Stephen B . Packard Stephen Bennett Packard ( April 25 , 1839 - January 31 , 1922 ) , a native of Maine , emerged as an important Republican politician in Louisiana during the era of Reconstruction . He was the unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1876 . A captain in the Union Army during the American Civil War , Packard was appointed United States marshal in New Orleans in 1871 during the administration of U . S . President U . S . Grant . He emerged as a leader of what was called the " Customhouse Ring " , a faction of the Republican Party opposed to Governor Henry Clay Warmoth . In 1872 , Packard directed the successful gubernatorial campaign of William Pitt Kellogg . Packard supported the impeachment of outgoing Governor Warmoth . The Democratic Party disputed the results of the election , and both parties claimed victory . The legislature impeached Warmoth as governor , on charges of having sold the election . His election board had certified John McEnery as governor . Packard obtained federal recognition of the African American P . B . S . Pinchback as governor for the thirty - five days left in Warmoth ' s term . Kellogg was then recognized by President Grant as the legitimate authority in charge . In 1876 Packard was the Radical Republican candidate for governor in 1876 . In another disputed election , both Packard and his Democratic opponent , Francis T . Nicholls were inaugurated . In the elections since 1868 , there was increasing political violence . By 1876 , the paramilitary White League , effectively an arm of the Democratic Party , had conducted open campaigns of intimidation and physical attacks , to keep freedmen and other Republicans away from the polls . Nicholls had led in the balloting by some eight thousand votes , but the Republican - controlled State Returning Board cited fraud and declared Packard the victor . Pinchback , however , refused to support Packard and endorsed Nicholls . The " New York Times " , in an article datelined New - Orleans , February 16 , 1877 , has the headline " The Democratic Assassin . Gov . Packard ' s Attempted Murder . " . At that time in New York , Packard was perceived to be Governor of Louisiana . The article describes the wounded condition of the assassin William H . Weldon , after being himself wounded in the attempt . After the contested election of 1876 , the Democratic - backed legislature , allied with Democratic Governor Francis T . Nicholls , selected Henry M . Spofford as United States Senator . However the Republican - dominated legislature , allied with Republican Governor Packard , had separately selected William Pitt Kellogg . The United States Senate , which was at the time dominated by the so - called Radical faction of the Republican party , refused to seat Spofford . In the Compromise of 1877 , the incoming Republican President Rutherford B . Hayes recognized Nicholls as the legitimate Louisiana governor . In exchange the Louisiana electoral votes were cast for the Hayes - William Wheeler ticket . Similarly , Hayes had recognized the " Redeemer " Democrat Wade Hampton , III , a Confederate general , as governor of South Carolina , rather than the incumbent Republican Daniel H . Chamberlain . As a result of the national compromise , the US government removed remaining federal troops from Louisiana and South Carolina , despite the pattern of violence and assassinations related to elections . As a reward for his services to the party , which had then acquired the nickname Grand Old Party , or GOP , Packard was named United States consul at Liverpool . Packard returned to the United States in 1885 , purchased 1 , 100 acres of land near Marshalltown , Iowa , and spent the next twenty - five years there as a notable livestock breeder . Packard ' s was the last strong Republican campaign for governor until 1964 , when Charlton H . Lyons , Sr . , a former Democrat , launched a campaign to rejuvenate the previously moribund GOP in Louisiana . Stephen B . Packard is inturned beside the remains of his son , Stephen B . Packard , Jr . , at the Washelli Columbarium at Evergreen Washelli Memorial Park in Seattle , Washington .