The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-02-01
The Latest Louisiana disclosures.

Il The astounding testimony Of the last two
dcys, and especially that part of it given yes
terday, explodes all the chances of Mr.. Hayes
to be the next President unless the credi-
bility of the witnesses can be overthrown.
The evidence taken yesterday by the House
Committee on Privileges and Elections will
excite even deeper interest than the proceed
ings of the Electoral Commission, because
this evidence, unless successfully impugned,
will compel the commission to reject tho
action of n returning board stepped in VIII
lany and perjury. No body of honest men,
clothed with authority to decide, could
make themselves accomplices after the fact
OF such rascalities as have been sworn to
since the beginning Of this week. Not even
| Mr.. Morton and Mr. Garfield will vote in the
commission to count Louisiana for Hayes If
| the credit of these witnesses Is not I'M
peached. But inasmuch as Hayes cannot
be declared elected without the votes OF all
the disputed States he will have no chance
at oil unless this fatal testimony from
Louisiana can be demolished 1t is salts
factory to know that it is to be examined
and Judged by all upright and competent
| tribunal.
1t is probable enough that the character Of
these witnesses will appear to no great adj
vantage after thorough scrutiny They
were accomplices in the frauds to which they
testify, and it goes without saying that they
were not employed on account OF their per-
sonal probity. 1t is in the natural course Of
things that J. Madison Wells should have
satisfied himself that they had no virtue to
lose before making them his pals in
deliberate scheme to falsify the vote of
| Louisiana. Honest mon are not sought for
such service. We are accordingly prepared
| to expect that their characters will not
! appear to advantage on investigation.
But that does not necessarily dis
credit tnei- testimony. In courts of justice
| important convictions are often obtained
on the testimony of accomplices who turn
| States evidence. It happens in this Louisi-
! ana case that the statements of the witnesses
are supported by documentary proofs. The
committee which is conducting this investi-
CATION are in possession Of some OF the
| garbled and doctored returns, which bear on
their face conclusive evidence that they have
been altered The committee is also in
possession of written communications which
passed between the parties to the frauds,
and the testimony of the witnesses tallies
with the suspicious and prcsumptions neces-
sarily arising out of the documentary evil
dence. What is sworn to by the witnesses
makes the documents Ineligible, and
confirms the impressions which they
alone would have made. Moreover, the wit
nesses did not volunteer their testimony; it
was extorted. At first they refused to an
swer. and one of the most important of them
is still stubbornly contumacious on the
ground that he could not answer without
eliminating himself-a refusal on that
ground being confession OF guilt An
other confirmation Of the evidence exists in
the previous bad character of Wells and his
associates. General Sheridan, few years
since, denounced Wells in an official conf
munication as "a rascal and thoroughly
| dishonest man, who had not n
| friend that was not thief" Con-
! gressional committees of investigation
with republican majorities have again
and again, in recent years, exposed the
| frauds, periures and subornation of perjury
practised by the Louisiana Returning
| Board 1t does not accord with human ex-
perience that the successful perpetrators Of
gainful frauds grow moral and scrupulous
| in the progress of their career. 1t is a
strong circumstance against the Returning
Board that they destroyed the heavy Tilden
majority which appeared on the face of the
returns. 1t is another strong circumstance
against them that they resorted to skulking
subterfuges, and refused the Committee of
Congress which went to New Orleans a
sight of the original returns Still
another circumstance against them is
their refusal to fill the vacant place in the
Board, which would have introduced dem
ocratic witness of their proceedings They
made their final determinations in secret,
shielded from the observation of any wit
ness who was not also an accomplice.
Those strange, skulking proceedings, so
fitted to convey an impression of guilt, are
fully explained by the testimony of Little
field, their secretary, and of Pickett and
Maddox, their accomplices. 1t will be easier
to prove the bad character of these men
than to discredit their testimony, which is
corroborated at every point by documentary
proofs and by comtirmatory circumstances
derived from other sources. Certain it is
that the supporters of Mr.. Hayes have not
a shred of a case unless this ugly testimony
| can be broken down.
Littlefeld swears that he deliberately
altered and falsified the returns under the
| direction of Wells, some of the original
returns having then been burned and others
given to Littlefeld to destroy. One of those
which he promised to destroy and told