Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1876-12-15


reporting election returns. The Legisla-
6ure has seen proper to lodge the power
who has or who has not been elected IN the
heturnlng Board. 1t might have conferred
thaC power on the courts, but it did not.
whether the law be good or bad, it is our
islate. 70
Il became duty, Immediately on arriv-
ing IN New Orleans, to thoroughly under
stanu n. the constitutional powers and duties
OF TINS board, and to examine with care tbe
statements under which it was bound To
acG ana enough has been written to show
Ihal trlounaI charged with such duties
anu invested with such powers. the meu-
Ders OF Wnlch were originally appointed by
Ihe senate, Is entitled TO the respect of ali
citizens until it shall be forfeited bv a Viz
latiOn OF its judicial or ministerial obHga-
tions.
The great national Importance of the du-
ties to be performed by the board invested
each member with much interest, and as
many reports have been circulated concern
ing them, weWere led to make some inqui-
ry as to their individual history Two of
them, Hon. James Madison Wells, presi-
dent OF the board, and General Thomas G.
Anderson, next senior member are South
ern born, and of old and highly respecta-
ole families. The father Of the former
was the Hon. Levi Wells, of the parish of
RapldeS, who in 1912 represented it in the
Convention called to frame the Constitu-
ton OF the State of Louisiana. His son re-
celved liberal education, and was early
engaged in the care of the planting and
other interests of his father. He was a
Union man from the time the war broke
out, and, although he suffered greatly by
1t IN loss of property, he never faltered in
his devotion to the Union cause. Under
the Banks reconstruction scheme he was
chosen Lieutenant Governor Of the ticket
with Hon. Michael Hahn, who was elected
| Governor, and upon the election of the
latter to the Senate, a year after, Mr. Wells
| BECAME Governor of the State, to which
office he was almost unanimously reelected
under the reconstruction plan of President
johnson. His experience in public life has
/ been great and varied, and his capacity to
| discharge the duties assumed cannot be
! questioned.
General Anderson was born in Virginia
has resided in the parish Of St. Landry for
period of some forty. years, is cousin of
General Anderson, who commanded Fort
Sumter at the outbreak of the war, was
educated lawyer, is owner of and carries
| on several plantations, is widely known and
| highly respected throughout the State, has
been intimately associated in the promo
ton of the social and industrial interests
of his parish, and has represented it in
both branches of the Legislature more than
twenty years.
Mr.. Casanave, the third member Of the
board, is man of intelligence, Of excel
lent character and business tabits, not de-
pendent on Office for living aid not seek
i
has long conducted a prosperous and re-
spectacle business in the city Of New Or
leans.
Mr.. Kenner, Junior member of the board,
is a young man, born and reared in the city
of New Orleans, intelligent and active,
who was for some time in charge of the
Street Commissioners Bureau in the De-
partment of Improvements.
We will now present such an outline of
proofs as disclose, not only such violence
and intimidation as prevented fair cleo
lion in several parishes and at many pools,
but disclose also that these grave Otfenses
| were committed in pursuance of Precon-
certed and settled plan formed by the Dem
| Ocratic leaders, to prevent Republican vo-
tiers from attending the pools, and that
| such unlawful purpose was so ettectually
accomplished as not only to interfere with
the purity and freedom of the election, but
materially to change its result. To illus
trate how carefully the political campaign
was considered and the plan mentioned,
| contrived by the leaders of the Democratic
| party, it is instructive to refer to circular
issued from the rooms of The Democratic
Conservative State Central CoEnmittee at
New Orleans, marked feonfdentlel l, and
signed by J. W, Patten, president, a. nd r
| J. Sullivan, secretary, intended for eirc,. Ia
ton in each parish, and recommending tn,
formation of ward clubs therein. These
| circulars urged that sin conversation no
| gloomy forebodings should be INDUCED in.
and that the result of the election should
be spoken Of as q feregonel conclusion, as
we have means of carrying the election and
| intend to do so. But be careful to say and
| do nothing that can be construed into
| threat or intimidation of any character. y"
| The circular also recommended the clubs
to be formed, and that they occasionally
! form at their several places of meeting and
| proceed thence on horseback to the central
rendezvous, stating that proceedings of this
| character would impress the negro with a
! sense of your united strength" f" and it fur
| ther recommended that at the dav of cleo
| ton at each Of the polling places there
should be afidavits prepared to the effect
| that there had been 10 intimidation and
no disturbance on account of any efforts by
| the Democratic Conservative party to pre-
vent anyone from voting on account of
race, color, or previous condition of servi-
tude. Thus carefully guided from the
Central Democratic authority by this re-
cent confidential circular, urged to impress
on the timid blacks by horseback process
sions a sense of the united strength of their
octa nd IN
| blank affidaviGs in advance that no terror
ism had been exercised, the next, and not
! least important part of the scheme Of these
| leaders, was to select parishes '.Where, hay
! ing the means to carry the election, and in
| tending to use them, as stated in the cir
| eular, they could do so with most effect
! There were, in the State of Louisiana, on
| the day of election, 92, 996 white registered
| voters, and 115, ,310 colored, majority of
| the latter Of %, 314. It was well known
4 that, if, left free to vote unintluepeed by
violence or intimidation, the blacks would
| be almost unanimously Republican, and
! that with the white Republicans Of the
! State, its majority would be about equal to
that above indicated. The plan appears to
have been to select for the purpose of in
! timidation and violence as few parishes as
possible tfOr in forty Of flfty-seven parishes
where these were not employed, the Repub-
lican majority was 600, but to select those
in which the colored vote, as compared
with the white, would be large unless un-
lawfully prevented; for, in so doing, it
might be expected that, should any major
itv they could thus obtain in such parishes
! bereiected. they would nevertheless attain
| their purpose by the suppression Of large
Republican vote. In pursuance Of this
plan five Of the parishes selected In which
the greatest violence and intimidation were
praeticed were East and West Felieiana,
which border upon that portion of Mlssls-
sippi in which murder and outrages so pre-
vailed during and preceding the election
as substantially to prevent any RepabAean
vote; East Baton Rouge, which borders on
I the Southern portion Of East Fellclana;
Morehouse. which adjoips the State OF Ar
/ kansas and Ouaohita, which adjoins and
lies directly south of MorehOuse, The geo
graphical position of these five parishes
was well suited to the purpose to be attain
ed. for it was easy for members of clubs to
be formed therein, and who usually perpe-
trated their outrages with masked faces, to
| pretend that they were committed by bor-
der rufians from Mississippi and Arkansas,
where like outrageS had been perpetrated.
The location of these five parishes was not,
however, better suited to the plan to be ac-
complshed, than was the great proportion
4 existing therein between the white and col
ored voters. The former numbered 8, l34,
the latter 1924, majority of the latter
anual To more than one-third of the entire