Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1877-05-02

= A New ORLEANS letter to the New
York Times, written on the 2lst of
April, says rs to the effect which
Hayes policy of Cancellation is hav-
ing on Southern Democrats:
"There are politicians here, and
they have more influence than all the
honest conservative men of the Penn
stamp put together, who openly de-
clare that the success of Hampton and
OF Nichols is the success of Demo-
cratic bravery over Republican cow
ardice, or, in other words, of Demo-
cratic cut Threats over unarmed and
defenseless Republican negroes.
These men, and thousands like them
in all parts of the South, give Presi-
dent Hayes no thanks for the mag
unanimous course he has taken toward
them. They regard his policy as the
result of q trade, and attribute the
success of Hampton and Nichols to
what is known as the Foster-Mat-
thews bargain. These are plain
truths, but they are truths, and they
might as well be told now as at some
future period. The average Southern
man believes that Mr.. Hayes obtained
his seat with the distinct understand
ing that Chamberlain and Packard
were to be overthrown. In the words
of an old Alabama planter, with
whom / conversed on the subject,
The Southern Democrats gave Hayes
his seat, he has given them their own
government; he was little long
about ii, but it's all right now, and
the account is square" The people
Of the South, as a class, read very lit.
tie and think less; they are carried
away by their impulses, and these
impulses are guided to a great extent
by few shrewd leaders. They have
some prejudices, however, which no
leader or set of leaders can ever hope
to remove. One of these is their
deep-seated hatred of the Republican
party. Amy attempt 10 bring them
to the support of that party could on
ly result in the political ruin of the
man who made the attempt. The
Southern leaders know this, and they
will undoubtedly guide themselves
accordingly"
Again we quote from the editorial
matter Of the Times, as follows:
"The report of the Louisiana Com
mission is simply an acknowledge
ment that the result of their labors
has been Q surrender, not compro-
mise. All the legal arguments are on
the side of the Packard government.
The kernel of the whole controversy
is to be found in the relative positions
&c A1,o ~. Hno I'D v,d fho CAof<
Legislature. The Commissioners cite
the. Law which requires the returns
for Governor and Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor to be sealed up and transmitted
by the proper returning officers to
the Secretary of State, who shall de-
liver them to the Speaker of the
House of Representatives by whom
they shall be submitted to the Gener-
Al Assembly for the purpose Of being
counted and the result declared.
There can he no question that the
Returning Board were the only legal
returning officers of the State, that
they transmitted the votes for Gov
ernOr and Lieutenant-Govern as
required by law, and that those votes
were canvassed by legally eonstitu-
ted General Assembly possessing a
quorum for the transaction of bust
ness, with the result of declaring
Packard the duly elected Governor
of the State. Had the returns been
again canvassed by the Nichols Leg
islature, the result would have been
the same, because they showed on
their face the result which was de-
clared in January. The Returning
Board simply exercised their consti-
tutional powers in excluding the
votes of parishes where fraud or in
timidation had obviously vitiated the
election, and after their action no
possible ingenuity could have made
the figures yield different total from
that which was announced by the
Packard General Assembly. From
these facts there can be but one infer
ence-yiz: that the installation of
the Nichols government is piece of
,lagrant usurpation."
We have made these quotations be-
cause they come from a paper which
perhaps, above all others, may be re-
garded as the leading organ Of the
Republican party.