The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1878-09-12

prevent, ii ldlE, iIce, anu pSdCSaOiC foeS
of all qualified electors entitled to vote
at such polls, the board shall proceed to
investigate the facts, and if from such
statement and affidavits they shall be
convinced that such causes did not mate
rally interfere with the purity and free
dom of such election, or prevent sufh-
cient number of qualified voters from
voting to materially change the result OF
the election, then such votes shall be
canvassed and compiled but if they are
not thus fully convinced, it shall be their
duty to examine further testimony in
regard thereto, and to that end shall have
power to send for persons and papers
and if, after examinations, the board
shall be convinced that such acts of vio-
lence, intimidations, &c, did materially
interfere with the purity and freedom of
the election at such poll, or did prevent
a sufficient number Of qualified voters
from registering or voting to materially
change the result of the election, then
the board shall not canvass or compile
the vote of such poll, but shall exclude it
from their returns.
What compelled the State to create
such tribunal? A sanguinary and cru
ell history explains. AT the close of the
rebellion, in the work of reconstruction,
the grand condition of the readmission of
the Confederate States into the Union
was the ratification py them of the
amendments to the Constitution guaran-
teeing freedom and the suffrage to the
colored man. Louisiana was forced to
ratify those amendments-to upheave e
and destroy all her old domestic rela-
tons, and rehabilitate the State upon the
conditions imposed by the amendments,
upon the fundamental laws of justice,
r. NJ, a1 ofo
ment for the treason of her people
demanded by the nation as guarantee
against future rebellions-against future
attempts to destroy the life and peace of
the Republic Her native whites, the
old slave masters, sullenly acquiesced.-
At the moment they dared not openly
resist. They acquiesced only under a
dread Of the military power of the nation,
the terror of the penalties demanded by
the laws against their reasonable crimes,
and at the earliest opportunity, under the
encouragement Of Andrew Johnson's S
attempted betrayal of the Republic, they
again revolted. They could not alter or
repeal the organic law; but they determ-
ined by bloody violence, through intimi-
dation, to uproot in the State all the
guarantees by which freedom and the
suffrage is protected, to purge the State
of the stigma of negro equality, and to
seize the State government Thus one
half of the State, those counties in which
colored majorities prevailed, was, just
preceding the Presidential campaign of
1868, "overrun by violence, midnight
raids, secret murders, and open riots.
Ku-Klux notices were scattered every
where warning the colored men not to
vote" In few weeks "over 1000 per-
l. ii 1ol al
injured and an absolute reign of terror
established
A few instances from the frightful
mass, developed by Congressional COM
mittees of investigation, will illustrate:
In the parish of Orleans, of its 29,9lO
voters l5,020 were colored, and in the
spring of 1868 the parish had polled
1873 Republican votes, but in the fall,
for General Grant, only ,17S were polled,
falling off of II, 795 votes.
In the parish of Caddo there were 2,978
Republicans. In the spring of. 1868 the
Republicans carried the parish; in the
fall it'gave General Grant one vote.
In the parish of st. Landry in 1868 the
Republicans had registered majority of
1,07l votes. In the spring the Republi-
cans in the parish had polled majority
of CTS votes; in the fall not vote was
cast for General Grant. Seymour and
Blair poled the full vote of the parish,
4,7S7 votes.
This glorious Democratic victory, this
triumph of the white genius of the par
ish, applauded by the holy ministers of
the Prince of Peace was preceded by one
of the most terrible massacres on record.
The Republicans, colored and white, for
DAYS were hunted through swamps and
fields, and over two hundred were killed
and wounded Thirteen helpless captives
were taken from the Jail and shot, and a
pile of twenty-five dead bodies was found
in the woods buried. Having thus con
quered the Republicans, having thus
murdered or expelled their white lead
ers, the masses were captured by the
Ku- Klux, marked with badges of red
flannel enrolled in clubs, led to the polls,
and compelled to vote the Democratic
ticket. They were then given certificates
of the fact
These were the outrages. This the
systematic and organized deviltry which
compelled the State to create a tribunal
its canvassing board, with extraordinary
powers to sit in judgment upon the vio-
lent conspiracy Of the White League
Democracy to wrest the local government
from the control of its lawful majority
i
count any and all returns which might
be forwarded to it. Its grand duty was
| to sit in judgment upon all such returns,
to sift and purge them Of all fraud, and
particularly of fraud perpetrated through
organized violence. Its legality was
affirmed by the Electoral Commission.
How, then, in November. 1876, at its
canvass of the vote of Louisiana for the
appointment of Presidential electors, did
this board execute its responsible and
perilous duties? Wisely Justly, equita
bly,, or the contrary? What are the
facts?
Under the laws of Louisiana, under the
express commands of those laws, requir
ing them to reject the votes of all par
ishes in which intimidation and violence
had defeated free election, the board
rejected the votes of seventeen parishes
all of them Republican parishes By large ma
joritieS, but in which the Democracy
claimed 10000 majority. Why did they
reject them?
In obedience to the confidential cir
cular of the Democratic Central Commit
tee of the State, organized clubs of mask
ed men, mounted and armed, for months
prior to the Presidential election, dra
gooned the parishes night and day
marking their course by the whipping
shooting, wounding, manning, mutiIation
and murder of women, children, and de
fenceless men, whose homes were forcibly
entered while they slept, and, as theil
inmates fed through fear, the pistol, the
rifle the knife, and the rope were EN-
ployed to do their horrid work Fol
this "horrid work" through systematic