New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-02-05
THE LOUISIANA TESTIMONY.

1t is pity that the examination of cx-COv.
J. Madison Wells could not have taken place
on Saturday. We do not indeed understand
that the House Committee were guilty of any
substantial injustice III dcfcming the hearing
until to-day. There is no rule or custom OF
either courts or committees which entities
persons in the situation Of Wells to
demand that their testimony shall be shot,
so to speak, into the midst of the testimony
on the other side, so that bane and antdotc
may 90 to the public in the same issue OF the
daily newspapers, but invest gating bodies have
a right to c0nfinc evidence 10 It's regular course,
only taking care that accused persons have as
speedy hearing as the orderly transaction of
business will allow. Ex-Gov. Wells has been
in the position of an accused person ever since
the early part of last week, and he has shown
no particular eageIneSS for hearing until
since the production Of his letter to Senator
West. His silence has been a subject of some
uDfriendy remark. Even now it may be said
that he has abundant opportunity to make
whatever statements he pleases without wait
ing for the committee. Yet, as we have OBJ
served, we wish the committee had heard him
on Saturday.
For this Louisiana investigation is a dreadful
mess of scandal which the whole country must
be III a hurry to put ont Of sight. Wells him
self, to begin WITH is not an edifying spectacle
We folbear for the present to criticisc his
letter. since he is gong to explain it to-day !;
but we may go so far as to say that 1t Is very
much in need of explanation, and that the
manner in which he writes about his duty as
a Returning Officer having augmented the
magnitude of the destiny OF the two great
"partiesn is highly unpleasant. Wells has
long been rcputed a scheining politician OF
low type, and yet the laws of Louisiana
seem to have practically put the vote
of the State in his pocket. His
agents and associates do not inspire much con-
fidence That "broad moral" person Maddox
was the confidential negotator whom ne saw
ft to dispatch to Washington to arrange for
"arTcstlng the productive results" OF Iilden's
money by "a cOantcrmoyement," and that
still broader and still more moral person
Pickett was the next friend of Maddox. The
clerk to whom Wells intrustcd the manipula
ton Of election returns was the picturesque
Littlclcd, who describes himself as a drunken
and dissOlute adventurcr not fit to be trusted
with three cents. LittcGeld, it may be OBJ
btINth, NhS vi JIt piy -Ipll vi VIC tuNlDiH-
house ut 1873 a month, and he never did any
work, but "staycd in front Of Spcarngs lv-
&" cry stable n-hcpng the party.
The character of these men of course has
little to do with the charges against Wells
still less has it to do with the question Of
counting the electoral vote. But in what they
tell Us about hemsclve5-LittlcfCld, Maddox,
Pickett, Wells, and ali the rcst-we have a
view Of the interior OF Louisiana politics which
the Republican party can hardly contemplate
with composure. If the party is to endure,
not merely in Louisiana but in any of the
States, these unclcan nests must be broken up
at once. Republcanism cannot bear the dis
credit of such nurseries Of fraud IL would
be stronger to-day If the party Lad been
courageous enough to do justice when the
evil deeds of men like Wells were first cx-
posed by Republican committees of investiga-
ton and denounced by Republican speakers
in Congress. We sincerely hope for the credit
of the nation that these Latest accusations