Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1876-12-09
OBSERVATIONS YESTERDAY.
WAR DEPT, SIGNAL SERFICB &. S. AKNY,
sEHI..AN- Dec y Islh lnals I'm
JOHN sHERMAN's UNOFFICIAL
AND LYING REPORT on LOUIS

other tme-servIng Radicals, visited New Or
leans by invitation Of President Grant 10 be
present at the count OF the returning board
Of the vote Of Louisiana. They went there in
obedience 10 n partisan call, as partisans, be-
haved themselves as partisans, and made a
report 10 the President as partisans. This
report, unofficial IT character and pegTaded
throughout by ialsehOUis 20 glaring as to
temper II, as il were with the very spirit Of
the father Of lies, was sent by Grant to con-
gress In moment such as he can count many
Of, when whisky takes the place Of discretion
and wrecks the little political sense nature org
inally gifted hlm with. An outrage more gross
Raiicalism never before attempted upon con-
gress. Without excuse or parallel, If looks
like a deliberate insult to Democratic senators
and Representatives, intended as it was to
fo-estall their official action in a matter Of the
grayest and most mOmentOus character. II
was an attempt to forestall public opinion
with seemingly Democratic consent; a bold
and brazen attempt 70 fix to lying partisan
repor; the Official seal Of the executive and
congress- report that is known to be a
lie, from beginning 10 end, by every
white man in Louisiana, thousands Of
whom are superior in everything to either
Sherman or any Of his company. The enor-
nifty Of the outrage perpetrated by John
Sherman IN this report shames that
Of which Hampton convicted the other
Sherman, who wantonly burned Columbia,
outraging civilization and ali the rules Of
modern warfare. He deliberately sets him
self above the public sentiment and inteli-
gence Of a great commonwealth, seeks to
stamp the white people Of a whole State as
barbarous, cruel and brutal, and in the face
of abundant facts proving peaceful election
and the utmost good win between the races,
declares for the Acknowledgement of many
parishes upon the merely unsupported asser-
tions OF his co-conspirators in the Radical
ridden and bayonet-ruled State. He goes
farther-he contradicts and bellies the testi-
mony Of the intelligent correspondents Of
northern papers, men of better judgment
than he Or either Of his equally guilty COM
panions, men better informed of broader and
more comprehensive intellects, purer charac-
ter, more independence, and who are above
the taint of office-holders and ofice-breeders
But, worse than all, he affronts his own in
telligence by belying facts that are alike pat
ent to all minds; facts that wear but one hue
save when the color is sought to be distorted,
as he attempts to distort IT, by trying to
make white black. Ex-senator Trumbull, one
of the great leading lights of the Republican
party, the friend of Lincoln, and lawyer Of
deserveily great repute in Illinois, said OF
Louisiana. in a letter to his son: The ma
- chinery by which this State is controlled Is
perfectly infamous, but the people feel they
must submit to the Federal government,
" and it requires no troops to keep order.
The machinery thus complained of by Senator
Trumbull is kadical 1t prevails throughout
the State, ordered and controlled the election
which resulted in a majority Of eight thou
sand for Tilden, and, backed by the army
was equal to any emergency such as John
Sherman says interfered to prevent fair
election. Mr.. 0ttendorfer, who Is the first of
German journalists in the United States, says
of the Louisiana returning board, indorsed so
emphatically by John Sherman, that it, " as
at present constituted, Is nothing, in my
'' estimation, but a convenient engine for
4" manipulating the votes fairly cast at an
L" election. He also said, in ad-
vance of the report under review,
that the committee, of which John Sherman
was made chairman, was nothing but a
" moral body-guard to the disreputable re-
4" turning board. Il think, he went on to
say, that the letter they wrote in answer to
" our invitation for cooperative action ought
50 to have convinced the whole country of this.
They then showed themselves as nothing
.' but partisans bound to secure the success Of
" their candidates before everything else, and
- believe the less said about them as a check
" on the tendencies of the KellOgg-Packard
crowd the better. These last viii do as
they please 80 far the former are concerned,
4" and will not even say by your leave We,
" members of the Democratic delegation, did
" all we could conscientiousiy to insure har-
4" monious acton, but at the very outset we
were convinced that nothing of that sort
was desired by the other side, and finally
"we had to give up all efforts in
"tnat direction as useless Now 1t
is not too much 10 claim that in any commu
nifty in the Union Mr. Ottendorfer's state
ment would outweigh John Sherman s; and
that it would be accepted as final and conclu-
siye of any question between them, es-
peciaily one of veracity, the charac-
ter of the present report in view. But
we have some more Of the same sort. Mr..
Handy, Of the Philadelphia Times, paper of
rather Republican leanings and tendencies,
though claiming to be independent, wrote TO
that paper Of the Pinkston murder, which
Sherman says was the result of political IN
timidation. that Nobody in the neighbor-
" hood had heard any political complexion
- gwen to the outrage until the story came
from New Orleans. Gentlemen with whom
Il talked are ready to testify that Eliza
" Pinkston was a rabid Democrat, and that
they heard her curse & Republican speaker
" in open meeting Just before the election in
.' language unfit for publication, after yainly
'' attempting TO borrow pistol TO shoot him.
e All attempts TO connect politics with this
- affair fall to the ground, and | say it after
a careful investigation, begun with the alb
' houence Of such an outrage, and the
" conviction that it was a crime charge
" able TO the Democrats" Mr.. White, cor
respondent of the New York Tribune, a paper
that for months has been characterized by a
studied unfairness 10 the south and southern |
men, in his final summing up Of the Louisl- |
ana muddle, says: - No controversy erisfs |
- touching the correctness Of the returns Of
d" the election. EUSTybody agrees that the /
=" election commissioners returned the rofe at
50 each precinct crafty as Il icas cast, and |
" that, 'rith fIc0 or three exceptions, the su- /
- perrisOrs Of each parish also reported the I
- pote correctly. Bat tchile this IS tree, some /
things hare Teen done, either BY members Of 1
81 fhe board or its clerks, ioiich ,cere clearly /