New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1877-02-03
THnsE WITNEssRs.

followed every Republican, beginning
with General Grant, and embracing every
candidate or incumbent of Office, has cul-
minated in the attempt to break down the
decision of the Returning Board by the
most atrocious charges against the per-
sonal character of the members. Gov
ernor Wells seems especially to have been
selected as the object of attack. He is
neither carpet-bagger nor the son of
carpet-bagger, which last is more than
most Democratic leaders in Louisiana can
say for themselves. He has been elected
and served as Governor of the State, and
we are not aware that the integrity of his
administration has been assailed. When,
however, he holds a position which the
Democracy must carry to nullify the
legal act of the State, he suddenly
becomes a villain of the deepest dye,
and every act of Office to which
he has been party is void We might
take our stand upon the ground once &C.
cupied and now abandoned by the South
ern Democracy and claim that the State
of Louisiana has decided and promulga-
ted the result of the election, and that no
power, Federal or ether, can go beyond
the broad seal of her certificate. We do
not need to accept this abject and mer-
cenary surrender of principle, although it
establishes the supremacy of national
numbers even beyond the claim of the
most ultra Republican. We take the
grounds: 1. That the formal and
legal certificate of the State is all
solute and irrefragable evidence of
her electoral appointment, and that no
retu rning board at Washington or else
where can carry the canvass of her acts
back or beyond that act. g. The charge
of having put the certificate of the State
up to the highest bidder, rests upon a
basis of absurdity and improbability.
The people of the United States are called
upon to believe the statement of one wit
ness who is published in the Picayptne as
having been
In the late war in the secret service, and
to have frequently given information to
President Lincoln and Mr.. Seward. Had
had conversations also with Jefferson Davis,
his object being to find what was going on
in the South.
And another witness of whom the Times
says:
Report has it that he attained some motto.
riety by selling certain records of the Con-
federaoy to the United States government.
We have no comments to make on the
improbability of a charge SO grave resting
upon the testimony of men whose acts
and antecedents are so equivocal Later
information from Washington goes to
show that the charges are even more i'm
probable than as were stated yesterday.
The Picdytne put upon street-sale the
assertion by its Washington correspon-
dent
Various letters of Governor Wells are
being shown in evidence to the committee
One of these alleged letters was to be used
with the chairman of the Democratic Com
mittee, which was used, and the offers
m ade and declined by the Democratic or.
/ ganiZetiOn.
These allegations are duly head-lined
as ellis Confident ial Letters in the Hands
of the Committee" The Times CORES
pendent, however, makes this important
correction:
A material matter of difference in the
| evidence is that the witness was understood
yesterday to say that the memorandum
stating the amount, terms and manner of
payment, was written by Wells. To-day he
says he himself wrote it down, but it was
wanted money and would have money, for
1t was the lasE chance he would have.
So the public is relegated to the per-
sonal credibility of the witness, who had
been war spy, talking with the head of
the Confederacy for matter to sell to the
President of the Union, and the witness
who. having been in the Confederate
service, attained some notoriety by SELL
ing certain records of the Confederacy to
the United States government. Such
sensational dispatches may sell extra
editions of party paper, but they will
scarcely furnish authority for the National
Returning Board to go behind the broad
seal of the State. Now that the reputa-
ton of the witnesses has been pub
lished, and since it appears that the
alleged propositions of Governor Wells
rest upon the written memoran-
dums and memory of these witnesses,
it will be seen that Democratic desper-
alton has resorted to Bohemian evidence
to support a charge incredible upon any
principle of common sense and common
self-respect We dismiss this absurdity,
and think that any conscientious journal
which has sold extra editions upon such
an allegation supported by such evidence
should call together the dupes who have
bought their papers and refund every
nickel taken in therefor. It is in our
view conscience money, and should be re-
funded, or as Mr.. Maddox testifes in re-
gard to somewhat similar fund:
Question-Was there any arrangement
between you and Colonel Pickett as to how
much money you we're to get eaehi
Answer--I did not know how much was
to get; that depended on circumstances.
Colonel Pickett said be did not care about
the money, except for charitable purposes.
Let the nickels taken in on the Wells
sensation go to the charitable purpose
Of the 'sNswsboys' Home What say the
boys2
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