The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1879-02-13
a1lfser11nrnt1s.
THE LOUISIANA CERTIFICATES
ON WHICH HAYES RESTS HIS
TITLE.

There never has been the least moral
doubt that when Kellogg signed what is
known as the second set of certificates oil
electors Of Louisiana, to correct the err
rors which rendered the fist set worth
less, he knew that several names were
forged to that paper, II he was not direc'
lya party to the forgery.
Everybody knows now that the date
of the certificates was fabricated to cor
respond with the rejected original, which
Returning Board Anderson had carried
to Washington, and which Mr.. Ferry,
President pro tenn of the Senate, had told
him WAS irregular in form and therefore
not valid. 1t had already been proven
that Anderson opened this certificate in
Washington, where he consulted with
the Republican chiefs as to the exact
form. and then hurried back to New Or
leans to procure the paper upon when
the Electoral Commission finally acted
A. B. Levisee swore before the Potter
Committee that his signature to the Sec
ond set was a palpabe forgery, and Kel'
", the colored man, who was Kellogg's
messenger at the time, and had charge OF
the room where the forgeries were per-
petrated, recently swore that to his
knowledge the name Of Oscar Joffrion
was also forged.
When the Potter Committee were at
New Orleans som9 days ago. diligent in
uuiry was made for others of the Hayes
electors about whose signatures there is
also distrust. Yet additional testimony
on this point is not necessary, and the
case would not be strengthened II every
name to the second certificate was shown
to have been forged. Levsee, who now
holds the Office of subrevenue agent In
San Francisco, and was probably assign
ed to that remote service 80 as TO be out
of the way, has established one forgery
in his own person, and Kelly has proved
another.
The difference between the two cert fl
Gates from Louisiana is, that the first
pretended to verify fraudulent result OF
the election for President by genuine
signatures, while the second repeats the
fraudulent attestation by forged sigma
lures, and this second paper was the one
adopted bv the Commission as the means
of declaring Hayes President. SO that
the astounding fact will go into history
that the eight electoral votes of Louisl-
ana were in the first instance stolen by
conspiracy and frald; and in the second
instance, that the certificate declaring
this result being vitiated by barefaced
forgery, was yet solemnly adjudicated as
valid, because the eight by.seven Com
mission determined that they could not
90 behind the face of the forged paper,
Honest thinking men may be deluded
or confused by conflict of testimony in
regard to the vote of Louisiana, based
upon the stories of intimidation and vi
olence, arlfuly constructed to misead
the unwary, and to deceive the tens OF
thousands who accept at second hand
the assurances of party managers and
party papers. But putting all that en-
tirely out of view, the astounding fact
vet stands, that the whole administra'
ton of forry.fve millions of people, the
public policy, the treasury and its pow,
erful operations, the vast patronage OF
the Government, and the hundred thou
sand offices at home and abroad, are to-
day in the hands of man who was not
eleCted.-M Y Sun,