The daily gazette., 1877-02-16
Closing the Argument.

CAMPBELL ON THE LAW AND FACTS
CONCERNING HIS STATE. ..r
Special Dispatch to the Times,
WASHINGTON, Feb. 10th, 1877.
The argument on the preliminary ques-
tions, which covered in fact the whole
Louisiana case, was concluded at half
past four o'clock this afternoon, when
Judge John A. Campbell took his seat
after speech of two hours and forty
five minutes in support of the objections
to the Kellogg certificate. Judge Camp
bells familiarity with the conditions OF
Louisiana and thorough mastery of the
legal issues involved enabled him to
throw a flood of light on the case, am
he was heard with deep interest by n
larger audience than has generally at
tended the sessions of the commission.
Among those present were Chief Justice
Waite, ex"Attorney General Williams,
Vice President Ferry, Hon. William S.
Groesback, Hugh J. Campbell, autho I
of the Returning Board law Colonel
W. Il. Pelton, Duncan f. Kenner, to
whom Anderson, of the Returning Board
made his offer to sell the vote of Louisi-
ana Senators Logan and West, and
others of more or less distinction, besides
the regular habitues. Judge Campbell
addressed on this occasion, as president
of the commission, one with whom he
sat on the bench of the United States
Supreme Court twenty years ago, and
he Is known to all the Judges as an emf
nent jurist. He was, therefore, fol-
lowed with marked interest, even when
he rambled, as men of his years often
will, into fields which, however attrac-
tive, are somewhat remote from the sub
Iject under discussion. To attempt au
abstract of his argument would be to go
over familiar ground, for the points dis
cussed were the same heretofore pre-
sented by Judge Trumbun and Mr.. Car
more clearly brought out, and his citation
of precedents from the time of james
the First to the last year of Victorias
reign, besides many American authori-
ties, gave evidence of the active mind
and deep erudition of the speaker. The
old gentleman seemed to have every
item in the world at his fingers end.
ExcoRIATING sToUGHToN AND SHELL
.lr -ur e. BARGEn, s...
To the average listener the most at
tractive part of his speech was that in
which he excoriated Stoughton and
Shellbarger in retaliation for their breach
of propriety and offense against truth ia
plcturing the condition of Louisiana.
He said the people of that PROSTATE
State had suffered for years a tyranny
that the citizens of quiet and steady old
Vermont or Connecticut would not have
endured month. The intimidation
stories would not stand a moment before
the fact that all the machinery of regis
tration and election and for preservation
of the peace was in the hands of the Re
publicans. That party was represented
at the polls by seven thousand five hun
dred officers, with the militia forces of
the United States at their backs. In
this vast army of officials, including su-
pervisors, commissioners, special con-
stables and deputy marshals, there were
those stationed in every precinct whose
duty it was and whose pleasure it would
have been to report riot, tumult and in
timidation, and yet not one of them had
complained of a breach of the peace on
the day of the election. The Conserva-
tives had striven to have a fair, free and
peaceable expression of the popular will
through the ballot. The Intimidation
boot was on the other foot. On the 30th
of October there issued from the United
States Circuit Court for Louisiana war
rants for the arrest of ten thousand re-
putable citizens of New Orleans, inclu-
ding eminent professional men, bankers
clergymen, and even members of Con
gress, and these persons of undoubted
probity were dragged up before United
States Commissioners to answer charges
of illegal voting in 1872. Of the ten
Thousand cases only 800 were brought
to trial and in only five of these were
the charges sustained. The commission
ers' fees amounted to $4,000 and the
Judge of the Court, a Republican, re-
fused to certify for the payment of one
cent of this amount, on the ground that
the whole thing was transparent fraud.
One object was accomplished, however
in keeping two thousand legally quail fied
voters from the polls. An occurrence
like this would more than outweigh the
Itrumped-up stories of bloodshed derived
from partisan newspapers which had
foamed the text of a TRADE from one of
the counsel on the other side.
l. GOING BEHIND THE RETURNS.
Judge Campbell was several times in
| terrupted by questions from the bench,
| but none of the inquiries or replies there
Hoar asked whether the counsel claimed
that in given case it would be lawful Or
expedient for Congress to go behind the
returns and investigate every or any poll
in the State of Oregon. Judge Campbell
replied that no such contingency as was
stated had arisen or was likely to arise,
but the question being pressed he said
bildJ IL u6 WcIc dnOkuDol VI OOHSIooS duu
the necessity existed he would pause and
Inquire, and decide to the best of his
ability. To Senator Edmunds he said
that if Congress, as represented in this
tribunal, had not the right to hear evi-
dence and decide a case of contestiI9
electors, the right and the power existed
nowhere on earth.
In his peroation Judge Campbell com
pared the government of Louisiana to
that described by recent writer as the
ruling power in Turkey: That country
was governed: it was said. not by Chris
titan, not M Mohammedan, nor Jew, not by
monarch or by aparliament, but by rings
at Constantinople, composed of the rene
gades and apostates and refuse of Europe
who trampled on law, were reckless of
other interests than their own and would
lpull down the very pillars of the social
fabric for their own selfish ends. These
rings had brought disaster upon their
own country and threatened to convulse
a continent with war. The parallel was
found in the government of the corrupt