The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-08-01

We agree with the Sun that this testi-
mony and the dispatches referred to con-
stitute zone Of the most remarkable con-
tributions ever made to American his
tory" We deny, however, that any evil
denoe has been produced to show that the
highest office was s'dickered away" But the
testimony of Messrs. ELLIS and Burke and the
dispatches In question, together with all the
other testimony taken here and in Washing
ton, do show, beyond question, that the Presi-
dency was seized by daring and Infamous
conspiracy; that Gov. Tilden never opened his
lips to protest or lifted a finger to resent the
wrong that the leaders Of the Northern De-
mocracy, influenced by the cowardly shrieks of
the Sun and other Northern journals for peace
at any price, who shamelessly affirmed that
they preferred fraud to bullets, and that the
Presidency was not worth revolution, &C.
quiesced in the conspiracy without even ex-
acting single guarantee for the protection Of
Louisiana and South Carolina, the States
which had been the real battle grounds on
which the Democratic victory Of 1876 was won.
We have before US now copy of the New
York Herald of February 19, 1877, In which
the resolution passed the day before In the
Democratic caucus. declaring that the count
OF the electoral vote should proceed without
opposition to the execution of the act of Con-
gress creating the Electoral Commission,
whose decisions should be received and acted
upon in accordance with the provisions of the
said law. Extended conversation says the
Herald, with members after the adjourn
ment of the caucus shows that 1t 1.-THE above
resolution is almost II not quite, unanimous
lyacquiesced in. The caucus brokeup IN excel
tent spirits, and anith general good riH"
The italics are our own. Here was indeed
q cheerful outlook for Louisiana For eight
years she had been under the heel Of the
army commanded by such malignant brutes
as Phil. Sheridan and Dog Merrill. During
those eight years of Radical rule her peo-
pie had been plundered to the amount of
forty millions of dollars and her property
had deprecated In value over tifty-fve
millions of dollars. But why repeat the mis-
cradle story Of those years of oppression, hui
initiation and actual suffering through which
the people of Louisiana passed. 1t has been
told Thousand times and is familiar to the
whole country.
outitL "AdU HuS AJoNIo-
lana to do ? She had three courses to pursue ::
She had either to acquiesce submissively in
the decision Of the CAUCUS and commit herself
four years longer to carpet-bag, negro and
bayonet rule; or institute domestic revolu-
ton, and drag, ii possible, the balance of the
country into it; or make the best treaty she
could with the fraudulent and revolu-
tionary government the Republican con-
spirators had set up, and in the inaugu-
ration of which the Northern people, with
out distinction of party, had acquiesced.
Her rightful government and her people
were determined not to pursue the first
course; the second was the last desperate
remedy to be resorted to by a people threat
ened with ruin when every other reasonable
resource had been exhausted. She deter
mined to pursue the third and last plan, and
to prepare, in the event of its failure, to fall
back on the second and most desperate.
In pursuance of this line of action the
representatives of her government in Wash
ington organized filibustering movement in
Congress to delay the electoral count and
threaten it's defeat, while they opened nego-
tiations with the representatives of Hayes.
At the same time the White League and
other military bodies in New Orleans and or
ganized bodies of citizens In the country par
ishes were put upon fighting basis-in short
they were modified. There was not wanting
encouragement from surrounding Southern
States, and our government and people well
understood that, though the country was
quiet, there was q sense Of national wrong
and crime and degradation which needed but
an inspiration to swell into a fierce resent
ment and break into a revolution.
The attitude of Louisiana at that time was
splendid and heroic. The other thirty-seven
States, with the exception Of South Carroll
ma, had consented to acquiesce in the great
fraud and peacefully permit the Fraud to
be seated. They had consented to accept the
degradation. They had determined to so
completely accept the outrage that they did
not-no, not one of them-stipulate that this
miserable, ruined and bleeding commonwealth
should be rescued from the hounds who held
her by the throat. In this supreme crisis OF
her fate, Louisiana assumed her proper atti-
tude of a sovereign State, and prepared to de-
fend herself or extort terms of safe and honor
able peace from the Fraud the balance Of
the country had prepared to crown
and sceptre and bow down and worship
The dispatches submitted by Major Burke are
zone Of the most remarkable contributions tc
American history because they show thai
out Of all the miserable mass of cowardice
| and fraud, Louisiana came out with clean
hands; that she never was a party to the sur
| render OF the Presidency to the conspirators
u he ,%,o,, oto r-frN ant 70 h
last, and that it was only after the fraud hac
been consummated that she treated with the
| revolutionary government, and exacted from
| it her rights. When the country had accepted
] the u5urpation, it became her first duty K
take care OF herself, and, if possible, procure
| or rather recover her rights and liberties. &c
this end she entered into negotiations witt
the established government, usurl ators