Litchfield enquirer., 1876-12-07

} ence of opinion regarding the Louisialsa election, we repeat the following letters, showing the Republican view, the Dem ocratic view, aud the semi -indc dcpendence of staff correspondent of the New York Tribune.
 THE REPUBLICAN, VIEW.
 The Republican view is given in the opinion of Jadge Matthews and letter from Dr. H.V. Redfeld to the Cinein-H natl Commercial. Says Dr. Red6eld:
 The man who tries to get at the exact truth here, and lay it before the reader
 without party colorings, labors under difficulties. It is easy. very easy. to get any amount of information you want for "your side" (whiehever side that may bel, and it is easy to write 1t up from parti-l san standpoint, suppressing whatever may look like afording comfort to the enemy-all that is a matter of little or no labor; but when you come to try to recon ciIe all the conflicting stories and get bottom facts, then is the task hard-nay. impossible.
 And when I find such confusion con- founded reigning here, and see and ex- perience the impossibilities of getting the, truth and the whole truth, can imagine how easily the people at large may fall in- to error, having in most instances only the partisan press out of which to inform themselves. The democrat naturally concludes that his party is being cheated out of the fruits of their hard-earned vic tory by the returning board. which, tive years ago, was denounced as fraud and a swindle by the best republicans Tn the land, and that the Louisiana radical gang will, under the protection of the army, usurp the local government. and turn the state, hound and handcufed, over to Hayes Aud what he reads in democrats ic papers IS calculated to stimulate that belief and stir his blood up to the fight ing point. On the other hand, the re-
 publican. fed by the passionate partisan press, believes that there Is a new rebel lion down here; that negroes are daily shot down for voting the republican tick ct, and that several hundred blacks were slaughtered in few parishes to influence
 the rest in behalf of Tilden and reform,
 and so on, and so on. Only last night, I went to q representative of northern
 journal here with an item of news which
 l was going to use. ''Oh," said he, with
 
 thing, .'Oh, that's no use to our side that won't do our folks any good" It is
 the policy here to feed the passions of each party North with one sided state ments, so as to influence politics hereaf- ter. Questions that arise here will serve for political thunder for years to come; therefore each side is making the most of if. -"-' fe '4.t- 70
 Now, mark this Each party here will give a sort of official statement to the country, and these statements will each
 be supported by abundance of sworn tes- timony, yet the candid reader will be un- able to reconcile them. They will be as far apart as the poles. see that brew ing now. For instance, the republicans already have thousands of afidavits from colorea men, who swear that they voted the democratic ticket through fear, or that they were kept from voting the re- publican ticket by force. The democrats have thousands of affidavits-and each party is adding to the stock daily-mads by colored men, who swear that they vo- ted the democratic tieket freely, fairly, and of their own desire, and set out their reasons for so doing, in many instances, the heft of it being that they had voted with the republican party, eight years, and they and the country were no better of, but rather on the decline. Also, large numbers of sworn statements that affiants wanted 10 vote the democratic ticket, but were kept from it by the fear violence from their own race. Then the republicans have stacks of afidavits from these very men, or. many of them, who swear that they were forced to swear that they voted the democratic ticket freely and fairly, when in fact they didn't, but wanted to vote for the republican candl dates all the time.
 Sitting it all down, examining census reports and registration lists, making al- lowance for black democrats and white re- publicans, I come to one conclusion, which will take more evidence than have yet found to drive me from. And that is this: If the vote here had been in every way as fair and free as you have in Ohio, with out murder of the blacks, or frightening them, or threatening them with no land to cultivate, or lowering their wages on ac- count of "radical taxation," or breaking up their meetings or anything of the sort, Louisiana would have gone for Hayes by a majority of not less than 12. .O0O Much stress is laid on the census of 1870, which shows that the blacks are only about 1000 ahead. But the state census of 1875 shows them to be more than 25 900 ahead But 1t isz said that the state census is faulty. Very we'll. But in the federal census are included over F, GOO whites who are not natnralized, and who yet hold their allegiance to their respective coun- tries. Beyond all question. the blacks outnumb ber the whites not less {, than 5000 voters. The registration, which is req sonably accurate. puts ut, them 14.oO0 ahead of the whites. ..,..,-.-.... .'.''> ,s~1F ,.e We know that the negro is republican on national issues, owing to causes which go back into history. On free, fair cleo tion. without any other appliances to win votes than you have in Ohio, no more blacks would vote the democratic ticket than whites would vote the republican ticket. We. might fairly offset one vote against the other-the black democrats against the white republicans. While this is true, it is also true that Tilden car ried this state on fhe face of things; that IS, he has the most votes in the boxes from 1000 to 5000 more than Hayes, in fact. And it is also trne that the election at every polling place in the state was qniet, so fargaI have heard: no fighting, 'rioting, or Attempts to drive the blacks
 .Batthe blacks were operated on be- fore the election. They were influenced in various way, some of the leading ones killed outright (bus the number has been greatly exaggerated by the republicans), and all were made to understand that the path of safety and peace for them lay in voting the democratic ticket In East Feliciana not single ticket was allowed to be boiled for the republican ticket
 Various explanations of this have been given by the democrats, but none that will hold water. The bold, naked fact remains that the republican majority was stamped out. and that the blacks, without excep- ton, were compelled to vote the demo cratic ticket or.not vote at all.a In West Felieiaua L,msntioned in dispatches that the federal officer in command there told, me thai the election in that parish was perfectly free and fair, nobody hurt. and no disturbance. All ofswhich is true on the lace of it. There was no disturbance, or riot or armed men at the polls driving rr~r