The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-02-01
The Fraud In Louisiana.
Washington Correspondence N. Y. snn.l

Nearly every member of Mr.. Morris.
sons Louisiana Committee has returne
to Washington. Mr.. Morrison declined
to be interviewd, but intimated that al.
though the testimony taken by the COM
mlttee is conflicting, when it is summed
up there can be no doubt that the entire
Democratic ticket, Presidential and
State, has been honestly and fairly
elected by large and unmistakable
majority. Beyond this he could not be
induced to go. Mr.. Blackburn, chair
man of one of the sub committees, was
more talkative, and gives probably a
more exact account of the condition of
affairs in Louisiana than has heretofore
been published. He says that no one
who has not been there can conceive
what a miserable condition the people of
that Sstate are in. They have been ab-
solutely reduced to want and beggary
by the system of fraud, peculation, and
thieyery practiced upon them so long by
their carpet-bag State Government. In
4 the absence of a just government robbery,
plunder, and bloodshed have indeed
given truth and color to the heart-rend-
ing stories that have thrilled the hearts
of Northern people; but these are
attributable to an entirely different
cause. Instead of proceeding wholly
from Democratic sources, and being
committed for political purposes upon
harmless and innocent black Republi-
cans, these outrages are known to have
originated in every department of life,
to have been committed upon all races,
sexes, and conditions alike, and to have
been instigated for every possible pur-
pose that can actuate a people
driven to desperation and crime
by the most oppressive and cor
rupt Government ever known. The
people of the State, Mr.. Blackburn
says, are determined to stand it no longer.
They do not wish to precipitate civil
strife, but believing that they have
rightfully and legally defeated the party
that controls the present obnoxious State
Government, if an effort is made to con-
tinue it in power it will have to be done
with the cooperation of the United
States Army, which may render con-
fict inevitable. The methods by which
the Packard Government has been
declared elected and installed are re-
garded as infamous, and the people will,
if necessary, in their own good time,
arise and assert their knowledge of the
fact.
Mr.. Blackburn's committee took testi-
mony in the parishes of Lafayette,
Lafourche, Livingstone, Tangipahoa,
Placquemine, Iberville, and St. Landre.
In so far as the parishes are concerned,
according to his own observations and
the testimony taken by his committee,
the Democratic party has been swindled
by the Returning Board out of twenty
nine hundred votes. The method by
which greater part of the swindlipg has
been done has not heretofore been cor
rectly stated. The rejection of votes
by the Returning Board, Mr..
Blackburn says, is very different
thing from the rejection of votes by
Supervisors of Registration, by whom,
it will be shown by the testimony, per-
haps, the largest number of votes have
been thrown out. The election law of
that State does confer power upon the
Returning Board, in certain contingen-
eies, to reject votes, but this right is not
conferred by law upon Supervisors of
Elections. The Supervisor has simply
to make to the Returning Board the
returns as furnished him by the Com
missioners of the Election, who make
their report in duplicate, forwarding
one to the Supervisor, and the other
to the clerk of the parish. The
Returning Board then makes its compi-
lation, not from the consolidated state
ment of the Supervisor, as it appears was
done, but from the returns Of the Com
missioners of Election as obtained from
the various voting precincts.
The Supervisor, therefore, if there is
any occasion to reject, should not, and
can not, have the right to do SO; but the
testimony, Mr.. Blackburn says. shows
that this has been done. Ample proof
has been obtained, showing that the
returns as furnished the Supervis-
ors of Elections are quite different from
those appearing upon the records
of the Returning Board, rendering it
certain that they have been tampered
with while in the hands of the Super
visors. The Returning Board is to make
the canvass from the returns direct from
the various voting places. In not single
parish, Mr.. Blackburn says, has this
been done. the canvass being made from
the consolidated returns of the Super
visors. In this way the Supervisors OF
Election, not the Returning Board,
have rejected $500 votes in the State Of
Louisiana.
The testimony shows that many oi
these Supervisors of Election were com.
posed of men guilty of all sorts of crime
and misdemeanors, some of them being
citizens of other States and notorious
ballot-box suffers. One Supervisor was
member of the Mississippi Legislature
and happening to be in the State Of
Louisiana at the time was called upon
to fill the Office, which offer he accepted
Another Supervisor by the name o.
Pannell in Lafourche parish, was re
moved and one Landy, man guilty O.
many crimes, was substituted in hi!
place. Mr.. Pannell, who is Republi
can, was put upon the stand and asked tt
give the reason why he was removed
He hesitated, but at length wa!
| lOICtu W duulI budI ~ was DC
cause he would not issue fraudulent Ger
tifcates of election. A Supervisor
named Edgeworth was convicted of hav
ing issued five hundred and thirty-fv
fraudulent certificates. In nine case
out of ten these Supervisors of Election
were clerks in the Custom-House. Thi
question was often asked of Supervisor
for Democratic precincts: "Don't yo,
know that you were sent there unde
peremptory instructions to carry tina
Democratic parish for the Republican
ticket" In nearly every case yer,
relunctant response in the affirmativ
was made, with the admission that hi
appointment was subject to that condi
tion.
The report of Sherman, Garfield, an
others to the President, and by him sen
to Congress, was in most instances take
as guide in finding out where to go t
take testimony and what class of evi
dence to elicit. This book embraces tn
report of these gentlemen, with the az
companying affidavits, the only test
mony on which the action of the Return
ing Board and the report are basec
forming a volume of five hundred an
eleven pages. Mr.. Blackburn frankl
asserts that, so far as his knowledge goe
there never has been given to print
| volume embracing sO little DfO(