The Portland daily press., 1878-02-20
Ex-Governor Wells Statement.
JUDGE WHITAKER DRUNK ON
THE BENCH.
The Anderson Jury Packed to
Convict.
CONGRESSMAN GIBs0N's BAD
RECORD.
Ex-Governor Wells Statement.

New YORK, Feb. 19.-J. Madison Wells de-
tends himself in a long article. He says that
five grand juries refused to find ar indictment
against him at the behest of the attorney gen.
eral and that the prosecution now is on infor-
nation. He says the indicted defaulter Judge
Whitaker, is the central tool of the Louisiana
traitors to prosecute him. Whitaker stated
before Anderson's trial that the jury was
packed for conviction, and that all motions
before him for removal of the cause from his
| jurisdiction would be overruled. Nine jurors
| 10 Anderson's trial swore that they were preju-
diced against the prisoner, yet they were made
| to serve. Two had declared openly that An
| derson ought to ba hung. During greater
part of the trial Judge Whitaker was in
| beastly state of intoxicatioD.
| Wells also says that Ogden, the attorney
| general, made every effort to have the grand
| jury indict the returning board, even 10 taking
threatening to iDcarcerate the witnesses for not
| testifying as Ogden desired But the grand
| jury would not indict the board. Assistant
Attorney General Eagan is under Indictment
| for numbering his brother-in-law. Cavanac
and Stuart. witnesses, are liars. and Burke is
| an absconder. The names of the Jurors were
furnished by the Democratic committee. All
changes made in the Vernon parish returns
must have been made by Democrats. All the
court officers have thrown every obstacle in the
way to prevent Anderson and Wells from pro-
duciDg witnesses.
Wells thus pays his resp cts to Congressman
Gibson:
R. L. Gibson has seen fit on the floor of Con-
gress TO. calumniate the returning board, and
has attempted justification of their prosecu-
ton. This c0lored Democratic Representative
seems to claim right to assai the white race
because he feels boastingly proud of the COM
minging Of African and Caucasian blood in
bis veins. When | was acting foreman of the
United States grand jury in 1874 this celored
representative of Louisiana in the Congress of
the nation was prosecuted for violation OF the
1 oil 1avu frond n1 In
with tickets that were never voted, and would
have been indicted and in all probability sent
to the pspitentiary, but for my leaiency and
forbearance The evidence of his guilt taken
before the jury, is yet in the hands OF one of its
| members. The lineage of this representative
| without nationality can be fully established
by many of the old Inhabitants of Adams
county, Mississippi, as well as by many of his
| neighbors in the parish of Ierrebone.
Wells gives the above as samples Of the prin-
| cipa, tools and means employed TO secure the
conviction of the members of the Returning
| Board in the case improperly called "the State
of Louisiana VS.. j. Madison Wells and otbers;'
but really and truly, it should be called the
"ease of Samuel j. Tilden vs.. r. B. Hayes"
1t is contest for the Office of President of the
| United States and the patronage of the execu-
tive departments of the Federal government.
| Wells says:
The case against the Returning Board is
chiefly managed by David Dudley Field, with
| the advice and pecnniary assistance OF the N a
| tional Democratic Committee. A verdict OF a
packed jury of Louisiana Democrats, will, it is
expected, be accepted by the people Of the
United States as judicial settlement of Til
denis title to the Presidency. 1t is bold and
desperate game for a great stake. Myself ard
my colleagues on the Returning Board are
merely the outposts of the picket guard which
they hope to capture, and they will surprise the
| garrison if possible, and claim the patronage
Of the government or the spoils of war. The
| question is a national one in which it is hoped
that by the employment Of traitors, murder
ers, thieves, periurers, and othe: criminals, to
| make up such case as shall enable them to
wrench the sceptre from the hands of Presi-
dent Hayes and give it the henchman of De
i mocracy. The eyes of the leaders of the rebel
hon are already fixed upon the high places of
| the government, which they feel assured are as
| good as in their possession already, as nothing
stands in their way but Wells and Anderson,
whose conviction they have contracted for, and
| the contractors are hurrying up their work. Ii
is a renewal, in an nsidious guise, of the ire
mendous conflict of 1876 perhaps of 1861. 1t
becomes the Republicans of the North to be on
their guard and give our Louisiana hirelings to
| understand that it is time for them to be quiet
or to be prepared for unrelenting war.
No Decision in Anderson's Case Yet.ssSss
New ORLEANS, Feb 19.--No decision has
| yet been rendered in the case of the Anderson
| appeal for new tIial.