New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-11-16

BRUTE FORCE VS.. THE POPULAR WILL
Does or does not an organized system
of intimidation carried on by one class Of
citizens against another have legally the
effect to nullify an election apparently
carried by such means? This is the ques'
ton now before the people of Louisiana,
before the intelligent and impartial
gentlemen who have come here all the
way from the North to assist in ascertain
ing the correct election returns of oul
State; before the whole people of the
United States.
For several years past, the question,
| who is elected? settled in most Of the
other States by simple count of the bal.
lots, in the manner provided by law, has
been, in Louisiana, an occult problem.
Each side has claimed the victory; and
the question has been ultimately settled
by the authority of the national govern
ment; the trouble having been that q
point of equity has been involved, which
one Of the two parties has always ignored.
That point is involved in the question
beginning this article, which may be put
in the following form: Can man claim
to have been fairly elected to an office
when large proportion, in many cases a
majority, of the voters in the district Of
his candidacy, have been prevented, by
violence and intimidation, from the exer-
else of the elective franchise, or have been
practically coerced into voting contrary to
their own preferences?
It may, indeed, be true that two thou
sand Of one party in Ohio can not be in
Inundated by one thousand of another;
but this fippant comparison proves moth
ing concerning Louisiana. Suppose, for
instance, that the two thousand happen
to be composed almost entirely of hard
working men, laborers, field hands, un-
armed and unorganized, most of them ig-
norant, and timid in consequence of their
ignorance, as are the negro population of
our country parishes. Suppose the one
thousand to be idle in their habits and
overbearing in their manners, armed and
organized, being mostly ex-Confederate
soldiers, enraged at the loss Of what they
had been accustomed to consider their
property, and looking forward to the OBJ
tanning of some Office as the only suitable
way of maintaining themselves, and deter
mined to resort to every possible method
to carry their point. Is it absurd to be-
lieve that these idle and desperate men,
filled with contempt for their timid and
ignorant opponents, whose possession
Of the elective franchise they regard
as an insult and an outrage, should
band themselves together to scour the
country, disguised and armed; threaten
ing, cursing, bullying, and in many cases
resorting to brutal violence? Is it incred-
ible that more respectable men Of the
same party, entertaining like views Of
party policy, while abstaining from per-
sonal participation in such lawless pro-
ceedings, should protect those engaged in
them by their social influence, and aid
them toward the desired result by their
influence as employers? OF course, under
such system everything is quiet on cleo
ton day. The poor terrified laborers dare
not leave their cabins, much less appear
at the polls. Intimi dalton has done its
work, and "policy" now requires ''perfect
peace" Incredible or not, such has been
he course Of the Democracy of Louisiana
'or eight years past, and if it has been I'M
successful except in 1S6S-they have not |
been therefore deferred from trying it
gain. They have counted for Northern |
lelp upon that feature of human nature
which makes people weary Of SYM
with the oppressed and dis
,osed to be Influenced by iteration
nd reiteration. Accordingly, they have
aised and kept up the old cry of Radical
nisrule, the old claim Of numerical su-
'eriority. Instead, however, of trying
throughout the whole State the system of
intimidation which was to justify this
lain by its results, they have limited it
0 the strong Republican parishes known
8 the "bulldozed" parishes. We showed
q a recent article that the Republican
,ajorities in these parishes in 1874
to 1919, whereas, in the recent
lection, the Democrats claim to have
arried them by majority of 4413. Now,
hat has become of those three thousand
inc hundred and seventy-nine Repub-
cans? Have they died, emigrated Or
lrned Democrat? Have they purposely
from voting in order to
efeat the party to which they look
n the maintenance of their
ghts and liberties? Nobody be-
ewes any Of these things. Every
ody who reads the papers knows that
le audacious claim of Democratic VIC [
'ries in said parishes is based upon the
suit of intimidation practiced by means /,
murder, assassination, beating and {
her outrages, Systematically carried on ,
r months previous to the elections. It
In counting upon those parishes, how 8
Ter, to carry the State the Democrats ,
ade one mistake. They underestimated
eir value, as it now appears that not i
lily this State, but the whole nation, is 8
oking to them for the result of the cleo
IN. Is the Presidency OF the United {
ates to be decided by an election car c
L = L