The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-03-06

possessed DIV Inc returning bOaTQ, which IL
says never before existed elsewhere. Under
1t Electors and Returning Officers held the
grossest power over the receiving and count
ing of votes. Under the pretext that the
used this power to fraudulently count the
State for the Republicans, and had been ex-
posed by Republican committee Of the For
ty-third Congress, which had reported that
and some Of the blacks and all the whites hav-
ing voted for the Democrats in 1874, the State
had necessarily been carried bv them. although
counted for the Republicans. Hereupon the
Republicans set about false census in which
they made 1t appear that there were q, 900
more black voters in the State than white, and
as illustrating the fraudulent nature of this
census the report refers to the fact that while
this census reported but 5000 colored men,
women and children In New Orleans 1t made
out Of them nearly q, 600 voters. 1t then
instances the fraudulent registration that was
based upon the fraudulent census, whereby 1t
was made to appear that the registered Repub-
lican voters exceeded the white voters in the
State more than q, 600, while actually there
were no more, and the refusal Of the authori-
ties to correct this false registration in cases
here the report recites the direction by the
Republican authorities to the supervisors of
parishes requiring them to return the votes
according to the census, that is, stating that
the colored adults by that census in their
parishes were SO many, and that they were
expected to return q Republican vote cor
responding to that II they ever expected any
reward or prefcrment. Notwithstanding this
organized fraud, says the report, when the
selections we're over the Democrats had q
majority as returned by the Republican cleo
tion officers of some 10000, the vote polled
being the largest ever polled In the State,
and larger in proportion to the population
than that Of other States. The Republican
officers made returns of the vote accordingly,
and declared that the election was perfectly
peaceful and fair. The Republicans, in
usurped powers not given to them. In
support Of this the report cites the find
ing of the Hoar, Wheeler and Frye COM
mittee that the Returning Board had no power
to discard votes where protests, required by
law, had not accompanied the returns, no in
stance of which existed at this election. Not
withstanding this the Returning Board de-
cided to discard the necessary number of
patton they obtained protests frem certain
parishes which they picked out as the parishes
in which to pretend that intimidation had
taken place. These parishes were all largely
had fairly carried.
The Florida portion of the report is followed
by list Of all the persons connected with the
election there who have been appointed to
Office, and to Louisiana by still longer list
of persons in that State appointed to office.
The third part of the report deals with the
forged Louisiana Electoral certificates. 1t
tells how the Vice-President having refused
manufactured another, ante-dating it, and
made IL in paper and printing to resemble the
one previously made; how having very little
time to prepare It, and 1t being impossible
sign It within that time, it became a
necessity to forge the signatures of two alb
sentees; that thus there were put to the
triplicate paper eighteen forged signatures,
q small upper room in the State building,
then in charge of Conquest Clarke, how the
making of this second certificate was con-
eealed until It was produced before Congress;
Commission, 1t was not read bnt ordered to
be printed, and the printing was changed,
and the Electoral Commission were served
with two printed copies Of the forged certif-
cate perfect INFORM and no copy Of the genu-
Inc but q defective certificate; how, after the
Commission had given its decision the record
Of the Commission was changed so that the
forged certificate, copies Of which were really
the record made TO show a. IL the genuine de-
fective certificate had been considered and
passed upon how this was not an accident, but
design, and that not only in one of the published
Commission but in both, although made
months apart; how the Republican managers
were informed by Kellogg that there was
something wrong about the second certificate,
and how all the way through there lies a
thread of design to impose the forged certifi-
cate upon Congress, and then he suppressed
It, SO that II discovered the record might
show as If it had never been produced.
1t concludes with finding that full effect was
not given to the Electoral votes Of Florida and
Louisiana; that Noyes, Sherman and others
encouraged this result; that the second GER
tifcate from Louisiana was forged as to two
of its names, Kellogg and Clark being privy
TO 1t, and that Tilden and Hendricks received
q true majority of the Electoral vote and were
the real choice Of the people of the United
States at the last Presidential election.
Minority Report.
WASHINGTON, March 8.
The minority of the Potter Investigating
Committee, Hiscock, Cox and Reed, prese, ted
their report this afternoon. In 1t they diss> 1t
from the views presented in the report OF IL
majority, both as to the pertinence Of the
same to the Investigation and to the conclu-
sions expressed upon the testimony taken.
They then referred to the origin of the COM
mittee, pointing out that the original resolu-
tions for its appointment did not ask for gen
eral investigation of all frauds connected
with the last Presidential election, but only
what might be found In the acts of officials
and persons of one political party in only two
of the States in which fraudulent practices
were charged. They took this view in the
committee and treated the investigation as
one wholly unnecessary, made without proba-
BILE cause so far as the individuals named were
aimed at, and likely to add nothing Of value
ject- They confined themselves, therefore, to
the task Of trying to make the inquiries in
stituted by the majority something more than
q Democratic investigation Of Republicans.
might have some of the elements Of an ex-
animation of both sides. This would
explain why they did not move for
original inquiries beyond those com
for new Investigations Of the frauds in Oregon,
South Carolina, Mississippi, and the other
States. When the Florida Investigation was
begun they offered q resolution that alleged
frauds at the ballot-box, as well as those
charged upon the canvassers and Returning
officers, should be examined. This was voted
down by the majority, although 1t was mat
ter of notoriety, and was bv them brought to
the attention of the majority, that both kinds
Of charges were made. They understood the
majority to base their action upon the limita-
tions they thought were put to the investiga-
tion by the original resolutions. and did not
quarrel with their Judgment, though this would
show the original resolutions to be unfair and
partisan in their character. They have con-
Quoted the examination on the einterpretation
thus given. But what surprises them, and
what they desire most emphatically to dissent
from was the action of the majority in affect
ing to report for whom the vote of Florida
was actually given, after they have thus re-
fused to examine both sides Of that very
While their work was in progress a publi-
cation was then made in a leading journal Of
cipher dispatches. The startling ch--acter OF
tne IeVel8tlOnS mhuc III Tic dCtlOu u tHc
minority appears singular in this case, but
they quietly waited to see what course the
majority would feel 1t necessary to take.
They had learned that the majority treated
these dispatches as separate matter of in
vestigation and report. They could not so
regardit. A report upon the frauds of Flori-
da with the cipher dispatches omitted
would be like the play of Hamlet with
Hamlet left out The facts were too
they dissented from the method of
making up the report suggested by the other
side. The majority report that they would
have preferred to SIT with closed doors, but
Welded TO the wish of the minority. This was
true, and they saw no reason to regret their
course. They thought the same also of the
ciphers investigation, that publicity was
necessary, and that the public judgment is