The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-12-13

The Louisiana Canvass.
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 Loui
siana. 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
| eul0giZes the members of the return.
ing board, etc. The committee state
that 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 81, $3.50 white registered voters
and lie, $40 col0red, a majority Of the latter Of
| %, 314. It was well known that it left free to
vote unihfuenced by violence the blacks
would be almost unanimously Republican and
that with the white Republican vote itwould
The plan appears to have been to select for
the purposes Of intimidation and violence as
few parishes as possible, lor 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 be large unless unlawfully
prevented, for in so doing it might be expect
ed that should any majority they could thus
obtain in such parishes be rejected they would
nevertheless attain their purpose by the sup
preston OF the large Republican vote. In
pursuance Of this plan, five of the parishes Sc
lected in which the greatest violence aud in
timidation were ,practiced 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-
publican vote East Baton Rouge, which Dor
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 well 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
ruf6ans 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
therein between the numbers Of whites and
5,134 the latter II, 244-the majority of the
latter being equal to more than One-third o.
the entire majarity 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 effectua]ly, 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 majority OF 6,O00 or Z 900, which the Re-
publicans should have had in these parishes,
upon tair election, there was actually re-
turned to the board Democratic majority for
the parishes of East and West Felciana,
Morehouse and Ouachita of 3,878; AID in
East Felicinia, where the registered colored
voters number 2, ~, not Republican vote
for elector was cast. In East Baton Rouge,
but 1901 whites, the Democrats claim a ma
jority OF GIT, which, but for 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 foui
parishes as above stated we add 6l7, as claim
ed and insisted upon by the returning board,
suit of the election in the five parishes, con-
tanning 1925 colored Republican and {, l34
white Democratic voters. The conclusion that
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 III these five parishes in 1874,
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 so suggestive Of violence and in
timidation was obtained by means the most
terrible and revolving. Organized clubs o,
masked armed men, formed as recommended
by the democ :atic committee, rode through
| the country at night, marking their course by
whipping, shooting, wounding, manning, mu-
tilation and mu. der, ofwomen and children,
and detenseless 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-
ployed to do their horrid work. Crimes like
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 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 :
materially change the result Of the elect'o
there, it had to reject the votes thus cast al =
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 conclusion. it exercised good faith and
was guided by an honest desire to do justice,
its determination should be respected, even
| If unon like nrnof a different conclusion