The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-12-14

| OOuSS
lions. The great national Importance of til
duties to be performed by the board inyeste
each member with much interest, and. as man
reports had been circulated concerning them
we were led to make some inquiry as to their in
dividual history. Two Of them, the Hon. JAIME
Madison Wells, President of the board an
Gen. Thomas G. Anderson, thenext senior mem
Der, arc Southern born, and of old and highl
respectable families. The father OF the forme
was the Hon. Levi Wells, OF the parish of Rap
ides, who in 1872 represented it in the conven
ton called to frame the constitution OF tn
State OF Louisiana. The son received liberia
education, and was early engaged in the care O.
planting and other interests of his father. HI
was Union man from the time the war broke
out and, although he suffered greatly by it il
loss OF property. he never faltered in his deYo
ton to the Union cause. Under Banks recon.
struction scheme he was chosen Lieutenant
Governor on the ticket with the Hon. Michael
Hahn, whO was elected Governor and upon
the election Of the latter to the Senate wear
after Mr.. Wells became Governor of the State,
| to which office he was almost unanimously re-
| elected under the reconstruction plan of Presi-
| dent Johnson. His experience in public life
has been great and varied, and his capacity to
discharge the duties assumed cannot be qres-
toned vi *7
/ Gen. Anderson was born in Virginia. has re-
sided in the parish Of st. Landry for period
OF some forty years is cousin of Gen. An
outbreak of the war, was educated LAWYER.
is owner Of and carries on several plantations,
is widely known and respected throughout the
State; has been intimately associated in the
promotion OF the social and industrial interests
of his parish, and has represented it in both
branches OF the Legislature more than twenty
years.
Mr.. Casenave, the third member OF the
board, is man of intelligence, Of excellent
character and business habits-not dependent
on Office for q living, not seeking it, but q
well-educated citizen, who has long conducted
q prosperous and respectable business in the
city of New Orleans.
Mr.. Kenner, the junior membef of the
board, is q young man born and raised in the
city Of New Orleans, intelligent and active,
who was for some time in charge of the Street
Commissioners Bureau.
We will now present such an outline of proofs
us disclose not onlysuch violence and intim-
idation as would prevent fair election in the
several parishes and many polls but disclose
also that these grave offenses were committed
in pursuance OF preconcerted and settled
plan formed by the Democratic leaders to pre-
vent Republican voters from attending sthe
polls, and that such purpose actually accom-
plished not only to interfere with the purity
and freedom OF the election, but materially
to change its results. To illustrate how
sidered and the plan contrived by the
leaders of the Democratic party, it
is instructive to refer to circular issued from
the rooms of the Democratic Conservative State
Central Committee, at New Orleans. marked
confidential" and signed J. W, Patton Presi-
dent, and P. j. Sullivan, Secretary intended
for circulation in each parish, and recommend
ing the forming CT ward clubs therein. These
circulars urged that in conversation no gloomy
forebodings should be INDUCED in; that the
result Of the election should be spoken of as
foregone conclusion, as 1--WE have means of car
rying the election and intend to do go, but be
careful to say and do nothing that can be con-
strned into a threat or intimidation of any
character" The circular also recommended
that theirs should be frequent meetings of the
clubs, ana that they occasionally form
at their several places of meeting
and proceed thence on horse
back to the central rendezvous stating that
proceedings Of this character would impress
the negro with a sense II your united
strength, and it further recommended that on
the day of election at each polling place there
should be affidavits prepared to the effect that
there had been no intimidation and no dis
turbance on account of any efforts by the
Democratic Conservative party to prevent any
one from voting on account of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude. This secret
and confidential circular was issued to the
Democracy, so as to impress on the timid
blacks, by horseback professions, sense OF
the united strength of their former masters,
and they were warned to prepare blank affida-
Wits in advance that no terrorism had been ex-
ercised. The next and not least important
part Of the scheme OF these lead
ers was to select parishes where,
'shaving the means to carry the
election, and intending to use them" as
stated in the circular they could do so with the
most effect. There were in the State of Louisi-
ana on the day Of election 80, 996 white regis
tered voters and 115, $40 colored, majority of
the latter Of 22314. It was we'll known that
If left free to vote, uninfiuenced by violence or
intimidation, the blacks would be almost unani-
mously Republican, and that with the white Re-
publican vote it's majority would be about equal
to that above indicated. The plan appears to
have been to select for purposes of intimidation
and violence as few parishes as possible, for in
forty Of the ffty-seven parishes where these
were not employed the Republican majority was
600, but to select those in which the
colored vote as compared with the white would
be large unless unlawfully prevented, for in so
doing it might be expected that, should any ma
jority they could thus obtain in such parishes
be rejected, they would nevertheless attain
tneu purpose Dy bno suppression OF u large
Republican VOTE In pursuance of this
plan, five of the parishes selected in which the
greatest violence and intimidation were prac-
ticed were East and West Feliciana, which bor-
der npon that portion of Mississippi in which
murder and outrage so prevailed during and
preceding the election as substantially to pre-
vent any Republican vote East Baton Rouge,
which borders on the southern portion of East
Feliciana; Morenouse, which adjoins the
State OF Arkansas, and Ouachita, which ad-
joins and lies directly south of Morehouse.
The geographical position of these five parishes
was well suited to the purpose to be attained,
for it was easy for members Of the clubs
formed therein and who usually perpetrated
their outrages with masked faces, to pretend
that they were committed By border ruffians
from Mississippi and Arkansas where
like outrages had been perpetrated. The loca-
ton Of these five parishes was not, however,
better suited to the plan to be accomplished
than was the great disproportion existing
therein between the number of white and col
ored voters. The former numbered but s. 1884
the latter Is, 244, majority of the latter equal
to more than one-third the entire majority Of
the colo ed voters in the fifty. seven parishes
Of the State. The returns of the votes actually
cast in those five parishes suggest that clubs