New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1877-01-07

ciety in the State; and surely he could find
it in the old Wing party in that State. He
had been on most intimate terms with lead
ing men and had been received on equal
terms into the best families in Louisiana.
He was welcomed as the Conservative Gov
ernor of Louisiana, and etrOve to bring
healing into the affairs of the State by treat
ing men who had been in the rebellion as
he treated Union men.
Now, being q Wing when secession was
started, Governor Wells began at once to
speak against it, and, being man Of cOUr-
age, he did not hide his light under any
bushel. He spoke openly, he spoke boldly,
he spoke every where as freely as the dis
tiuguished Vice President of the Southern
COnfederacy spoke down in the State OF
Georgia. Then when secession grew ripper
and holder they raised company, or be-
lieve two, of the Democrats and secession
lists and marched them up into the parish
where Governor Wells lives to take him,
hold him, and see to it that he should not
speak for the Union and the flag longer.
Governor Wells then left his houses, his
horses. his cattle, his negroes, his wife and
his children for love of the flag, and went
into the swamps of Louisiana and for
year and q half never came out of them.
He raised a company of seventy men who,
like himself, we're lovers of the flag and
lovers of the Union, and they lived with
him in the swamp. They tainted them as
jayhawkers; they hunted them with blood
hounds. They burned his houses; they took
his cattle; they took his horses. His family
was separated, and he got out OF the swamp
only when New Orleans was captured.
What devotion to the Unionl what love for
| the flag! what suffering, what peril, what
sorrow endured for the country! Can such
a man be scoundTeR
When he was q witness before our COM
mittee, in the courthouse, there we're at
least $50 leading rebels present Three or
| four of them we're we'll known murderers;
| everybody knew them to be murderers.
| One of them, a member of the Conserva-
tive Senate, think, WAS engaged in the
| Grant parish murders. He boarded at the
| st. Charles Hotel with me, and knew him
we'll Three or four others had been par
/ ticipants in the terrible Outrages of 1868
and 1872. Your candidate for Governor,
Mr.. Nichols, gentleman whom respect,
and admire, too, was sitting there all the
while. l became well acquainted with him.
| asked Governor Wells in relation to his
| former life, in order to chow by his testi-
/ mony that the statement that he was q
scoundrel was q new discovery, never
known until secession became known and
4 he showed himself to be firm Union man.
/ He told these men there that they called
/ him isy-hawker. Said he to them, II had
rather be called jsy-hawker, had rather
my children would know me in memory as
| ajay-hawker, than be called 3 traitor, as
| you men are called" pointing to these men
| in the room. Did that show want of eour-
ageH Did that indicate that he was man
| to run awayf
| Again 1 asked him if he was afraid of as
sassinatiOn. They had attempted at least
twice or three times to assassinate him. He
| said: Eyes, do fear it, for these men here
| hate me with q vindietive hatred because
love the flag. They, hating the country
and hating the flag, dare assassinate man
| in the dark with knife or a bludgeOn or
the pistol Sir" said her 81 do not fear
theGe men in the open day, or in the night
if they will give me notice. No twenty of
them dare attempt to assassinate me and
| let me know it"
When the Governor was through said to
| General Nichols: "Was that Boosting on
| the part of Governor Wells4" Said Gen
| eral Nichols: "NO, sir, it was not; it was
every word of it true; that man does not
know what the word fear means" That,
/ sir, was the testimony of q man whom be-
/ lieve TO be honest, the candidate of the
| Democratic party for Governor of Louisi
ana. Now, as q committee, we found, not
withstsnding the assertions which have
been made here
Mr.. Whisky Sheridan.
| Mr.. Frye-Not by Sheridan at all, but by
| gentlemen on this floor, in relation to the
] report of our committee. We found that,
| and quote from our report:
"GOvernor Wells, the president, had been
large and wealthy planter before the war
had remained loyal through the rebellion
had been true TO the flag of his country
when driven TO the swsmps and hunted by
dogs. Such q record entities him to ouI
warmest sympathy and respect"
do not believe that he would knowingly
do dishonest or cOwardly act for the ad
vantage of his party. As for Mr.. Anderson
he, too, was man Of wealth, but he was il
the rebel army all through the war, hold
ing high position. In my judgment he il
gentleman by birth, by education and BY
habit.
The other two members of the Returning
| Board l do not know SO well. They werJ
cOlored men. and plead guilty to that o
which you Southern men are not gnilty.
have that Northern oolOrphobia in me which
you do not have. You have instead tina
phobis Of servitude; you have that idea il
you that man who serves never should b
| permitted to rule. l have born in me tina
wicked color diglike, and it ia hard WOrl
| for me to get over 1t. | have tried to over
come, and have, largely, this prejudice.
do not know, If l was down there in one o
these Legislatures aud saw col0red mel
legislating for mel do not know but tina
/ would have the same purpose that was ca
pressed TO me in Louisiana again and again
by Conservatives: 1--WE will treat the col
Ored men well in their places, but they shall
not vote" do not say that l should no
have precisely the same feeling; fear tina
l might. But that had it would not maxi
it right, nor would IL afford any justihca
tion for murder, outrage or threats TO pre-
vent them from voting.
Now / say to the gentleman from Obi
iMr. Banningl, and say to the gentlemen
from the South to-day, the right of suffrag
having been given By the constitution Of tn
United States to the c0lored men of tn
South as we'll as to the white men, you viii
be compelled to give them the free exercis
of that right in your Southern countf.
or your will have no peace in that country
God knows we long for peace there as yOl
| long for peace. God knows our prOsperitr
depends upon your prosperity there, on
| happiness upon yours; we are one country
When / was in New Orleans there wer
twenty ships lying in the harbor there fron
my own district in Maine. Four-ffths 0
the carrying trade of the city Of New o.
leans, and largely of the country Of Louis
lana, has been done by my own State
Large numbers of merchants in New Oh
leans to-day are from my own State. Paeh
ard, the present Governor Of Louisiana
was from my own city, and / dare bea
witness, notwithstanding the talk who
has been made in the public press, that no
an hOnestsr man today walks the street
| Of New Orleans than that same Packard
30 deFided and Missed and hOoted because
forsOOth, he 10 Q caFpet-bagger.
kad my own city furnished two mayor
Of the city of New Orleans long before yol
down tbBre knew what the word "eaPpet
baRgeF'' meant.
Crossman, from my city, was Mayor Q
New Orleans for, | think, four years
oood Mavnr An honaat Oenflaman--u0t