Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1877-12-08
NO. "a


American who would sell even his single
| right any terms whatever. At the
| cri itical period in the history Of Louisiana
| whici, occurred last year it was especial
! " valuable to her people. for it furnlshe'
them the only legal, peaceable, and sair
measure of relief from the eXactions OF -
mos, corrupt ard oppressive government
| Tho successful scheme to cheat those
| people out Of their votes for State officers
| and Presidential Electors is, therefore, Al
! crime of the greatest magnitude, and one
which requires a cheek of solid brass to
defend it without blushing. 1t is far
worse than Il conspiracy to steal any
amount of Public money. Running
crooked whiskey for a lifetime would lie
an act of whitcrobbcd innocence in COM
| parison.
The ultimate object of this crime give.
! it,. general aspect revolving In the last
| degree; bHt its features, when seen III
| detail are hidcous beyond eXpressi6N'
Some returns were entirely suppressed,
| and others w"re altered. votes actually
cast were. thrown ont, and others put it,
and counted which We're known not t"
have been pcilcd. The whole proceed.
ing was full Of false pretcnccs. Forgery
of the most important documents was Il
part of it; perjury and subornation Of
perjury attended it at every step. Sha!!
these things be- forgotten or conL"ncu
Do ycu expect the cheated people of the
nation to say, like the eight commission
cr, that this is as good 4 way us any t'
! elect IL President
TIE ELECTORAL COMMISSION.
One OF yonr allie cations is that Iinte::d:
| ed ''to convey the false impression that
the formation OF the commission was tho
result of a Republican conspiracy to
traudulently elect IL President and Eiro
President :" and Judge Bradley, taking
your word for it, has made himself inter
.>ff .
to himself. l did not say this or any
thing like it, On the contrary, referred
to th,, coulnissnn us being proposed iis
difficult crcumSta aces to avoid the dan
gers which might spring from Il continued
and final disagreement between the tw'
houses, aud as being accepted by thT
Democrats in thc belief that Justice would
be done, and all honest decision rendered
against the fraud In all this there is
not hing about Il conspiracy III ''tile for"
nation of the commission" l 90 not
know that yOl mislepreSented tins po'ht
willfullE. 1t is one OF your characttrlS'
tic inaccuracies, like that which charge
Dante with the lndcccncieS of the De
cameron
No; the conspiracy was not in the fot:'
nation Of the conn ssion, but in th''
frauds which fabricated and returned
those bogus votes. The commission r.'-
fused to verify the votes and ascertain
whether the e!ec .ors that sent them ny
were duly appointed or not, and in this
il bitterly disapointeh the friends OF
truth, and grossly violated the whole
spirit as we'll the letter of the law
which gave it being. Whe jhcr this was
mere error. or something worse, is not
for me or You to determine, but the gem
eraI Judgment, will no doubt adopt the
charitable view which l have given, and
say that the faculties of the majority
were too much hcnrmbed by party pas
sion to see the facts or understand the
law,
You claim that the certificate of the
Returning Board gave you ''a political
atlvantage.'' In this you. are certainly
right. 4 party sued for an honest deb:
has IL great advantage over his creditor
if he can produce Il fraudulent or forge'!
receipt II non the trial. The advantage"
becomes decisive if the tribunal trying
the cause is willing t" accept the false
paper. give it the effect of q true one
and permit the plain:iif to be chratrt
out of his debt. But would it be rights
legally or morally, for the debtor to TAX"
such an advantage
THE PEOPLES RIGHT TO ELECT.
Yourtcch,,ical argument in favor of tho
fraud deserves notice, because it IS al
most your only attempt al reasoning, and
because Your conclusion would DC 1aif IL
YOUR premises were sound.
IoIi deciire in broad and nnQualiticl
terms. that the American people have
..no right to elect their own Chiet MaS1s-
trate'-tlnt no such right is lmbeddeI
in the constitution or esewhcFe-th;tf,
on the contrary, "the trainers OF the
constitution were careful to exclude from
the people the right to elect their own
Chief Mamist rate' l admit that this il
true ends the controversy in your taYor:
ior it cannot have been legally wrong I"
dcfaat the attempt which the people
t,,>,, L.. .nl, hn>