The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1876-12-14

t0eSe nFe parishes was We'll suited I
the purpose to be attained, for it Wa
easy for members Of the club 70 b
formed therein, and who usually per
petrated their outrages with mAske,
Ices, to pretend that they were com
mitted by border Iuffians from Mis-
sissippi and ArkaEsas, where like out
RACES had been perpstrGted. The locs
ten OF these five parishes was not
however, better suited to the plan I,
be accomplised, than Hss the greR
disproportion existing therein, be
tween the number OF white and col
ored voters. The former nunbereC
but 5, ,134 the latter, Is. PA ; major,
ity Of the latter equal to more tnEI
one-third OF the :entIrtl majority o
eclored votes in hfty-seVen psrIshe:
of the State The returns Of thG
votes sctually cast in these five par
ishes suggested that the clubs, tC
whom WAS assigned the task of secur.
ing Democratic msjorities, therein
had performed their work Of violence
and Intimidation efectually. Whilst
the proof discloses, brief summaries
Of portions Of which are hereto an-
nexed, that where violence and in
timidstion were, inefficient, murder,
manning, inhalation and whipping
were resorted to. Instead Of 3 major
ity Of 5000 or Z, 200, which the Repub-
licsns should have had in these par.
ishes, upon . fair election, there wss
actually returned to the Returning
Board Democratic majority for the
parishes Of East and West FelicIana,
Morehouse, and Ouachita Of 3,S78 ;
and in East FelIciana, where the
registered colored votes numbered 3
127, not 9 Republican vote for Elector
was cast. In East Baton Rouge, con-
taIning Z, So colored registered voters,
and 1.S21 whites. The Democrats
claim q majority Of 618, which, but
for rejection of several polls by the
Commissioners and Supervisors OF
Election, would have been returned
TO the Returning Board as the votes
actually cast. II, to the Democratic
majority from the four parishes above
stated, we add the 6l7 thus claimed
and insisted upon before the Return
ing Board, . Democratic majority of
4, 495 IL the result Of an election in
five parishes, containing 1924 col
ored Republicans, and 5,l34 white
Democratic voters. The conclusion
that intimidation and violence alone
could have produced this is almost ir-
resistible, and that such influences
were supplemented by murder, when
that was thought necessary, Is estab-
lishsd by the proofs already referred to.
II but confirms this conclusion to re-
fer to the vote cast In these five par
ishes. In 1874 when no special mo-
tives existed for the use of cruel
means to influence the election, the
Republican majority there was 1919
The result, also suggestive Of violence
and Intimidation, was obtained by
means most terrible and revolving.
Organized clubs ofarmed men formed
as recon- mended by tue Central DEM
ocratIc Committee, rode through the
country at night, making their course
by whipping, shooting, wounding,
manning, the mutilatlon and murder
Of women, children, and defenseless
men, whose houses were foreibly en-
tered whilst they slept, and their in
mates fled through fear. The pistol
and the rifle, the knife and the rope,
were employed to do their horrid
work. Crimes like these, testified to
by scores Of witnesses, were the
means employed In Louisiana to
elect President of the United States.
1t was by means Of large macs Of
testimony that the adjudication has
been reached. The members of the
Board, acting under oath, were bound
by law, IL convinced by the testi-
mony that riot, tumult, acts of vio-
lence, or armed disturbance, did ma
terially interfere With the purity and
freedom of the election at any poll or
voting place, or did materially change
the result OF the election thereat, to
reject the votes thus cast, and to ex-
elude them from their final return.
or the effect of such testimony, the
Board was the sole and final judge,
aHd II In reaching conclusion 1t ex-
ercised good faith and was guided by
an honest desire to do justice, its de-
termination should be respected, even
II upon like proof . different conclu-
sion might have been reached by
other tribunals or persons. To guard
the purity OF the ballot, to protect the
citizen Ia the free and peaceful exer-
else of his right to vote, to secure him
against violence, Intimidation, out
rage, and especially murder, when he
attempts to perform this duty, should
be the desire OF all men, and the aim
of every representative Of the Gov
eminent. Ifpolltical success shall be
attained by such violent and terrible
means SIS was Tesorted to In many
parishes OF louisiana, complaint
should not be made II the votes thus
obtained are denounced by judicial
tribunals and all honest men as ille-
gal and void.
l5ignedl
JOHN SHERMAN, Ohio.
z. w. SToUGHToN, New York.
J. b. VAN ALLEN, New York.
EUGENE HALE, Maine.
J. A. GARFIELD, Ohio.
CORTLAND PARKER, New Jersey.
w. D. KELLEY, Pennsylvania.
SIDNEY CLARK, Kansas
J.C. WILSON. hA"sS