Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1877-12-22
THE ELI CTORAL FRAUD.
urDGE BLACK' REPLY TO MIR. E. w
STOUGHTON.
The Stouyh'on Article in the North
American Review for October
Plainly Dealt With.
(CONTtNCED FROM LAST ISSCF.)

SuERN1AN'S VISITING COMMITTEE.
You are naturally attended by my ref
crrncr to the conduct Of MIR. Sherman's
visiting committee. of which you were
one. You call it an attack; hut 1 meant
it for the best lcfn' Sc was able to fur
niS!,: and will not now be provoked r"
utter one ha rsl, word about them. l am
willing to admit that when I said they
"ait,ed and abrttcd, By erery means IN
their pomrr, the preparation OF the
Great Fraud" | used too strong an cN-
preston.
Their case is too serious to he dealt
with lightly. so far as d' pends on me- 1
will not suffer them to be prejndlced bH
yonr blnudcring advocacy. But they
| have hurt themselves very much by de-
claring nsincerely and untruly that they
went to Louisiana only to witness the
couut of the electoral vote by the Return
in~ Board. Nobody believes that they
! would drop their affairs at home, start
immediately after the election, travel all
the way 10 Louisiana, and stay there at
great expense for month. merely that
they might be present as spectators,
when Wells, Anderson and the two mu-
lattoes would cipher up the returns. NO;
they meant business of some kind, GOOD
or evil, and evil is always suspected OF
that which covers itself under a sham.
Another pretense of theirs fails to bear
examination. They said they could not
advise an honest count or reprobate n
false one without fear of ofiense to the
returning officers. This extreme delicacy
is all simulated. Nothing could he more
ridiculous than the idea that the cenl-
mittee was restrained by politeness from
interfering to stop the fraud, if they wan.
ted it stopped. They could have crushed
if with a woro. If they had simply sale
that an honett count must be made: O
all the legal votes actually cast, and tha
no man should, with their consent, be re
, cornized protected or rewarded for falsl
= tviuc or fraudulent altering returns, th
conspiracy would have dissolved that in
slant. Their refusal to do this or some
, thing equivalent, when pressed and sole
tied by the Democratic committee, need
TO be vindicated by some better rcaso
=. than anv that has yet been Givrn.
e They not only tlu hot PleNtIir 'ho Si''
+ fraud WREN they might have done it
easily, but they encouraged it, intention
ally, or unintentionally by telling the col
spirators that power t" disiranchise til
/. citizens of the Statemight constitutional
he exercised by the Returning Board, an
to give this plansibilty they cited Vol
statute aud decision of the Supren
Court which had never been made. i
reasoning wholly unsound they made I'll
consp;rators believe that if they pat the
+. fraud into the "lorms of law" it cou
~, ~ never he questioned.
20 20 Moreover. after the fraudulent alter'
=. tion of the vote had been made, they pr
'r nounccd it a righteous thing. How Il
III they were conscientious i'll this l do N
pretend to say. But if n man approx
of a coHsummated crime, it does not I
#. ouire much faith in human weakness
or believe that he might have helped
e, olour while it was yet IN .feri.
u Again, the chairman of that visltl'
. committee has since become Secretary
the Treasury, aud controls the aPpoil