Middletown transcript., 1877-01-06
THE LOUISIANA INFAMY.

under the direction OF Packard anC
Kellogg, in pursuance of the Chandler
and Cameron conspiracy to steal thC
vote of that unfortunate State for the
Republican party Comment has here.
tofore been made by this journal upon
the failure of the Returning Board tc
promulgate the returns by parishes a:
required BY law Probably these de.
tails of the vote and the manner il
which it was perverted would never
have seen the light but for the parsist-
epce Of the House of Representatives
committee, whose zeal in getting at the
bottom facts is to be highly commended
These figures show that the action ei
the board was even more disgraceful
than we feared Senator Sherman has,
with brazen effrontery, tried to make il
appear that whatever the result. it was
reached in conformity to the law govern
ing elections in Louisiana. It has been
shown already that in their public pro-
cecdings the beard paid little respect to
the provisions of the statute. framed as
it was in the interests Of their own
party it is now established beyond
controversy that ir their secret sessions
they were even more arbitrary. partisan
and reckless in overriding all law and
equity.
There is a single contingency in
which the board is authorized to reject
the vote of any precinct. This contin-
gencv is that io which Intimidation,
violence or frands occur at au7 poll OF
he day Of election or during The period
Of registration, and thea the poll can be
throwc out only wher the supervisor at
the poll whose vote was affected, ahsll
nmeuiately certify the fact to the board
in the form Of a proies: With recital
Of he facts. such protest and recital
being fortified With the corroborating
affidayts Of three other citizens, ard the
E6cl being attached to the returns and
sealed up in the same envelope with
them, must be forwarded in one and the
sar.o parcel to the board within twenty
four hours after the election Admit
iirg thaS there was intimidation suffi-
cicrt r. affect ;he vote in any parish,
which, however. is clearly disproved,
we find hardly a single Instance in
which the necessary steps for the rcjec
.ioa of any poll we're taken. The in
timidation affidavits we're afterthoughts,
manufactured by the supervisors or for
them, under be orders OF Kellogg and
Packard, long after the returns, mac
cempaaie1 oy protests Of any kind, we're
forwarded te The Capital Ia some
cases envelopes we're withdrawn and
protests and afidavits dexterously in
serted in them, in order to make some
sort Of ipstifcation for ? rejection Of
votes which had to be gotten rid Of
In others there was not even an attempt
to comply Nth the letter or spirit Of the
lev, and the board threw ort votes in
discriminatory and helped themselves to
what they wanted Sixty uire polls.
or precincts, were thus buil-dozed,
either By rejection or failure to couot.
The table now published shows that the
effect Of this rape Of the ballot vas :
loss IF 2.178 Republican and i3, 226
Democratic votes. When the board did
net choose TO take the responsibility q
rejecting poll the supervisors. undor
Instructions. simply withheld the re-
;arns, and lis vote Tas lest By failure
te craat it, The board claiming that i
had nc right to command the produc-
tion Of the returns or 20 count instead
the dupl Gates or tripicates within their
reach 1t will De seen that in every
instance where there vas rejection or
failuTe TO cocut the Republicans were
immensely tho gamers
But his = NOT ell. In Carroll ard
Madison the Republican vote was with
out shadow Of pretext raised SO, and in
ST Charles volunteer POLL giving 8
Republican majority Of g was counted
N But in E&iohitcchcs ard Concordia !
she most Shameless fraud Of all was per
petfstsd Here only FIVE of the Hayes
electors wer" "o.ed for. The poli cor,-
misaioners SO retcrued the votes iE the::.
statements ard the supervisors SO raadc
up their consolidated returns This IS
. notorious faoi. and some Of ihe Nortl:
err Republican witnesses Of The couat,
including BIZ Sherman. admitted that
their party bad &c remed? !, could
not be takeE fcg granted that q man
9ho voted 70? one Hayes or Tilden
eiect0T intended 10 cote for all OF the
game ticket Furthermore. this rule
was remorseless|y enforced against the
Democrats the board holding that they
could nc; 20 behind The supervisors
s'atementa. Thus some of tie Tilder
electors lost several hundred votes 5v
being left off the tickets of their psrty
But when Hayes electors were endaa-
gered by the enforcement OF the rule it
was repealed without hesitation, and in
Natchitoches the beard reised the Re
publican vote for Gve electors By add
ing 534, and in Concc, dia oy adding
574, thus, in fact, manufacturing 1,1O8
votes in these two parishes. TIE same
ooJect was effected IN = slightly
different way in Concordia, Iber7ille
and West Baton Rouge, where Eve Re-
publican electors ran far behind, ao-
2ording to the official statements and
count OF the ballots IN the boxes.
The truth is, therefore, that allowing
he utterly unwsrraatable exclusion Of
sixty nine polls on the plea Of rtimida-
ion, three Of the Democratic electors.
Wickliffe, Seay and McEnery. were
clearly elected by the operation of :ha
boards own rules. This result could
cot be avoided except by supplementary
2ction under two contradictory pro
,esses. Thirteen Democratic polls had
o be excluded OF the plea that the
BOARD could not 60 behind the cousoli-
lated returns of the supervisors, and .
,108 votes had to be manufactured By
going behind the returns as we'll as the
&C