The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1876-12-02

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the counting of votes never cast or offered to
be cast, or to reject lawful votes legally cast
and recorded m the poll.iists.'
From the same paper, Nov. 27th:
Now, suppose the Returning Board shall
reject all the election precincts OF the five
bulldoZed parishes, if that can be legally
done the result would be to deprive the Dem
ocrats of 4,4l3 majority, which they claim
to have obtained in them. But after the re-
, turns are thus purged the state is still Demo-
. cratic by 1900, unless the returns from the
other parishes shall prove more favorable to
the Republicans than the Democratic unofh-
cial returns show. The New Orleans Repub.
=, lican percelves the difficulty, and says:
"To merely throw out the reputed Demo,
cratic majorities in the above parishes would
not satisfy justice. To do that ii uiH be neces-
sary to restore the Republican strength which
has been destroyed by the civil war which has
been waged in ,hem for the very purpose OF
setting up this claim which the Democrats
now urge"
But this is something that cannot be law
fully done. 1t is wholly illegal to count votes
for Hayes which were never cast for him.
| The Returning Board has no authority to re-
open the polls and hold supplemental cleo
ton for President and Governor and other
officers subsequent to the 7th OF November.
THE TRUTH ABOUT BULLDOzING.
w. Redfeld, a well known staunch re.
publican, southern correspondent to the Gin,
clnnati Commercial, has doubts about the ex.
tent Of the alleged bulldozlng. He writes:
| Investigation convinces me that the large
Democratic gains IN the five disputed par
ishes were not all by reason of intimidation.
| had conversatin Capt. Bascom of the regu-
regular army stationed all the year in West
Feliciana and in command there. He says
the election in that parish was as free and
| fair as any ever witnessed. He says If that
parish can be thrown out, any county in the
| United States can. The Democrats carried
it by 800 majority. By joining black clubs,
by argument and appeal, he says, the whites
won the blacks by kindness and persuasion,
and not by free. Captain Bascom is an
| Ohio man"
The Springfield Republican, an earnest
but honest Hayes organ, gives the returns OF
the Louisiana parishes IN which it is admit
ted there was no bulldozing or intimidation,
and which the returning board has already
passed and approved, and Analysing this vote
at length, thus concludes:
| 1t is therefore apparent that in 10 of the 81
pdIlSuCS III WHICH cast ONCI u
quarter CT the total vote, there was free
| peaceabe and full" election, two weeks ago !;
that the total vote was larger than in 1874 ;
that each party has shared this gain, and in
both white and colored parishes, but the
| Democrats have obtained larger portion of
| it; that therefore the Democrats have fairly
gained l,3O8 votes over 1874, IN something
over quarter of the state; and that, conse-
quently, there is reasonable ground to expect
that they should have similar gains in the
rest of the state and so increase their MAORI
ty from 2049, two years ago, to the $500 or
so that they now claim.
| Finally, it is apparent that only the most
overwhelming evidence can now justify the
throwing out of the votes and the reversal
OF the verdcts in the "bulldozed" parishes
For it is already established that similar and
almost as striking changes in favor of the
Democrats have occurred, and have been APP
proved by the Returning Board, in parishes
ad dining those "buldoZed" ones, and where
the same influences might be expected TO
operate For example la the negro parish of
Point Coupee, on the west bank of the Mis-.
slssippi, Democratic gam of 963 has al.
ready been Endorsed by the Returning Board,
while In the parish of West Fellcana, just
across the river, the gain claimed by the
Democrats 1920 is but 361 larger. Again,
in the parish of Union, which is just west of
! the "bulldozed" parish of Morehouse, along
the Arkansas border, the Returning Board
has approved a Democratic gain of $50,
while the gain claimed by the Democrats in
Morehouse (943) is but 276 larger.
| The Returning Board has thus given the
country that "falr count of the vote actually
cast which President Grant voiced the pub
lie feeling in demanding in parishes which
show remarkable but as 1t Is now APPARENT
| legitimate Democratic gains. 1t will be hard
work TO convince the country that they ought
not to make fair count of the votes actual
ly cast in other parishes, where the Demo
cratic gain is but little larger, and hardly, if
at all, more striking.
TILDEN UNDOUBTEDLY ELECTED.
The Springfield Republican, therefore, thus
concludes:
From all the evidence we deliberately dc
clare it as our conviction that Mr.. Tilden is
to day, according to all the forms OF law up
to this stage of the proceedings, elected presi-
dent. The votes OF Florida and Louisiana
are Tilden's now in just the same way as the
votes of Nevada and Oregon are Hayes',-no
official canvass having as yet been made IN
any OF these states, but nearly complete re.
turns showing who has the majority in each.
THE LOUISIANA FRAUD.
The New York EreniRg Post was Jealous
almost to:unscrupulousness IN its support of
Hayes TO the last, and even continues to
make excuses and apologies for the Louisi
ana iniqulty; bat it gives it up that there
Is no defence for the recent rascally action of
the South Carolina returning board, whom It
thus advises:
The best thing the South Carolina Board
of Canvassers, which has just adjourned with.
out day, can do Is TO reassen Bile, as 1t is re-
ported that the Supreme Court OF the state
has ordered it TO do The country will not
be satisfied with proceedings which look like
sharp practice. In the first place,
the conservative opinion of the country de-
mands respect for the judgments OF the con
sttuted tribunals. 1t is better that a decision
which is wrong shall be obeyed than that it
shall be disobeyed even 10 secure right end