Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1877-12-08
THE ELECTORAL FRAUD.
BLACKS REPLY TO MIR. Z.
w. STOUGHTON.

The Stoughton Article in the North
American Review for October
Plainly Dealt with.
To tho Hon. E. w. Stonghton:
If 1 do not reply to your article in the
last number of the North 4Ameriean Rerie,r
you will remain under the delusion that
your argument is irresistible. i'll try
to correct that mistake by showing tiiat
if there be a defense for the Great Fraud
you decidedly are not the person to make
it. Doing this mainly TO, your own eIifi-
cation, address you directly. Isepar:te
your personal invective from your dis
cussion of the case, though they are so
mixed as to mako separation difficult,
and will consider your objections to my
view of the subject as if they had been
expressed in becoming and decent Ian
guage.
You think, as your political friends in
general think, that after the decision OF
the Electoral Commission against us, we
ought to submit in silence ard not veX
the victorious party with an appeal to
the tribunal of public opinion. We have
submitted. The proper representatives
of both parties agreed to leave the dis
pute to a body which they constituted for
the purpose of settling it. We could not
refuse to abide by the award without be-
ing guilty of bad faith. We do not now
assert the injustice of it, with any view
to reverse or modify it. You need not
e.. / ~.
iniquitous you may know it to be. You
con enjoy its fruits in perfect security,
and we, the people, Will, on our part
"perform the VOWS which we have vowed
before the Lord however much it may
be ''to our own hurt"
But to acuuiesce without protest-to
confess tacitly that Tie wrong is right
and the evil good-that is out of the
question. In discussing the whole sub
ject with great rlainness of speech, We
not only obey All impulse, but perform y
duty. For this will give some reasons,
and take the chances ofmaking you COM
prehenl them.
WHY IT CANNOT BE CoNDoNED.
In th,. first place, it concerns the rcpu-
tations of nearly all the public men of
the present day. You and are too obscure
TO be noticed by history, bat the great
characters of oar time on both sides will
go down to pcstcrity clothed with honor
or covered Will, infamy, according as they
have been trying to further the fraud or
stop it. Remember, there was IL fraud,
and a very gross one. committed by one
party or the other. II the State Of Lou
isianu chose Kellogg and the other candi-
dates on the iiaNcS ticket for Presidential
Electors, and the Democratic politicians
knowing this, did, nevertheless, deny
the truth AND t,hricnted Il false return
for Tilden, which they persisted to the
last in trying to pass for Il t Nc Que, they
were a combination Of MOI s'c,tcnp'Ion
less royucs; and It will ieWcorled, us All
the righteous minority of the Electoral
Commission crushed ont their faiSchoNd
they turned about and, with caluHnious
accusations. charged their own guilt upon
tlreir innocent opponents. The converse
of these propositions is also true. If the
Tilden electors were duly chosen by the
people, and the Republican leaders in
and out of the State altered the returns,
faiSitied the records, and constituted a
counterfeit Electoral College, whereby
the people of the State and the Union
were cheated out of the President whom
they had legally elected by large major
ity, then it is only anticipating history to
~. IL, .J.,,l -, t.,1 Il
couraged that oftense ought to be ''classcd
among the worst malefactors of the age
Seeing the great interest that hangs on
this question, is it not fairly worth oul
while to give it Il full examination while
the facts re yet fresh in the memory OF
mens
Another consideration there is, which
makes public appeal upon the subject
not only proper, but absolutely necessary
if orr convictions are not founded in total
mistake. The candidate to whom you
are opposed was, as we understand the
case, elected by an overwhelming popu-
lar vote, and by a majority of at least
twcnty-three in the Electoral College
But you defeated the legally expressed
will of the people and the States, and by
means of false tokens and divers covinous
practices, contrary to the law and against
the moral sense of all honest men. The
decision of the Electoral Commission, by
making the fraud perfectly successful, in
vites repetition of it, and you undoubt
edly will repeat it, unless you ale in soint
way deferred. Now, the nation will no
submit to another such outrage. We pro
| mote your true interests as well as ours
| if we prevent you from cnGangcring tin
! peace of the country by trying this kline
of foul play over again. TO that end tn
host ~ VOL as the EiuOest means know