Year: 1879

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 n Republican vote cor
responding to that II they ever expected any
reward or preferment. Notwithstanding this
organized Fraud says the report, when the
elections were over the Democrats had
majority as returned By the Republican cleo
tiOn officers Of some 10000, the vote polled
being the largest ever poled in the State,
and larger In proportion TO the popu-
latiOn than that Of other States. The Re-
publican officers made returns of the vote
accordingly, and declared that the cleo
tion was perfectly peaceful and fair. The
Republicans, in order to overcome this
majority, then usurped powers not given to
them. In support of this the report cites the
finding 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
Democratic votes As pretext for this usur-
patton they obtained protests from certain
parishes which they picked out as the parishes
in which TO pretend that intimidation had
taken place. These parishes were all largely
of negro population, which the Democrats
had fairly carried.


The Florida portion of the reports 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 Viee-President having refused
the first certificate the Republicans secretly
manufactured smother, ante-dating It, and
made it in paper and printing to resemble the
one previously made; how having very little
time to prepare it, and it being impossible
to get all the Electors to New Orleans to
sign it within that time, it became a
necessity to forge the signatures of two alb
seutees; that thus there were put to the
triplicate paper eighteen forged signatures,
which were attached on December 2gth in
a small upper room in the State building,
then in charge of Conquest Clarke; how the
making of this second certificate was con-
Cealed until it was produced before Congress !;
how, when it was referred to the Electoral
Commission, it was not read but 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 in form and no copy of the gem
uine but a 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 before the Commission, were suppressed
and the record made to show as if the genuine





passed upon; how this was rot an accident,
but design, and that not only in one of the
published records Of the proceedings of the
Electoral 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 certificate upon Congress,
and then he suppressed it, so that if discoy-
cred 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 Flor
ida and Louisiana; that Moves, Sherman,
and others encouraged this result; that the
second certificate from Louisiana was forged
as to two of its names, Kellogg and Clark be-
ing privy to it, and that Tilden and Hen
bricks received true majority of the Elect
oral vote and were the real choice of the peo-
Pile of the United States at the last Presiden-
tial election.