The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1906-08-01
Judge Biackman's Charges.

fraud ! n the laSt congressional
election, the New Orleans States
says:
''Quite a sensation has been pro.
duced by Judge Blackman's charge
contained in a letter giving his rea.
IONS for Withdrawing from the race
for Congress in the Seventh Congress
sional District. Only a few DAYS
since the Judge announced that he
would be "a candidate to succeed Hon.
A. p. Pujo, the present able Congress-
man from that district. Two DAYS
thereafter, in a letter to the public he
withdrew from the race. giving as his
reason that he does not wish to be
counted out.
Just what the information is upon
which the Judge based his attack upon
the electorate of his district we have
no means of knowing, but we cannot
believe that the charge is justified by
the facts in the case. Unfortunately,
in 1904 there seems to have been con
siderable fraud in the primary cleo
in that district. At least there were
charges fast and furious made by all
the candidates-and there were several
of them-each of whom complained
that he was not given a square deal in
the parishes that were controlled by
the other candidates.
"But, as We Remember it, the
parishes controlled by Judge hickman,
or some of them at least, were in the
mire as deeply as any of the others.
For instance, there vas a poll in
Grant parish that went overwhelming
ly for Judge Blackman, where the
voters seemed to have marched up to
the ballot boxes and voted for Judge
Blackman in alphabetical order.
This fact, of course, did not condone
fraud in other parishes, but it serves
to show that the fraud was by no
means SO one-sided as the Judge
claims it to have been.
Honest men all over the State de-
plOACu tuO oSdl00AS tAde ONSuiLOA al
that election, but where all the can
didates charged the others with fraud,
and apparently upon good grounds
too, it is hardly fair for one of them
to rail against the others. AT least
when one does so he cannot expect to
meet with much sympathy from men
who detest fraud.
"We cannot bring ourselves to be-
lieve that there is any foundation for
Judge Blackman's charge of antici-
pated fraud in the elections this year
We fear that our old friend is living
too much in the past, and that he
cannot realize the tremendous revolu-
ton that has occurred in public sentl.
ment and in public morals since the
Constitutional Convention eliminated
the negro from the politics of the
State. Judge Blackman has been one
of the chief clamorers for the primary
election method of making nomina-
tions, which we were told would give
expression to the voice of the people,
''break down the machine, and make
fraud impossible.
1.-THE late Legislature gave us a
compulsory primary election law, and
we had supposed that his cup of hap
piness was now brimming over. The
State does not believe the law to be
perfect, but it does know that where
are honest the carrying out of
the provisions of that law will give
fair expression to their will. The
people have q chance to express their
will if they will avail themselves of it,
and there is ample law to punish
trickery and fraud at the polls. I'm
der such circumstances the charge
Judge Blackman is unable to {
get an honest deal in his Congress
sional district is an attack upon the I
honesty of the Democratic voters of
Seventh District. The Judge has
drawn his support from the people
who have kept him in lucrative Of
fetal position for so long that 1.-THE
memory of "a runneth mo- to the
1t is ungenerous and un-
g grateful of him thus to smite the
hand that has nourished him through
Ill these years, and mores so as there |
be no shadow of foundation for
The charge he Makes
If its a MOVER Buggy, it will
wear well, look well, is good all