Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-01-13
MIR. TRUMBULL AT CHICAGO.

| HAoe - WINS ~ A-S q S"s ~NoAht ~ Oos
to protest against setting aside the peo-
peoples election of Tilden and Hen
bricks, we give the closing portion of
Mr.. Trumbull's speech before the great
meeting at Chicago, on Saturday
the Both ult., together with the resolu-
tions unanimously adopted
It is said, however, that the action
of the Returning Board in Louisiana
is to be sustained, because it was voted
with authority to reject the returns from
any poll, when satisfied that the elec-
tion at such poll, by. reason of intimi-
daIion, violence, or other cause men
toned in the statutes, was not free and
fair, and that it did reject returns for
! these reasons, which produced the re-
suit it announced. / have already
shown that the board
HAD NO SUCH AUTHORITY
to reject returns unless a proper founda-
| ton thereof was laid as the law re-
ouired, and that no such foundation
was laid. But assuming, for argument
sake, that the returning Board had
authority of its own mere motion to
go wandering over the State in search
of evidence to show that the election
was not free and fair, then / say there
was no such evidence before it as would
warrant the r1snlt it announced. I
can not go intosthis evidence in detail,
but so far as was able to see and ex-
anime it when in New Orleans, state
to you tonight that it is my belief that
many more colored voters In Louisiana
were deferred by violence and intimi-
dation from voting the Democratic
than the Republican ticket. Most of
the evidence laid before the Returning
Board, and which has been extensive
ly published to the Northern newspa-
pers, consisted of ec-p0rte affidavits
made in secret ia the New Orleans Gus
tom house. 1t was mostly Of gen.
eral character charging intimidation
and violence by organized whites,
without specifying the particular acts
which prevented colored Republicans
from voting. You all know how easy
it is to obtain such atidavits. They
were frequently signed with cross,
and the poor, ignorant person was Of
ten ignorant of what he had sworn to.
Instances of this are now being ex-
posed by theCongressional committees,
who are subjecting some of these aft
davit-makers to oral examinations.
One witness testifes that the affidavit
to which his name was attached was
written out in the custom-house
by person who only put down,part of
what he stated, leaving out the quail
flying circumstances, which would have
shown that the outrage to which he
swore had no connection with politics;
and he stated that, in swearing to the
affidavit, he
ONLY swORE TO HIS NAME.
It must also be born in mind that these
er-pdrte affidavits so extensively pub
lished were got up under the auspices
ofthe same parties in the same custom
house, where thousands of affidavits |
were forged and presented to the Lynch |
Board in 1872, as shown by Mr. Car !
penter's report 1t is not to be denied |
that in some instances colored persons !
testified that they had been whipped and |
beaten, and others had been killed be- |
cause they were Republicans, but the |
instances are, far more numerous where |
colored persons have been scourged, |
whipped and shot because they were |
Democrats. Colored persons by the |
score have come forward and sworn to |
the threats made against them, and ex-
hibited upon their own person the |
scars and wounds they have received |
from no other cause than because they |
were Democrats or had voted the |
Democratic ticket. In some parts of
Louisiana it is
AS MUCH AS A COLoRED MANS LIFE Is
WORTH
to vote the Democratic ticket. Do
you ask how this can be? [ will tell
you. When the colored people were
made free dozen years ago they be-
lieved that they owed their freedom to
the Republican party, and it was but
natural that they should attach them
selves to that party which had given
them liberty. Bad men mostly car
pet-baggers from the North, for selfish
purposes, took advantage of this feel
ing to band the colored people togeth-
er In political organization against the
whites among whom they lived. By |
the aid of the colored race thus band
ed together, few adventureres from
the North were able to control several
Southern States for number ofyears,
during which they plundered the peo-
the more intelligent of the colored
population began to find out that they
were being used as the mere tools of |
Northern adventurers for their own
selfish and wicked purposes that the
promised measures for the benefit and |
advancement of their race were not |
carried out; that they were robbed of
the money they placed in the Freed
mems banks, and of that raised for |
the education of their children, that the |
State government failed to afford them |
protection or punish crime; that bust |
ness was depressed and the whole coun-
try around them going to ruin. Under |
these circumstances the more intelli- |
gent ofthe colored voters of Louisiana,
by thousands, voted the Democratic |
ticket at the last election, and thous-
ands more would have voted the same |
way but for fear of their colored |
brethren, the more ignorant of whom, |
full of fanaticism and goaded on by |
demagogues who falsely represented to
them that they would be re- enslaved if |
the Democrats attained power, became
furious against any of their own race
who joined the party. This feeling
entered the churches, the family cir
Gle, and was especially furious among
the colored women. Colored preachers
proclaimed from the pulpit that colored
men voting the Democratic ticket were
traitors to their race and ought to have
their throats cut; they were expelled
from the colored churches colored
women visited their wives and insisted
that they should not live with such
men, and finally, if they persisted in
voting the Democratic ticket, they were
in many instances whipped and shot,
and sometimes killed. do not mean
to assert that this state of things was /!
general throughout the State, though
It was hazardous for colored men. un-
less in large bodies, to vote the Demo
cratic ticket anywhere. In most parts
of the State the election was free and
fair, and when we first arrived in New
Orleans we were told by Republicans
that complaints of unfairness only ex-
tended to fve'parishes; but when it
was ascertained that rejecting that
the votes from these FIVE parishes
would not offset the general result, the
complaints were extended to other
parishes.
T baro andoovorod 70 oiva vo,, as F1lI