New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-09-02
NEW ORLEANS REPUBLICAN, SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 2 1876

N6W V00OAN0 III
mr.. Patss.'s Reply - Gsvsrser Antoine.
BOOKS stats GENITAL ConnirrRH DEMOcRArIC.)
Conservative Party.
New Orleans August 30, 1876.
Hon. G. C. Antoine, Lieutenant Governor and Act
ing Governor of Louisiana:
SRI have the honor to acknowledge
the receipt of your communication of the
twenty sixth instant, in reply to mine of
the twenty third. In my communication l
made to you, as Acting Governor, q simple
proposition, looking to fair, free and
peacesble election, that representation
should be given to us in the registration
offices throughout the State. 1t was re-
guest which you were empowered by the
laws to grant, and to which simple assent
or refusal was sufficient.
You have made your reply an occasion to
attack the Democratic party in q manner
as unjust as the allegations contained
therein are untrue. This is not the first
time by many that such attacks have been
met and such allegations disprOved. For
eleven years there has flowed from this CEN
tire constant stream of maliciOusly false
accusations against the character OF the
DemOoratlc-C Conservative citizens OF this
State. These accusations, disprOved from
time to time and shown to be fabricated
simply for the purpose of firing the North
ern heart for partisan purposes. have been
again reiterated with the same wicked pur-
pose. and again disprOved, until neither in
the North nor South can there be found any
intelligent person credulOus enough to re-
gard them otherwise than as electiOneering
tricks with which to secure Federal inter-
vention in order that the Republican
party might again ride into power over the
PROSTATE liberties of the people.
You will recollect that when I handed
you my letter you stated to me after read
ing it: IL see the justice of your demand,
but I must submit it to the Republican
committee" The first part of your reply
indicates that, for the moment, you appre
ciated the fact that you owed allegiance to
the whole people of the State, but the
last part of the sentence unfortunately EVIL
dencss that you could not emancipate your
self, as q candidate for reelection, from the
control of Q political committee. am,
therefore, constrained to believe that your
answer to my communication emanstes,
not from the acting Governor of the State,
but from the campaign committee of the
Republican party, which apparently con-
trolls the matter of registration, and from
which, tear, we can hope for but scant
measure of justice.
The proposition was sincerely made, as
you say You presume it was, in the interest
of q free and fair election, and in the hope
that its justice would strike you, and lead
you to practical az we'll as to theoretical
conclusion. l am not aware that the Re-
publican party has ever put itself on record
az desiring fair and free election. That
come of it's members have occasionally used
empty phrases expressive Of such desire
there can be NO doubt; but it's every action
c0ntradicts such declarations. So long as
fraudulent registration is nOtOriOuely per.
mittea and encouraged, as il now being
ton books are corruptly manipulated by
the parties having them in charge as has
been the case at every election since the
passage Of the registration law; 90 long as
there exists Returning Board, whose mis-
eion and object it is to nullify the result Of
every election, and over whose acts your
courts have decided there can be no con-
troll, 90 long as counterfeit registration
papers are issued and forged afidsvits are
used az votes, as was the case in 1872. pro-
LESSONS of q desire on your part for a fair
and free election are q mOckery and q
sham, and such an election is an impossi-
bility.
You continue: II frankly say to you, as
the representative of the Democratic party
of this State, that, in my opinion. the prin-
cipal obstacle now existing to q fair ex-
preston of the will of the people 1t the
next election consists in the system of ter.
rorism which members of your party, not
forming, admit, the most numerous o. the
most respectable class. have established,
unrebuked by you, in some of the parishes
of the State, where black men are nightly
whipped and shot at, or even killed; where
they are prevented from holding political
meetings, and are deprived OF all freedom
of political action
With the same frankness displayed by
you, l say that no such condition of things
trayed in the above quoted paragraph Of
your letter.
These are grave charges to bring against
q civilized people. If they are true-as
believe in my eoul they are MOTT Is in
cumbent upon you to produce such evidence
as will satisfy the mind of q reasonable and
impartial Jury, in order that the majesty Of
the law may be indicated and the guilty
parties brought to a swift and merited jus
tice. If they are not true, you have
grossly slandered an innocent people
government which has been established
over this people by fraud, violence, and the
prostitution OF his powers by q United
States Judge, is beneath contempt.
If this statement be true, you confess
! that your party is unfit and unworthy tt
control the destinies of State. You have
had for eight years entire control OF the
executive, legislative and judicial depart
ments of the State government, backed by
| the almost constant presence of United
| States troops, ready upon the most frlvo
lous pretext to lend their moral support o.
| to render material aid in carrying out thu
will of the government; you have had 1
| State militia and the brigade of the Metro
| pOliran Police fully armed and equipped
| to carry out the processes of your courts
| and You claim to have, in your party, I
| large majority 81 the voting population o
| the State, and yet you confess that you ar
80 weak that the reins of government hav'
fallen from your feeble hands, and that yo'
are incompetent to protect the lives OF thu
| people, and to secure to them the enjoy
ment of their liberties and their rights.
is strange confession OF fact, 80 loni
| patent to the entire country, that the he
publican party of this State is unfit and in
capable to govern q free people.
| 1 have received information from tn
country that intimidation has been prac
tioed by your party against those colOreC
people who have thought proper to joil
| Democratic clubs, and in several cases
which have been reported to me, such pal
ties have bsen pursued to death. do no
deny that criminal acts have been com
mitsed in this State, as they have been il
| all other States, BY bad men of both pal
ties animated by wicked passions. ,Rut
do most emphatically deny that thes ZEN
| ocratic party ia responsible tor the in
diyidual acts of wicked or misguided men
or that such actions form any part OF
.'system" established by the Democrat
party. If you can convince me that an
such acts, as you allege are OF nightly OF
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