National Republican., 1878-07-10

81 'N'o'hk W Ssih "t'h'n'esf uo
Mr.. SHERMAN has requested. 1t should be
understood in this connection that the COM
mittce Is vested with power TO decide for
itself by the will of its majority what class
Of testimony IL shall admit and what class
1t may reject. In "Mr. MoRRIsoS's paper"
as Secretary SHERMAN calls the boorish
document published at the beginning Of
this controversy, the decision of the COM
mittee was announced to be not TO admit
testimony regarding fraud and intimidation
in the Felicianas because, however
much Republican evidence of this
kind might he piled up to prove
those undoubted facts, 1t would be
easy to procure endless Democratic tcsti-
mony to disprove them. This decision was
repeated in Mr.. PoTTER's recent letter.
And in the face Of it, after denying to Sec
retary SHERMAN the privilege of calling
witnesses to prove the condition of affairs
previous to and during the election, the
committee, Of its own volition, and not at
Secretary SHERMAN's request as has been
charged, called T. L. WEBER and examined
shhb pOiht. otuCI WOluSt
having denied this opportunity to the de-
fense, the prosecution selfishly, unjustly,
and rudely proceeded to enjoy it in its own
behalf Secretary SHERMAN, in his reply,
shrewdly alludes to this inconsistency as
settlement of the question after the date of
Mr. PorrER's letter; but the allusion Is
plain enough to disclose the unblushing
partisanism Of tho committee in deciding
one way one day and acting directly the
contrary the next day. He says:
In respect to the evidence rendered BY me
to prove frauds and intimidation at the cleo.
tion, have to say that since the date of your
letter the question seems to have been settled
by the committee In favor of taking such tes-
timony, as Z. L. WEBER, a witness called by
the committee, has been examined as to
whether there was violence and fraud at the
election In East Feliciana In his prepared state.
ment he was not only allowed to testify to the
extent Of violence and fraud in East and West
Feliciann, but to the causes of that violence
aud Its effect upon the election, and tho next
day was examined by members Of the commit
tee distinctly upon the causes and grounds for
throwing out the vote Of those parishes.
Surely when tho committee thus seeks to
prove that violence and intimidation did not
prevail in those parishes l cannot bc denied
the right to prove that murder whipping
burning, raiding, and all forms of intimida-
tion did prevail In both those parishes, and
that In East Feliciana these were sufficient 10
deter every Republican voter from voting
though there had previously been q recog.
nized majority there OF noarly 1000 Republi-
cans.
But this is not the only inconsistency or
outrage upon justice Of which Secretary
SHERMAS's reply convicts the committee
by recital ofplain and acknowledged facts
He goes on to show that WEBER was exam
incd on the Sd instant, in the absence of any
minority member OF the committee, and
that leading questions" were put to him,
for the evident purpose of drawing preju-
diced statements and biased expressions
from his willing lips. 1t is true that Judge
SHELLADARGER, Secretary SHERMANs at
torney, was present on this occasion; but
he was prohibited under the rules of the
committee from interfering, either by OBJ
jecting to these leading questions or by dis
closing their real purport and counteracting
the influence Of the witness replies to them
by proper discrimination. Not only this,
put " Enbht o"iit ~ WIS per-
mitted to repeat common rumors and give
his own unsupported opinions and infer
ences, manufactured for the occasion and
for the express purpose of creating false
and partisan impression in the public mind
against Secretary SHERMAN and his political
associates.
The Secretary does not hesitate to en-
brace the opportunity afforded by this reply
to rcbuke Mr.. MORRISON for his clownish
and ungencrous action in answering his pre-
vious letter on this subject, publishing his
answer to the world and withholding the
letter from the public. He does not char
acterize MORRISON US he deserves to be char
acterized for this rude act, but mildly re.
quests that all of his correspondence with
the committee may be included in the otli-
cial record of its proceedings.
There is but one inference to be drawn
from the facts set forth, and that is that the
Potter committee, true to the partisan nature
of its seditous conception, still adheres to
the iug-handled idea of throwing mud at
Republican leaders with any and whatever
agency, no matter how disrcputablo, and
burying the truth in the constantly -accu-
mulating pile of filthy pcrjurics.