National Republican., 1882-12-16
THE COUNT-OUT COUNTRY.
Where Honest MaiOrities are Sometimes Over
come by ChiCanery.
Senator Kellogg Describes Some Of the
Methods Tried to Defeat Him,
The Throwing-0ut Process Begun, but Abandoned
The Ineligibility Idea.
Prospects for 1884 i'm Louisiana and Other
Southern States.

count you out, and supplement your statement
with views on the political condition of the
south" said NATIONAL REPUBLICAN reporter
to Senator William Pitt Kellogg, following up
his shotgun interrogatory with remark
touching the disjointed and fragmentary char
acter of the newspaper accounts of his contest
in Louisiana and the subsequent developments
The senator complied without murmur,
though confessing he hardly knew where to
begin.
az ran for congress-" he said, by way Of in-
PRODUCTION, in the third Louisiana district
against Acklen, the regular democratic nomi-
nee, and boiling republican, defeating the
frst-named, my most formidable competitor,
by 5000 votes, and, too, in district that has
been represented twice, during tho last six
years, by democrat.
THE THIRD DISTRICT
is situated in the southern part of the state,
taking in the richest sugar parishes, and ex-
tending from the Mississippi to the Texas
line. The four western parishes of the twelve,
comprising the district, are poor and sparsely
settled, but those in the central and eastern
part of the district are rich and populous. Tho
entire population of the district approximates
175,000, and the registered vote is about 81, 1000
/ carried seven out of the twelve parishes,
Acklen having majority in four, and
the bolting republican carrying one. The
four parishes in which Acklen
was successful are in the western
portion of the district, and his total vote in
these four parishes is less than that given me
in several of those l carried The population
of the four combined is smaller than most of
the other seven singly, and the aggregate
taxable wealth of the four is considerably
less than the taxable wealth of majority
of the seven in which I received majori-
ties Acklen's entire majority in these four
parishes was about 1900 and mine in the
seven about 6,200.
TO COUNT ME OUT,
as was attempted, would necessitate the
throwing out of six of the seven populous
parishes and the disfranchisement Of nearly
10000 voters.
How did the bourbons go about the her.
culean task?
"To make my answer plain, will preface
it with an explanation of the manner in which
elections are held in my state. The governor
appoints an officer in each parish who regis
tiers every voter. He also appoints in each
parish an officer known as returning officer.
This officer designates the polls in each parish.
He also appoints all the commissioners of cleo
tion at each POLL and is required to compile
the returns from each poll within twenty-four
hours of the time they close, and make GER
tificate returns, sending one to the secretary
VI oldlS anu uilliB lNO VI
with the clerk of the court, who must also
send one copy to the secretary of state, re-
tanning one in his Office Under the state law
the governor, secretary of state, and attorney
general constitute board or commission,
whose duty and only duty it is, in the Ian
guage of the law, to compile the returns on
file in the office of the secretary of state and
certify who has received the largest number
of votes cast. 1t is made the duty of the
governor to give certificate of election to the
person receiving the largest number of votes
cast"
under the provisions of this law, these
officers are given merely ministerial functions.
Their duty is simply
TO COUNT THE VOTES CAST
as shown by the returns of the authorized
officers, and give certificates of election to
those candidates who receive the largest num-
ber Of votes. 1t has no power whatever to
inquire further, or to go behind the re-
turns. Under the old law of 1876 the returning
boards, so-called had judicial authority, and
could investigate alleged frauds, and throw
out the votes of parishes wherein frauds were
shown to have been perpetrated. The Wells
Anderson board in 1876 had a regular court
of inquiry, its sessions lasting for weeks, and
its daily proceedings were published in all
the newspapers day after day. 1t was to cor
rect the abuses which were alleged to have
grown out of the law under which the old
time boards were formed that the law was
changed and the returning board stripped of
its judicial powers.
"Now, what did Gov. McEnery and his col
leagues do? They hurriedly passed upon the
returns from the first and other congressional
districts where, as in the first especially, open
and unblushing frauds We're committed, and
gave certificates of election to the candidates
who received the highest number of votes on
the face of the returns They took the re-
turns from my district and.
IN SECRET SESSION,
proceeded to compile Them The first thing
they did was to throw out the vote of St.
Mary's parish, Acklen's home, in which | re-
ceived 2,l75 votes to 2i6 received by Acklen
Their excuse for this action was an alleged
irregularity in the certificate copy of the vote
the returning officer having inadvertently ne
elected to get the clerk to certify to the
copy of the returns he had forwarded to the
secretary of state. He discovered his error
soon after he had sent his return to the secre-
tary of state in Baton Rouge, and the next
mail carried duplicate copy from the clerk
of the court, accompanied by certificate that
1t was an exact copy of the one previously
sent and of the one in the clerks office, and
that it was correct. The returning officer
wrote and telegraphed the secretary of state
to return the compilation of returns then sent
that he might comply with the letter of the
law, if it was necessary to do so, but no atten-
tion was paid to his request, and with all these
facts before them and duplicate returns fully
certified to by the clerk of the court the gov
ernor and his colleagues
THREW OUT THE ENTIRE VOTE
of this large, populous, and wealthy parish,
over 5000 tizcns.
"They then threw out the vote of Assump-
tion parish on similar technicality and
without the shadow of authority. In this
parish of Assumption, according to the census,
the whites are in small majority, and yet /
received 1,130 majority. Their microscopic
vision could discover no other technical OBJ
lection; or objection of any sort, which they
could distOrt into an excuse for additional
disfranchisement of voters except one poll in
Iberia Parish, where ] got over 400 majority,
on the ground that there were several more
votes in the box than there were persons
marked as having voted. These votes were
put i'll by democrats and under the super
vision of democratic officers appointed by the |
governor, and according TO this rule, all they
had to do was to put two or three extra bal !
lots in the box and wipe out all our majority. |
After all this had left to my credit ma
jority of not less than 1000 Then, as a last
resort, they raised a ridiculous question as to
MY ELIGIBILITY,
but finally they sent me my certificate. OF |
course, Acklen has absolutely no shadow of
an excuse for contest, and / cannot believe
he intends to bring his case before congress
His ineligihility talk is arrant nonsense, If it
hadn't been that, he would probably have pro- |
tested against my sitting because my hair is
gray.
If returning board composed of Tepubli-
cans had essayed the preparation of such an
outrage as Gov. McEnery's board has been at |