Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-02-20

President Hays to turn back his mind six
months to the first of May, 1877. Would
any body have been found then to predict
that in less than sixty days. the men who.
foremost of all had made themselves often
sive to the Louisiana Democracy. because
they had carried out the law of that State.
and had thereby become political offenders
against that party in Louisiana and through
out the country, would have been prosecuted?
Would the President have believed it:
Would any one have believed it?
MI. Hale went on to argue that there was
no legal ground for the prosecution of An
derson OF the returning board, who had been
for twenty years elected to the Legislature
from his own parish, who had always stood
high in public and private estimation, and
who had never before been considered an
outcast and malefactor.
In confirmation of his statement that
there was compact that there should be no
political prosecutions in Louisiana he quot
ed from the letter of E. N. Smalley in the
New York Tribune.
Mr.. Davis, of Nebraska, asked whether
there was compact that the crimes of for
gerry and perjury should go UNPUBLISHED in
Louisiana? # there was, every person con-
nected with it, or who assented to it, should
be III the penitentiary.
MIR. Hale ridiculed the sensitiyeness of
those who were SO anxious to have the laws
vlndicated, and quoted the case of the MUIR
der of Supervisor Weber in his own town
III teleclana parish in broad daylight, for
which crime no efforts had been made to
bring anybody to punishment.
Mr.. Robertson stated there had been a
coronerss inquest held in that case, and re-
ward of $500 for the arrest and conviction
of the murderer had been offered by Gov
ernor Nichols.
MIR. Hale went on to say that adherents
OF the Democratic party in the South who
were now SO eager for upholding the law,
and for punishment for any infraction of it,
lurked III the swamps and on the hillsides
and in the rayines of the South, to ambush
and shoot down officers of the revenue SER
vice. 1t was party SO sensitive to-day
that it robbed constituencies of their Rep
resentatives on this floor and cast decisive
votes in the House at the hands of men who
had no more right to seats than Dick Turpin
had to the booty which he had plundered on
the highway.
Mr.. Atkins indignately denied the state
ment of Mr.. Hale i'll regard to the ambush
ing and murder of revenue officers.
Mr.. Hale went on to say that there was
profound impression that the proceedings in
Louisiana had its root, its main spring, its
source elsewhere: that there were many who
believed that the whole performance had
been directed and driven forward by restless
men who did not mean ever to admit that
the Presidential title had been settled The
rest of the United States was learning to-day
lesson of misplaced confidence. 1t was the
old, old story. There had been moth
ing which the President could do to
made efficacious his course toward the South
which he had not done. There had been no
encouragement which could be held out to
that section showing the Presidents good
faith, which the President had not resorted to.
He had appointed cabinet ministers, foreign
ministers and other high officials from that
section, because he had been anxious that if
the experiment. failed, nobody should be able
to say it had failed from any lack on his
part and now what was the return received
from louisiana?
In conclusion, he intimated that it might
be the constitutional duty Of the President
to see to it that no mi justice was done to
citizen of the United States.
Mr.. Gibson replied to Hale. He denied
there had been any such compact for immu-
nifty for crime as had been asserted by Mr.,
Hale. AS to the case of the murder of Web
Der in West Feliciana parish, of which Hale
had spoke, he, Gibson, had interested him
self in having the guilty party brought to
justice, and the information which he re-
ceived was that it was the general
impression that Weber had been
murdered by a man of his own party-a
personal enemy-and he !protrayed the state
of affairs in Louisiana during late years
when no guilty man had been punished and
when no honest man had felt his life secure
from lawlessness, but since the Nichols
government had been inaugurated no man
whether poor or rich, who committed
crime had escaped punishment
He denied that the returning board was
being prosecuted on political grounds. Who
had anything to gain by that Certainly
not the people of Louisiana. Certainly not
the National Democratic party, for Hayes
title had been passed upon by Congress. The
returning board was being prosecuted for
forgery. The crime Of forgery was trivial in
SO far as the recent election was concerned,
but it was crime of enormous proportions
and the man who falsitied returns struck
blow at civil liberty and free government. If
this movement in Louisiana, which appeared
to be a very simple one, was to excite the
had hoped were sleeping in northern COM
munities, he should deplore it more than any
other man.
Reverting to the charges of a compact be-
tween the authorities of Louisiana and the
federal government, he denied it not only for
the Nichols government, not only for his
friends. but he denied it for the President
and his cabinet They could not be guilty
of such crimes.
Mr.. Elam went into the history of the
returns from Vernon parish and the action
Of the returning board in that case. In view
of what had occurred during the last fifteen
years, and in view of the attempt which was
now being made to reconcile all portions of
the country it was unfortunate that this
issue should come up. It could produce no
practical result. The President and his cab
met, however, had no right to interfere with
a State count. He believed that Gen. An
derson had been fair and honest, but if any
law had been violated an appeal should be
taken to the supreme court.
Mr.. Caalisle quoted from the speech made
by President Hayes to prove that the troops
were withdrawn from constitutional duty
and not as an act eff consideration.
Mr.. Hale asked if the people of the South
were placed under any obligations by it.
Mr.. Gibson replied that they were placed
under the highest obligations that American
citizens could assume, the obligations of
freemen in free State in the American
Union, to obey the laws of the United States,
and to obey the laws of that State.
Mr.. Clymer said that every portion of the
country outside the borders of Louisina, as
well as i'll it, were interested in the proceedings
now taking place in that State. In behalf Of
the people whom he represented he could say
that they desired THAT the persons connected
with electoral frauds principals, should be