The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-12-13
The Louisiana Canvass.
AS Viewed by the Republican Visiting COM
mittee.

lAO 1IUulSlsIAlSt OluvISS.
AS Viewed by the Republican Visiting Com
mittee.
President Grant has sent to Congress
the report of the committee of Repub
licans which visited New Orleans to
witness the canvass of votes in L0ui
sjana. The report is addressed ''to the
President of the United States and
would make several columns of this
paper. 1t deliberately reviews the Loui-
siana election law, cites the intimida-
ton OF previous years, describes and
eulogizes the members Of the return
ing board, etc. The committee state
that a secret circular was issued by
the Democrats, giving instruction how
to proceed to carry the election. The
report concludes with the following
statement:
There were in the State Of Louisiana on the
day of election 80 ,996 white registered voters
and lie, $40 colored, majority of the latter o.
22,314. It was well known that it left free to
vote uninf1uenced by violence the blacks
would be almost unanimously Republican, and
that with the white Republican vote itwould
Ike about equal to that above indicated.
The plan appears to have been to select for
few parishes as possible, l0r in 40 OF 81 parish
es Where these were not employed, the Re-
publican majority was 600; but to select those
in which the colOred vote, as compared with
the white, would he large unless unlawtully
prevented. for in so doing it might be expect
ed that should any majority they could thus
obtain in such parishes be re- ected they would
preston Of the large Republican vote. In
pursuance Of this plan, five of the parishes Sc
lected in which the greatest violence and in
timidation were placticed were East and
West Feliciana, which border upon that por-
ton OF Mississippi in which murder and out
rage SO prevailed during and preceding the
election as substantially to prevent any Re-
ders on the southern portion of East Feliciana;
Morehouse which adjoins the State Of Arkan-
sas, and Ouachita, which adjoins and lies di-
rectly south OF Morehouse.
The geographical position of these five par
ishes was we'll suited to the purpose to be OBJ
tanned. for it was easy for the members of the
clubs to be formed therein and who usually
perpetrated their outrages with masked faces,
to pretend they were committed by border
ruftianS from Mississippi aud Arkansas, where
like outrages had been perpetrated. The To-
cation Of these five parishes was not, however,
better suited to the plan to be accomplished
than was the great disproportion existing
c0l0red voters. The former numbered but
5,l34 the latter Is, 244-the majority OF the
latter being equal to more than one-third OF
the entire malarity OF colOred voters in fifty
seven parishes OF the State.
The returns OF votes actually cast in those
five parishes suggest that the clubs to whom
was assigned the task of securing democrat
ic majority therein had performed the work
of violence edectually, whilst the proof dis.
closes brief summaries OF portions Of which
are hereto annexed that where violence and
intimidation were inefficient, murder, multi
alton and whipping were resorted to. Instead
of a majority OF 6, 900 or 1000, which the Re-
publicans should have had in these parishes.
upon lair election, there was actually re-
the parishes Of East and West Feliciana,
Morehouse and Ouachita of 3,878; and in
East Fe'icinia, where the registered colored
vorers number 2, 1877, not Republican vote
for elector was cast. In East Baton Rouge,
containingh3, $50 colored registered voters and
but l ,SOl whites, the Democrats claim a ma
jority OF GIT, which, but tor the rejection of
several polls by the commissioners and su-
pervisors of election would have been re-
turned to the board as votes actually cast.
If to the Democratic majority from the four
parishes as above stated we add GIT, as claim
ed and insisted upon by the returning board
a Democratic majority of 1866, is the re-
suit of the election in the five parishes, con-
tanning 1925 colored Republican and 5,l34
Intimidation and violence alone could have
produced this is almost irresistible, and that
such influence were employed and were sup
plemented by murder when it was thought
necessary, is established by the proofs already
referred.
1t but confirms this conclusion to refer to
the vote cast IN these five parishes in 1871,
when no special motive existed for the use
of cruel means to influence the election
The Republican majority therein was then
3,797.
A result 50 suggestive of violence and in
timidation was obtained by means the most
terrible and revolving Organized clubs
by the dom0c attic committee, rode through
the couniry at night, marking their course by
whipping, shooting, wounding, manning, mu-
tilatlon and mu der, ofwomen and children,
and dctenseless men, whose no Uses were
forcibly entered whilst they slept, and as
their inmates fled through fear, the pistol and
the rifle, the knife and the rope, were en-
these, testified to by scores of witnesses, were
the means employed in Louisiana to elect a
President of the United States.
Such was the force OF q large mass of the
testimony upon which the adjudication had
been reached. The members of the board
acting under oath were bound by the law. II
convinced by the testimony that riot, tumult,
acts of violence or armed disturbance did ma
terially interfere with the purity and freedom
Of election at any poll or voting place, or d Z
materially change the result Of the elect !
there, it had to reject the votes thus cast al I,
exclude them from their final returns.
OF the effect of such testimony the board
was the sole and final judge, and if in reach
ing a conclusion, it exercised good faith and
was guided by an honest desire to do justice,
it's determination should be respected, ever,
if upon like proof different conclusion
might have been reached by other tribunals
or persons. To guard the purity ofthe bal
lot, to protect the citizens in fair and peaceful
exercise of the right to vote, to secure him
AGAINST violence intimidation Onfrare and