The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1878-07-20
New Light on the Louisiana Election.
From the Chicago Tribune.


The Louisiana election of 1876 is still a
matter Of interest and controversy. Not.
withstanding the resistance of the Potter.
Butler Committee to Secretary Sherman's
desire to produce evidence that the election
in that State was unfairly conducted, and
the vote controlled by violence and frauds
at the polls, the question whether or not q
fair election was held is the very basis of the
controversy over President Hayes's moral
legitimate controversy over the Presidents
legal title to his office, since that was con-
frmed in a constitutional manner by Con-
gress, exclusively vested with the authority
to determine it. But there are many people
who, though not doubling the validity of
the authority OF the Louisiana Returning
Board under the laws of that State to revise
and correct the returns, are still troubled
with the fear that the real events of the cleo
ton did not morally warrant the course that
was taken to give the State to Hayes instead
Of Tilden. Senator KellOgg's testimony be-
fore the Potter Butler Committee is useful
in furnishing the statistics Of the Louisiana
election in such q shape as to admit Of an
analysis which completely 'justifies the ac-
ton of the Returning Board. Upon fair
basis of averages it becomes evident that
Louisiana was Republican in 1876 by nearly
10000 majority.
III mdhluS up Tue llStS u TcSlstIdtiOu III
Louisiana, account is kept of the relative
whites and blacks who are registered voters,
and the relative strength Of the two parties
can be approximately determined by the
color Of the voters. As whole, the blacks
vote the Republican ticket and the whites
the Democratic ticket. 1t is probable that
the number of white men who vote the Re-
publican ticket in Louisiana is about the
same as the number Of black men whe vote
the Democratic ticket, and it may be admit
ted for general purposes that one class will
offset the other, SO that the registration of
blacks fairly indicates the Republican
strength, as the registration of the whites
indicates the Democratic strength. There
are forty or forty parishes in the State
in which the election may be said to have
been reasonably fair and free to all. In these
parishes there were undoubtedly influences
that were improper and unlawful which
operated to reduce the Republican vote, but
there was no organized and successful sys-
tenn of bulldozing., In the seventeen or
East and West Feliciana, Ouachita, More
house, and East Baton Rouge), there were
murders, whippings, threats, violence, and
intimidation reduced to a system for the
suppression of the Republican vote. II
there were no direct proof Of all this, it
would be evident from the average yield Of
as shown by the bulldozed parishes in con-
trast with that of unbulldozed parishes. In
the forty counties measurably free from Or
ganized intimidation, the registration show
ed 1893 Republican votes, and 5,747 Re.
publican votes were actually cast. In the
same counties the registration showed r.
034 Democratic voters, and 81, 1872 Democrat
ic votes were actually east. All these figures,
it must be kept in mind, are the original re-
turns before they had been revised or alter
ed by the State Board. 1t appears, then,
that In counties where there was no violent
repression of Republican votes, the Demo-
Gratis succeeded in polling about SO per cent.
of their registration and the Republicans
about "A per cent. of their registration. As
this is an average made from forty counties
out of the fifty-seven counties of the State, it
will scarcely be denied that materially the
same average ought to appear in the remain
ing seventeen counties of the State. But
such Is not the case. In the bulldozed par
ishes the aggregate Republican registration
was q, 269, and, on the average of "a per cent.
of the registration, 20,179 Republican votes
should have been cast in those parishes. In
the same parishes the Democratic registra-
ton was q, 800, and, on the Democratic av-
erage of 50 per cent, they should have yield
ed 16, S98 Democratic votes. The vote of the
State on this basis would have been as fol-
lows:
REPUBLICAN VOTE.