The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1878-11-14
THE CITIZENS PETITION.
A COMMITTEE PRESENTS gov. NHCH-
Oils THEIR GROUN1gg OF
COMPLAINT

A committee OF the Citizens party, whose
names are given below, waited upon Gov
Nichols on Tuesday afternoons with the fol-
lowing address:
TO His Excelsncy Gov. Francis r. Nichols.
The undersigned committee frcrn the CiFS-
| zens Conservative Association have been d-
| rected to call your Excellency's attention fo
| facts connected with the election recently
held in this city, and to acts of fra?sd perne-
tsated and wrongs committed in that election
which stand as @ repreach against this CITY,
and call for the intervention and action of It's
judicial officers.
The events which preceded and followed
UPON that election have passed into current
history, are familiar to all and have Justified
the pre-existing suspicion OF the existence Of
q combination of individuals In this city who
control the machinery OF local politics. and
who are chargeable with the violation OF the
rights of the people,
The denial OF proper representation to the
Citizens Association placed the management
and manipulation Of the election entirely in
the hands of those politicians who control the
primaries. Thus conducted the election could
not prove other than the result has shown it
to be-a travesty upon fairness and mockery
Of justice.
With scarcely pretense at concealment
unsanctioned by any form OF law, wrongs
haveHpeen committed and the bodest frauds
perpetrated by the officers at many Of the
polls in the followi Ing particulars:
/. In excluding from the polls citizens legal
ly entitled to vote, and registered as the law
requires.
q. In knowingly permitting and connivlng
at the voting Of men under assumed names
and upon false registration certificates.
g. In receiving ballots cast upon papers Of
persons nOtOriously absent from the city.
d. In excluding from the polling booths citi-
zens who claimed the right, guaranteed them
by the law, Of witnessing proper count and
compilation of the votes as cast.
5. In falsely changing votes rs cast and the
substitution of others
6. In counting for candidates votes cast for
their opponents.
These charges are based upon affidavIts
made voluntarily by numerous citizens, and
which will be duly produced to the proper
tribunals.
The people are uneasy and dissatisfied.
They feel that justice has been outraged and
q wrong committed which threatens the
purity and sanctity of the ballot.
These illegal acts SO much calculated to
bring reproach upon the first popular admin
Istration vouchsafed to lis after so many
years Of misrule, are the more heinous be-
cause the perpetrators claim to be acting In
the name OF the great party OF the people, the
Democratic party, which has no more devoted
adherents than those who compose the asso-
citation which We represent,
We ask, therefore, that your Excellency
will give the matter your earnest considera-
ton, and that you may direct and urge upon
the law officers Of this State TO take all meas
ures afforded by law to vindcate the sanctity
OF popular suffrage, to insure the future secu-
rity Of the rights Of the people, and to bring
the offenders to Justice.
J. ALD1GE.
G. G. JOHNsEN.
JACOB HAssINGER,
+. LANCE.
J. G. PARHAM.
W. FLOWER.
W. G. RAYMOND.
The Cnyerupr rneaivpf the rpru nittea and