American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1879-03-15
THE POTTER COMMITTEE.
Report of the Democratic Members Of the
Committee.

Report of the Democratic Members Of the
Committee.
WASHINGTON, March 2.--The following
is the substance of the majority report of the
Potter investigating COMMITTEES, as present
ed by the Chairman, Mr.. Potter:
The report sets forth what - was proper for
Congress to investigate and what not, and
.,,e difficulty of conducting an Investigation
into cOnsfbifacics which have been successful
y carried out while the successful party re,
conspirators who have become dissatisfied
sre wogth little. but points to the fact, not
tial features of the electitfn and canvass in
Florida and Louisiana there is no suhstap-
tial dispute before the committee, the Repub-
Hcans having called no witnesses in Florida
ard few In Louisiana, except as to the con-
duct of visiting ststesmen,,' and incidental
the testimony of Andersen, jerks, Mrs.
jerks, Weber, and that class OF Witnesses,
Controlling facts alone.
The report is Jt-tded iutO three parts, the
first of which refers to + ioiida; the second to
Louisiana. and the third to the forged biee-
toral certificate. Beginning with Florida, it
eite- the law directing Presidential Electors
Canvassing Board to canvaSs the votes cast,
and claims that the Tilden Electors, i.avtpg
received a majority of the votes east in this
State, were thereby necessarily entitled to be
declared elected. and that the CanyaSsing
B9aGd by Fs3eeting without warrant saI OF law
for Hayes. unlaw fully courtted EildSn out. Il
states that the canyasSerS delayed thfir an
nouncement until the morning of tile day the
Electors were to meet and vote, SO that al
though action was Instantly taken to GUST the
HAYES Electors, no decision could be Had UNI
til the Hayes Electors bad met that came day
at noon and voted. The report then recites
the judgment of the Supreme Court, which
subsequently decided that the Hayes Electors
were not elected nor entitled to cast the vote
of the State and that the Tildep Electors
were, and also the Judgment of the Cot.-t in
action brought by Drew, the Democratic can
didate for Governor, to obtain a recanvass,
where the Court directed Il recanvaSs and de-
ciaeo thst the canyassers in refusing to count
the votes cast had dsfranded Drew and un-
lawfully seated Stearns. The Iesisture OF
the State thereupon directed a ieeaitvass Of
the electoral vote in accordance with this de-
cIsion of the Supreme Court, the Judges of
which were Republicans, and the recanvaSs
showed the Tilden Electors chosen The
Governor then issued his certificate to the
Tilden Electors as true ELECTORS, but the Elec-
toral Commission r6fused to consider the
Legislature and the certificate given by the
Governor in favor of the Tilden Electors, and
5Raf e. tmt aos tase Of %. any
In regard to Louisiana, the report begins
with a reference to the an1fHaicos power
possessed by the Returning Board, which IL
says never before existed elsewhere. Under
it Electors and returning officers held the
erossest power over the receiving and count
ing of votes. Under preteat that the color
line divided the political parties, they had
Used this power to fraudulently count the
the u ee the Srty
third Congress. which had reported that tiie
IL,
and some of the blacks and all the whites
having voted for the Democrats in 1874, the
State had necessarily been carried by them,
counted for the Republicans Here
upon the Republicans set about false
census, in which they made it appear that
there were IS 900 more black voters in the
nature of this census report, the
report refers to the fact that while this census
but 81 900 colored men, women and
children in New Orleans, it made out of them
nearly % 900 colored voters. 1t then instances
upon this fraudulent census, whereby it was
made to appear that registered Republican
voters exceeded white voters in the State
more. and the refusal of the authorities to
correct this false registration in cases where
wi this M' ORGANIZED ,d band, says
over TIE Democrats sa had 4 maiarfty vas rs
some 10000, the vote polled being the largest
ever poiled in the State, and larger I'm proper
ton to population than that of other States.
The Republican officers made returns of the
vote accordingly and declared that the cleo
ton was perfectly peaceful and fair. The
in order to overcome the major
ity, then ursurped powers not given to them.
In support of this the report recites the find
ing of the Hoar, Wheeler and Frye Commit
tee, that the Returning Board had no power
to discard votes where protests, as required
by law had not ACCOMPANIED the returns as
an instance of which, at this election, not
this, the Returning Board de-
cided to discard the necessary number of
L 4
they obtained protests from GER
tain parishes which they picked out, as par
1shes in which to pretend Intimidation had
taken place. These parishes were all largely
of negro population, which the Democrats
had fairly carried. The report then deals with
the question of intimidation, and argues that
it was impossible for Democrats to gain any
thing by it, because the Returning Board had
been created on purpose to neutralize any
such action by throwing out votes in local.
ties where it should prevail.
As to the conspiracy in East Feliciana Par
ish, the report states the whole vote of the
parish at previous elections of both sides had
not exceeded $500. The Republicans pur
made the claim that they had
been inundated and could not vote, and the
Board on this pretext. purposely
excluded the vote of the parish.
The report then refers to supplementary pa
pers Obtained from Anderson and Don Weber,
both of whom were known by Republicans to
be for sale, showing that after these super
visOrs had made return, that there was no
violence in their parishes, they were induced
to make supplementary protests, and that
they both confessed they did this because of
reward. In other parishes where officers had
seen and certified to II perfectly fair election,
Kellogg by pressure exacted like false pro-
tests. The report then goes on to state how
the Returning Board, having got possession
of such unlawful protests, proceeded to take
evidence, United States officers and money
being used to bring ignorant negroes from
the interior fields into n great city, where
they were herded together, taken before
officials and had aflidavits written down for
them, to which, upon making their marks,
they received their fees and were sent home.
The process of manufacturing these a1hdavits
is set forth to show how negroes were i'm
posed on, and how worthless the a1fidav1ts
were.
The report states that the Returning Board
would never have so outraged the people but
for their announcement from visiting
statesmen" and the support which they and
the troops gave them. Them follow details OF
how some OF the visitors were deceived by
local managers and innOcently operated
in frauds of the Returning Board, while 9th
ers did not. 1t refers very briefly to the bar
gain 10y which Hayes, who had 200 votes less
than Packard, got counted in, while Packard
went out, and mentions Sherman's offer to
prove intimidation, but points out that when
evidence was not produced and they were
met by some sham excuse for not producing
it how they had examined many OF the wit
uesSes that were before the Returning Board.
who, in almost every instance, rPc1nted and
explained how they came to make their false
aflitavitS in the first place, and how sucn
statem ents as they made before the Return
ing Board were totally unfounded.
1t then refers to the Shcrnan letter, in re
gard to which il simply states the facts rs
they stand, showing that letter was actual
ly written, and largely influenced political
action in Louisiana, whoever signed it, and
drawing attention to the attempt IN the In
torrst of sherman by Mrs. jerks, whose hus-
band and brother are cmploycc oi the Treas
ury Department, Ia Induce the committee TO
produce "A forged letter.
Tho Florida portion If the report Ia follow
ed by list pt all persons connected with the
election there who have becn appointed to
Office, aud tho Louisiana portion by n still
longer list of persons in that State appointed
to office.
The third part of the report deals with thS