New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-11-26

/ NA0 Wou.... $500. 10
Claiborne. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. l,29
/ k0I1c1sne, East. .......... 2,24
| kHllolanos w est. S,2y
Franklin. .......... rs
Grant. ................. ....... 48
i 0oOAs s.s.ss...... ~
/ mOttnOuee. l.yI
Ouachita. ....... go
nicoisno.. .................. 20
| OuiOu ......-............. ........... "
Washington. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 16
VIM. ................. .......... l6
Total. II IS;
By this same Official return of the census
Of voters it is shown that the total mum
Der of white voters in the State is "a, 167
and the total number of black voters il
lO4,192.
The disparity between the Republican
vote in these parishes as shown by the
registration and the election before that,
for President in 1868, and as again
shown by the registrations and elections
subsequent to 1868, is something enor-
NOUS. Taken in connection With the his
tory of the times, as have given it, the
claim of the Republicans that this dis
parity was occasioned by overwhelming
and wholesale violence, bloodshed and
murder, and the intimidation resulting
conclusive. In the Legislature of
1869 the question was raised and
was considered how q lawful remedy
could be best applied, which would
prevent the occurrence Of such state of
things.
The problem before the Legislature
was this: In state of things where
secret political and semi-military asso-
Citations, violent political feeling and the
absence of the usual restraints of law and
social order, could thus revolutionize by
wholesale violence whole parishes, and
make the elections held therein q mere
mockery and farce, lacking every requisite
Of an election, what changes in the law
should be made to counteract and remedy
these wrongss
The principle of law recognized in this
country and in England, which governs
elections, is this: The first essential ele-
ment of an election is freedom of choice.
The ticket voted is not the vote, nor is
the ticket in the ballot box the vote. What
constitutes the ticket in the ballot box q
vote, is the act of the voter in putting it in
the box, at the lawfully appointed time,
before the lawfully appointed officers
for that purpose, and Of his own free
will. and choice. Another principle of
law we'll recognized is, that violence
and force at an election renders such
election null and void. That principle is
we'll laid down and illustrated in Cush-
lng's "Law and Practice of Legislative
Assemblies" in which the authorities are
numerously cited.
There was no question that in such q
state of facts as had occurred in the par
ishes above named the election was an
absolute nullity. There was no difficulty
in declaring this. The problem was
how and where to lodge the authori-
ty to legally ascertain this nullity
before the returns were duly made
and declared. In any ordinary condition
of affairs, and in most of the States, the
remedy could have been made by enlarg.
ing the jurisdiction of the ordinary re-
turning officers. The returning officer of
an election in the United States is neither
dicial officer. He is an officer whose
duties and functions are peculiar to q
government whose Offices are filled by
elections, and whose citizens on the days
of election perform the high governmental
of voting. The voter ON that day
acts as high and integral part of the gov
In this act he is performing his
individual portion of grave and tremen-
dous governmental act. The returning
officers on that day perform duties which
are, some of them, ministerial. some of
them executive, and some of them judi
cial in their qualities. There was nothing
in the nature or extent of powers which
might legally be imposed on returning
officers which could have prevented
he General Assembly from vesting
The judges of election at the various
polls with the powers necessary to
have enabled them to have rejected votes
openly and palpably presented under du-
'ess and coercion; and in case where an |
conspiracy and wholesale ter
:orism should prevent a whole neiehbor-
hood or parish from voting at all, from
clothing the returning officers with power
% 30 certify the facts that an ordinary
board could have rejected the
pretended result of such election as q
utility. But the difficulty here met was
his: The same violence and force which
ould intimidate and prevent whole neigh
,orhoods and parishes from voting, would
lso, in the nature of the case, as it bad
lone in practice, overcome and inti1ni-
late the local returning officers, so that
hey would not perform their duties, and
bus, practically, the proposed remedy
'ould be of no effect. It was for this
eason, that the Legislature of 1869 and
87O, took away from the commissioners
I election all the functions OF returning
Ulcers and left them merely ministerial
nd clerical officers to perform certain
Intermediary acts in the election,
etween the first deposit of the votes and
be final count Of the same by the proper
sturning officers. And in order to re-
love the returning officers from the
1eatre of such scenes Of violence and in
midation, and to place them in posi-
on where they would be able in security
nd perfect freedom to exercise their du-
es, the Legislature took all these powers of
lakiDg returns, of counting the votes and
declaring the result Of elections, from
lese scattered local officers, and vested
lem wholly and completely in five persons
, be chosen as directed by law, who were
, be the sole returning officers for all
Lotions in the State; and then to these
We returning officers the Legislature gave
10 additional power, when assembled to-
ether, of receiving and determining evil
ence as to fraud, intimidation and VIC
nee which had nullified any election at
~ poll or in any parish; and where this
ad been sufficient under the law to rem
er the election null at any poll, or at
~ number of polls, to ascertain
lis nullity, and when ascertained to
sclare it, and to carry it into fleet by
,jecting from the count the votes SO
ade null and void.
This fundamental change in the num-
TX l