New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1877-01-10


revise the returns Of the supervisors Of cleo
lions, examine the right of voters to vote,
and, in Short the court would become in
regard to such cases mere offices for count
ing compiling and reporting election retEFns
The Legislature has seen proper to lodge
the power to decide who has or who has not
been elected in the Returning Board. IL
might have conferred that power on the
courts, but it did not. Whether the law be
good or bad, it is our duty to obey its pro-
visions and not to legislate."
do not propose to argue the statutory
question which was raised for the first time
by the Democratic coTHmittee in their re.
port, whether the canvassing the votes for
presidential electors Is not excepted from
the jurisdiction of the Returning Board.
am not lawyer and am content to rest my
own opinion of this question on the fact
that the board did, in fact. canvass the
presidential vote in 1872 without any such
objections, and on the assurance Of my
colleagues including lawyers and etates-
men of pre-eminent ability, that there
is no good ground for doubt on the
subject Many of your own number,
trained in the schools and the practices
of Jurisprudence, are more competent to
deal with that aspect of the question than
layman like myself. Assuming the COM
plete jurisdiction of the board, T propose to
discuss to you only the matters of fact
which it became my duty to investigate, in
order to determine whether, for the sake of
truth and Justice, the board Is right in ex-
Guiding a portion of the returns as tainted,
and thereby adiudging in the final count
that a majority of the honest votes was cast
for the Republican electoral candidates A
careful examination of the testimony before
the board, the record of which is so i'm.
mense that it comprises more than 1000
large manuscript pages. satisfied me beyond
the shadow of doubt that this was the sad
condition of the facts.
The negroeG are timid race, easily liable
to terror, and quick to obey the impulse of
fear, Besides their native facility TO yield
to intimidation, a hundred years of servi-
tude have accustomed them to submit to
the exercise of force by white men. 1t was
this amiRble and weak quality of their
character of which the Democrats availed
themselves to reverse by violence the Be
publican majority in the State Some sew
enteen parishes were selected for their
field of operations, but especially five, in
which the blacks so largely outnumbered
the whites that If they could be dragooned
into voting the Democratic ticket, or re-
strained from voting at all, the Democratic
gain in them alone would secure the State
to Tilden on the face of the returns. re-
| fer to tho parishes of East Feliciana, West
Feliciana, MorehOuse, OGachita and East
Baton Rouge. The registered black voters
in these five numbered 1904, and the white
voters only 5704, and party lines and color
lines are almost synonymous in them. There
are few of the blacks who are not Repub-
licans, and few of the whites who are not
Democrats. The white Republican pOpula-
Sion was too feeble and too scattered to
resist the policy which was pursued. Every
one of these parishes was patrOlled at night
by bands of armed Democrats, and violent
means were taken to impress the negroes
with fear of danger to property, limb and
| even lite, if they should visit the polls with
out voting the Democratic ticket. Some of
them were killed; many of them we're beaten
aud manned. The policy was so successful
that whereas these parishes in 1874 gave
Republican majority of 1879, in 1876 they
returned q Democratic majority of 44l2.
| The Democratic gain of 1891 in these
| five parishes alone, lie larger than the ma
| jority returned from the whole State for the
| Tilden ticket. In East FelioianA, where in
1874 there was Republican vote of 1858,
only one solitary Republican, white or
black, dared to present himself at the polls
in November, 1876, although the registra-
/ ton gave 2lN black voters in the parish.
| To very considerable extent / found the
same condition of force and fraud, with
similar results, in the parishes of Claiborne,
i Riehland, Grant, Union and several more.
There was small cause to complain of the
proceedings on election day, except In
| isolated localities. The work of terror was
done beforehand, and it was done effectusl-
ly. The quiet of the election was the quiet
of fear, and not of freedom. The
blacks we're kept at home or were
intimidated into polling q ticket which
was not their free choice. On the
face of the returns these facts could not ap-
pear. They were fair enough on their face,
| and showed only an amazing reversal Of
previous political opinion in certain par
ishes, without showing its cause. But a
comparison of the returns of these parishes
| with those from the rest proved chat the
change was not general one throughout
the State This of course was suspicious,
and naturally would induce fair man to
search behind their face, and, upon so
searching, the testimony was overwhelm-
iHg, and to nee convincing, that it occurred
to any considerable degree only 10 the par
ishes, and especially in the five l have
| named, where fear and fraud had controlled
the black population. / appeal to you as
fair citizens, whether any judicial tribunal,
having power over such returns, could sut-
fer results to stand which were obtained by
such means. l ask Governor Tilden and
his fair supporters, whether they could en-.
joy with a clear conscience the fruits OF
such o harvest. If the Returning Board
had not exercised its lawful authority to
exclude the returns of these abused par
ishes, they would have committed griev
Gus offense against the liberties of the whole
people of the United States. 1t matters moi
what are the antecedents of the members
of the board. They are it's membership
lawful depositaries of its power. The ques
ton is whether in the present instance they
have exercised it legally, wisely, justly
righteOusly, and that is the only question
If they have previously erred, consciously
or uncousciOuslV, that goes only to the de
gree of inspection which the people should
exercise into the facts upon which they have
founded their present decision, and surely
no one can 60 mplain that they are not IL
the focus of the full blaze of public scru
tiny.
Nor am able to agree with the Demo
cratic committee in Its assertion that thu
evils with which the Republican admins
tratiOn of Louisiana has afflicted the Stat
induced any great number of black voters
to support Governor Tilden for President
in preference to Governor Hayes. do no
palliAte or excuse that administration in the
slightest degree. / know that it has beer
corrupt, interruptions and wasteful. 1t haI
paralyzed the industry and commerce O
the city of New Orleans. 1t has rendered
almost all property unprOductive, hai
averted immigration, and has prevented
the recovery of the Mississippi valley from
the disastrous effects of the civil war
l do not deny that there is q great anC
growing constituencies of intelligent men
white and black, to those evils, and l an
glad of it. But | do deny that there il
evidence to Justify belief that any grea
number of men, heretofore Republicans II
| Louisiana, freely voted for Governor TildeI
rather than for Governor Hayes in the hop,