The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1878-04-30
Senator Conk1ing and Louisiana

The EUening Post uuites with the World
in calling upon Senator Conkling to tell |
openly and in the senate ali that he knows
concerning frauds committed in Florida or |
in Louisiana. II tells him plainly that he |
has already lost the respect and confidence
of the better portion of his OVID party by
his open preference of personal to party
interests, and that he is in imminent
danger ct losing the respect and confidence |
OF brave and Outspoken men of all parties
by his apparent disposition to strike iu the
dark, aud to disseminate through others
accusations which he shrinks from making
in person and substantiatiUg 10 the open
day. The complete story which Mr.. |
Mines, the late editor of the Utica Repub- |
hcdn, gives to the public TO day through
our columns of his relations with Senator
Conkling and Senator Conking's clique of
friends fully confirms all that the Post
alleges OF Senator Conkiug's political
methods. 1t puts Senator Coukling also
before the country, clearly, as claiming to
be the depositary of positive evidence, |
sufficient to convict President Hayes, Sec |
rotary Sherman and Senator Stanley
Matthews of personal completely in the
robbery of the vote of Louisiana. So sure
Is Senator COukling of his testimony that
be has not hesitated to speak of these
personages as accessories not after but
before the facts. No wonder he believes
them doomed TO 'infamy" But what is |
to be his own fate as a self-indicted |
accessory, perhaps not before but certainly |
after the facts2 When did Senator Copk |
ling acquire his knowledge of the guilt of ]
these personages? How did he acuui-
Why did he permit their naF
10 no carried ant9 VS. ..e it2
so long bis know -'arlous plans
If rum - mas he suppressed
go ledge of their guit2
.Jrs long prevalent, Independently
.. Lne story which Mr.. Mines now pub
fishes and in other than Republican circles,
may be credited, the confession 0t Senator
Conkling, when it comes-as come il must
will disclose state of facts in LOuisi
ana very different from those set forth il
the stories of McLin and others as &c
Florida. In Florida the frauds charged
were OF very commonplace and vulgar
type, such as stufing false ballots into the
boxes and entering false names on the poll
lists. These things must have been done
of course in the localities or precincts; anC
the members Of the state board of can
vassers, sitting at the state capital, may
not have been accessories before the fact
and may not when they canvassed thu
returns have had guilty knowledge of thu
details Of what had previously been don
at the several poliDg-places But il
Louisiana, as Senator ConkliDg confesses
the transactions were very different. il
that state, it is understood republican
votes were not as a rule fraudulent
stuffed into the the poll-lists, but Who'll
precincts giving democratic majoritie
were excluded by the returning boar
sitting in New Orleans on the pretense G
intimidation, which under the state la,
vitilted the whole poll. The deyiItry i
Louisiana, we have always believed, wa
chiefly devised and executed, as Senate
ConklIng implies, in New Orleans
whereas in Florida it was certainly ez
eeuted, as Dennis explalnes in the sever;
localities. In Florida the canvassip
board indeed protected and legalized th
a frauds, but in Louisiana the returniu
board must have planned as we
as carried them out. Senator ConI
lings confession about Louisiana. when |
makes it, will doubtless declare that, aft
the Returning Board had excluded eve
ballot about which there was any pretens
true or false, of intimidation or illegalil
1t proceeded to exclude more ballots
order to meet unexpected difficulties, su
as the circumstances that two federal O
GERS had been voted for as republican I'll,
tors. In excluding these last-named b
lots there was no suggestion that the
could be defensible or permissible unt