The daily gazette., 1878-02-26

tisenaents IL Is absolutely necessary that they
be handed in edrly
SENTENCED TO THE PENITBNTIARY.-
Anderson, one of the perjured conspira-
tors of the Louisiana Returning Board,
was yesterday in open court, sentenced
to two years imprisonment at hard labor
in the penitentiary. Had this man been
Democrat and perpetrated the crime
for which lie is to suffer in a Northern
State against the Radical party and its
supporters, he would have been given
the longest term and the hardest sentence
instead of the shortest.
The people Of the South are the most
generous and forgiving people in the
world. But they are not short-sighted.-
They saw the cupidlty of the wretches
that formed the Returning Board; their
utter heartlessness, ami entire want of
compassion for the misery and degreda-
ton to which they had for several
years subjected the whole white popula-
ton of Louisiana, and hoped the people
of the north including the Washington
politicians, would, when they found out
how villainous these me were-that even
the Radical politicians at Washington
including Grant--would denounce such
horrid crimes and spurn and punish the
criminals.
How sadly these southern people were
mistaken. The history of the Returning
Board conspiracy is being more fully
developed as the testimony unfolding and
making bare these wretches' crimes is
spread before the honest people OF the
country, and especially disgusting is it to
the honest men in the ranks of the Re
publican party.
The honest masses of all parties begin
to see and believe that the conspiracy
which upset the will of the people; as eX-
pressed through the ballot box and re-
Versed their choice OF chief Executive.
had its head in Washington. These chiefs
OF the conspiracy hold all the avenues to
power The villains ought TO be in the
penitentiary (or a worse piace) to which
Anderson has been consign not for
TWO years, but for a life time.
such conspiracy could never have
been concocted without some such coin
cldents, and attending circumstances
that rendered this enormity possible. In
brief it has been properly expressed in
the application of the words '.theft OF th,.
Presidency" And Is il to give force to the
expression that only the petty thieves
are punished, this great theft has over
Swallowed the law, having been consum-
ms l,xrt .t,.,
executors of the law. Standing formost
as the chief tool OF the vile banditti is a
General.
Had this officer not been a conneXion
OF one of the prime leaders in the crime,
or had he not been an interested party, il
Is doubtful whether he would have allow
ed his oath and his honor and his patriot
Ism TO have been compromised. 1t is
doubtful whether he would not have told
the conspirators that The army should not
be used 10 dctraud the people of their
rightful choice of Chief Magistrate.
As party paper the GAzErrG feels
- bound to denounce the parties to this
great crime. To ask that all connected
with it be brought to punishment with
out regard to the high places they may
till But at the same time it is not for
any wish for vengeance, or for any par
tzan advantage, it is to prevent a re-
currenee; it is to warn the people of the
fact that their liberties are ut the mercy
OF bad men in Washington at any time.
If the Presidency may thus be put into
hands OF man whom the people did not
chose it could be retained in the hands
Of a man whom minority would cheer
for refusing to give it up. There are
thousands of men in the pay of the GOV
ernment all over the land, who are ready
for the sake of office to cry treason at any
man who would dare to claim his right
to speak. The perfection of arms. The
high salaries. The concentration of
power, and the gradual absorption of the
powers of the States and the people of
the States, tend directly to centralsm and
"republic in form but monarchy in
fact"
1t will not do to say that the enormou,
crime Which the Returning boards of
Louisiana and Florida have been made
to perpetrate upon the whole people of
the country Will not be repeated. If the
crime OF 1877 is allowed to pass it will be
acriterion; and 4 Southern party may in
future use such Returning Board in a
Northern State to enable it to hold a man
OF its way of thinking in Office. And this
would be nothing more than history re-
peatng itself; or returning the poisoned
-chalace TO the lips OF those who had re-
quired others to drink thereof.
"lF the fool-idller were 10 visit this
country now, il is Il question whether
there would be enough left to bury the
dead.'-E. h. and Com.
IT the aforesaid individual is not a
myth and would visit the corner of Fifth
and Market and take off the President OF
the ''fools' organ, it is very likely that
the balance OF the company would shed
fewer tears than are now being shed by
them over the defeat Of the single gold
standard cbaYnS