The daily gazette., 1877-02-06
from the Baltimore Sun.
LOUISIANA.

Astounding as the testimony in regard
to the Returning BoBrd in Louisiana
must be to the general public, it is known
that bottom facts have not vet been
reached. When the whole truth shall
be revealed, then the country will see for
the first time by what forms of villainy
the people of that State have been plum
dered, outraged. and oppressed, and how
the administration has constantly en-
pioyed force to uphold the infamies of
the carpet-bag crew, in the interest of
the Republican party.
BY the light which is now shed upon
the acts of Wells and his csnfederates, it
Is easy to understand why they never
filled the vacancy of the fifth member in
their Board, as the law requires. That
place was kept open subject to negotia-
tions for the sale, of which Maddox was
the confidential agent. If the bargain
had been concluded, the plan was to ap-
point the nth man. and then by resig-
nation to change the partisan complexion
OF the Board SO as to insure fair count,
instead of the fraud which was finally
perpetrated.
Two years ago these same men, by a
similar process, counted out a Conserya.
tive Legislature and State Treasurer
Their methods were well known then,
and although two Republican commit
tees condemned in the strongest terms
the illegal and arbitrary means which
were used, no step was taken to abolish
or to restrict this Board. Mr.. Wheeler's
compromise .estored certain members of
the Legislature, who had been cheated
out of their seats and stopped at that
point of half justice, because the Repub-
llcan party would not go further. A
Presidential election was coming on,
and the services of Wells would be
needed.
When Grants committee went to New
Orleans, their first act was to refuse the
invitation of the Democratic committee
to co operate in securing fair count of
the vote actually cast. John Sherman
and his associates know the character of
the Returning Board, and especially of
Wells, who had previously figured as act
ing Governor of the State while General
Sheridan was in command. They also
knew that the Tilden electors had been
fairly chosen by a majority of many
thousands, which could not be overcome
except by fraudulent means aud such
forgeries as have now been shown in
Vernon parish.
Hence their whole efforts were directed
to bolstering, up the Board while in New
Orleans, and TO giving them a good
character afterward. 1t required no lit
tie whitewashing to sustain the rascals
who had stolen the Legislature in 1874,
and who now, in order to compass Mr..
Tildens defeat, had deliberately cast
$4,000 of the votes which he had received
in the fairest and most aggregate vote
ever polled. In order to mislead the pub
lie rs to the character of Wells and his
confederates, the Grant committee eulo-
gized them as patriots of the first degree,
and certified to glaring falsehoods in
their report. The following extracts dis
close the spirit of these biographical
sketches
"Two of them-the Hon, James Madi-
son Wells, President of the Board, and
Gen. Thomas g. Anderson, next senior
member-are Southern born, and of old
and highly respectable families" He
Wellsl was a Union man from the time
the war broke out, and although he suf-
fered greatly by it in the loss of property,
he never faltered in his devotion to the
Union cause" "Mr. Wells became Gov
ernor of the State to which office he was
almost una nanimously reelected, under the
reconstruction plan of President john
son. His experience in public life has
been great and varied, and his capacity
to discharge the duties assumed cannot
be questioned. Gen. Anderson was born
in Virginia, has resided in the parish of
st. Landry for the period of some forty
years, is O cousin of the Gen. Anderson
who commanded Fort Sumter at the out
break Of the war mot truel was educated
q lawyer, is the owner of and carries on
several plantations, is widely known and
respected throughout the State, has been
intimately associated in the promotion
of the social and industrial interests of
his parish, and has represented it in both
branches of the Legislature more than
twenty years."
1t is notorious that both Wells and An
derson are bankrupts, and long ago
parted with any standing they may have
once had as members of decent families
that have been dishonored by their mis-
deeds. They Joined hands with the car
pet-baggers in robbing their own people
and have since then been Stunned as
even worse than the thieving adventures
who followed the fortunes of Warmoth,
Kellogg, and Packard.
John Sherman, e. w, Stoughton, j. H.
Van Allen, Eugene Hale, j. A. Garfield,
Cortland Parker, w. ID. Kelley, and
other Republican leaders, signed this
certificate of character, and are RESPONSE
BILE to the country for its false statements.
They had before them the official report
of Gen. Sheridan in 1867, declaring
Wells to be political trickester and a
dishonest man :" they had access to the
history of his fabricated claims upon the
Government, and they had the record of
his Returning Board in 1874. In the
face of this crushing record they praised
him as a man of eminent position and
worth who had been wronged. and gave
clean bill OF health to all his associates
in the fraud by which Louisiana was re-
turned for Hayes. Are they not accom-
plices in his crimes?