands away and endangered !
the loss of their crops, and passed and
published resolutions to the effect that if
the thing occurred again they would meet
the "bulldoZerS themselves, with arms
in their hands, and settled the account |
There was no more " buldozieg'' in that ,
precinct, and it was Republican at the :
election. am inclined to think that the
" bulldozing' is principally done by the
class of men who where Overseers and
slave drivers before the war-the class that
used to be known before the war as poor
white trash
IN THE PINKSToN CASE,
of which so much talk has been made,
know the following facts: When the
womaE's original affidavit was produced
there was pretty general disposition
among the visiting Republicans to diScredit
it. Anxious to bring out the whole truth,
it was made known to the newspaper men
by both parties, that they might look it
up for themselves ! personally made it i
my business to lay the facts as we had
them before prominent Democrat of New
Orleans, who took notes and said that he i
would prove in a few days that no such a
thing ever happened. He further said that
he was glad that such a tale had come out, n
AS il furnished an opportunity to show us !
how the outrage mill ground out testimony.
Eliza PlnkSton was not then in the city. ,
and in a day or two after this conversation a
we were Informed that efforts were being !
made to kill her, and she must be brought q
to the city without delay. She was brought,
and then the Democrats admitted that 9
Pinkston had been killed and his wife
wounded, but they claimed that he had
voted the Democratic ticket and had been /
bulldoaed by Republican negroes. After ;
wards many of them said that the woman
herself had killed her husband and child,
and inflicted the wounds upon her own .
person This was essentially Democratic.
and shows that the party is the same thing
in all places, for it will be remembered that ,
the Democrats maintained that the Re ,,
formers in Maryland, last Fall, stuffed the /
ballot boxes and forged election returns, in ,,
order to get up contested election case, c
and that Republicans III Louisians this
Fall organized riots and got themselves
beaten and shot, in order to make political
capital.
1t is undoubtedly true, however, that
negro Republicans in the South followed .
the example of the white Democrats, and
ostracized and abused colored Democrats
whenever they had an opportunity. | be ,
leve there is among colored Republicans of
the South as much disposition to prescribe
those who differ with them politically as
among the whites, and it would be strange
if it were not so. The only difference l.,
that the whites have the power and the
means to make their prescription effective,
and the negroes have not. Any Elk. Con
federate soldier, if he speaks frankly, will
tel you that it requires more courage TO be
a Republican in the South than to storm
Cemetery Heights, at Gettysburg. If such
is the effect upon white men whose man !
hood equals that of any race on earth, who
have always been freemen, what must be