Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1878-02-22
Bourbon Malice.

A GENTLEMAN who has Just arrived
from New Orleans has furnished some
facts in connection with the trial and
conviction of Gen. Anderson which show
that those engaged in the persecution
were animated by a determination to
convict, without regard to evidence,
and all the machinery of the law was
manipulated to accomplish that end.
This gentleman says that the prosecu-
ton was engineered and carried on by
the worst element of New Orleans, and
that it is deprecated by the business
men and better class of citizens, with
out regard to party. He says that the
motion to carry the trial to the United
States Court was decided adversely by
Judge Whitaker about three o clock on
Friday afternoon, and that six o. clock
of the same afternoon was fixed for the
commencement of Anderson's trial.
This unusual haste to proceed shows
the feeling of the court toward the ac-
cused. In the matter of bail, the animus
of the court officers was again made ap-
parent. The bond was fixed at $50, 900.
Gov. Packard presented himself to the
Clerk of the Court, and offered to show
by the records that he was possessed of
property sufficient to cover that amount.
The Clerk replied that he would take a
week to examine and verify the record,
and Mr.. Packard was thus set aside.
Next, Col. Grant, an old resident of
Louisiana, possessed of real estate in
that Commonwealth worth nearly 5000, -
600, offered himself, but was refused,
on the plea that his property was in
plantations outside of New Orleans.
Seeing that it was determined not to
permit him to enter bail, Gen. Ander-
son yielded to the inevitable, and, de-
clining to subject his friends to further
annoyance, went to the parish Jail.
The impaneling of the jury also shows
the methods taken to secure conviction.
Gen. Anderson has lived in Louisiana
many years. He has owned plantations
in several parishes, and has been con-
nected with public affairs in the State
for long period. He has had special
opportunities for becoming acquainted
with large number of men in Louisi-
ana, and yet when the panel of 500
names from which the jury was to be
selected was presented to him he did
not know a single man on the list. This
panel was exhausted before the jury
was obtained. Gen. Anderson's coun-
sci asked Judge Whitaker how the adj
ditional 100 talesmen were to be drawn,
to which the Judge replied: Accord
ing to law The Sheriff, who was
present in court, informed the Judge
that the 100 talesmen had already been
drawn. AS the law requires that the
talesmen shall be drawn in presence of
the accused and his counsel, objection
to the drawing was made and sus-
tanned, and new draft ordered. This
explains how the two colored men came
to be on the jury.
The animus of those engaged active
ly in the persecution is further shown
by the fact that it was openly boasted
when the trial commenced on Friday
that by the following Monday Anderson
would be on his way to the Baton Rouge
Jail. The gentleman alluded to says he
conversed with Gen. Anderson during
the progress of the trial last week, AMI
that he requested him to say that every
thing he knew about the election of
1876 had already been published. So
far as he knows, no unlawful act was
done by the Returning Board, and,
whatever might be the results of the
trial, he had nothing to say in addition
TO what was already known about the
count of the ballots and the action OF
those who were connected with that
count. Washington Dispatch TO N. T..
Times.