The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1876-12-02

ocratic Majority in Louisiana-The Election or.
derby and Fair-NegroeS Voting the Democratic
Tcket-Character and Work of the Returning
Board.
Ex-Gov. Curtin, of Pennsylvania, who
vent to New Orleans at the request of the
Democratic National Committee, has been
Staying at the Fifth Avenue Hotel for
Several days On Friday he was at the
Everett House, while Gov. Tilden paid
visit to the committee rooms. In CONVEX.
sation with a Tribune reporter, ex-Gov.
Curtin said the great trouble now in
Louisiana was that the Returning Board
would not fill the vacancy by appointing
Dr.. Kennedy as the fifth member of the
board. DR.. Kennedy was man who
commanded the respect Of good citizens,
and the Democrats had requested that he
be allowed to represent them. His pres
ence on the board could not interfere with
any honest action the majority might take,
and would give Democrats the satisfaction
of knowing what was actually done, in
which there certainly could be no harm.
Mr. Curtin said he had no part in the ac-
zion either of the Cincinnati or the st.
Louis Convention. In his support of
Governor Tilden he had been moved by
bis desire to see the country tremendously
united and the old distinction of North
bud South wiped out. He believed it was
timc for the South to share in the fruits
Of genuine peace, and he had found
Southerners disposed to peace. He went
South with an honest desire to see Just
what the condition Of affairs was. If he
bad found that the Democrats had resorted
TO violence, and that the election was mani
testify unfair, he should have taken the
next train for home, and reported that the
Democratic representations were false.
So far as he was able to judge, the cleo
ton was the most peaceful and orderly
one which had been held in Louisiana
within several years. Especially in New
Orleans, the good order of the election
night he held up as a model to New York
City.
He said that his conversation in the
main was with people of the conservative
class, and he saw men from all parts Of
the State aud their talk was moderate in
temper, and he was strongly impressed
with the feeling that they above all things
desired peace and good government, They
were the last people to desire war, for
the civil war had impoverished them.
They were endeavoring to mend their
fortunes, and sought relief from the hard
times and excessive taxation. He asked
them repeatedly if the negro had been
compelled by force to vote the Democratic
ticket, and they replied that, on the con-
trary, it was very common and natural
for the negro to vote with his white en-
ployer. The negro was shrewd enough
to see that, so long as there was no dan
ger of his being deprived Of his freedom
and citizenship, the government under
which his employer should prosper would
be good for him also. Mr.. Curtin said
that, to his surprise, he found that the
colored people of Louisiana owned $780,
100000 Of property. He saw many in
telligcnt and prosperous negroes Those
owning property he found thinking very
much in the same channel with the white
property owners. They were seeking q
government under which they could i'm
prove their material condition, and save
from ruinous taxation that which they
had already accumulated. As a rule he
thought these negroes had workc for the
Democratic ticket. He had converse.
ton with a colored State Senator, who
told him that many colored citizens, like
himself, were in sympathy with the white
Democrats of the South, and that when
he (the Senator) arrived at n place in
Feliciana Parish to make Democratic
speech, he was escorted from the depot by
club Of 500 colored Democrats. The
negroes holding property sought to affiliate
as much as possible with the whites. The
distinction in the North between black
and white had been on social grounds
In the South the old status was determined
by law. Since the war there had been,
he thought, closer feeling of relation
ship between the negro and the white
man in the South than in the North. At
the South the races understood each other
better.
Mr. Curtin gave it as his opinion that
while the record of either party in Louisi-
ana had not been very pure in the past,
under the circumstances remarkably
orderly election had been held, and the
votes in the ballot-boxes expressed the
real desires of the people. Tilden had
unquestionably majority of between
1000 and 5000 votes in the State. Three
sets of returns were made out, one Of
which went to the Returning Board,
another was kept by the Republicans, and
q third went to the Democrats. The re-
turns in the hands of the Democrats
correspondent very closely with the returns
held by the Republicans. If the Return
ing Board threw out the vote of the FIVE
so-called "bull-dosed' parishes, there would
still be Democratic majority in the State.
The Democrats alleged that they were
prepared to prove that the charge of tax
ing violent possession of the ballot-box at
Poll No. 8 in Madison Parish was false.
MIR. Curtin said he only feared that the
Returning Board would refuse to receive
testimony.
He went TO Louisiana with the expec-
tation that the Republicans invited to 60
by President Grant would meet with the
men sent by the Democratic National
Committee, aud that jointly they would
make examination of the returns, and in
that way would influence the Board of
Canvassers to make fair count and an
nounce a result which would satisfy the
country. He believed now that if such
joint action had been secured, and a true
result obtained, it would have dispelled all
approximations Of fraud and have QUOTED
the public mind. He thought it unfor.u-
nate that the gentlemen sent by the Presi-
dent declined to make arrangements for
such joint examination and action, and,
as the correspondence held with them
showed, they asserted the doctrine of State
rights in its broadcast sense, and took their
stand upon the election laws Of Louisiana.
It was true the visitors had NO legal
authority, but as the election in Louisi-
nna had urown IN crraat nafional cnnea