The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1876-12-10

committed in Louisiana, by body OF mis-
creants called the Returning Board. Theee
four men have had the audacity to sci
aside the voice of the popular majority aud
substitute their. own caprice in the dispo
sal of the sovereign power. And not only
does their temerity affect the sovereign
power Of the State it attacks as we'll that
of the national govern ment and really aims
at the subversion of the popular vote in
the nation at large. These men have not,
indeed. taken up arms against the govern
ment, but they have perverted the power
vested in them so as to Overturn the legi
innate government as effactually as it could
have been done by armed revolution.
The only question is, have they been
sincere in SO doing. Is the work which
they have done the result of honest though
stupid error, is it even the fruit of blinded
partizanship, CT is it the deliberate act of
wilful perjury and high handed usurpationf
If the last, then its perpetrators are as
guilty of treason against the sovereignty of
the nation as though they had levied war
in order to subv.rs it.
Have these men acted honestly in sup
pressing between thirteen and fourteen
thousand Democratic votesf Was there
anywhere visible an open, armed occupation
of the country by bands of organized men
such as would render q free use of the
suffrage impossible or even daugerousf
Was there anything even approaching this
condition Was not the Grant army in
full possession of all or nearly all the par
ishes ruled out by the Board, and was not
the aggregate Republican negro vote larger
than ever beforef On the other hand, were
colored voters, and are there not now thou
sands of colored men who will say that
they actually and willingly voted the
Democratic ticketi Was not the real in
timdation of the campaign, to the full
knowledge of the Board, directed against
the Democratic party in the persecution of
it's colored members
We do not say of our own knowledge
that the Louisiana Returning Board has
puIjured itself, but we do say that the yer
dict of public opinion is that it has.
The magnitude of such a crime is not
fully apparent to all persons at frat glance,
but it may be to some extent measured by
the consequences which can be expected to
flow from it. Its direct, legitimate fruit is
civil war. 1t encourages persons who
have no right to the government to usurp
it, while it forces upon all good citizens the
moral obligation of putting down such
by force of arms,Nif they have
the power to do 30. Fearful bloodshed,
ruined commerce, immense public debts,
general individual ruin and impoverish-
are some of the fruits that
may very naturally grow from the stem of
such pervefse wickedness as that popularly
attributed to our Returning Board.
But the principal burthen of responsible
ity for such thiogs does not strictly rest on
the shoulders of the four wretched tools
composing the Board which has now at
tracted to itself the notoriety of world
have dared aspire to such heights of trea-
son unless incted to that course, sustained
in it and rewarded, or promised a reward,
for ia. by some potent leader of a con-
spirscy. But one man can claim the in
famous distinction of chief promoter in
all point to one individual as the prime
mover 10 this gigau tic crime.
U. S. Grant is himaelf the Arch Traitor
against suffrage e-sovereignty and the Amer
lean Republic.
OF Dof-i U,1I