Year: 1877

OF january Sths


Gentlemen, there is another consid-


Grafton involved IN this discussion


which must not fail to notice, namely,


that intimidation is game which two


may play at. / do not pretend that


the Democrats of Louisiana are wholly


innocent of this political vice. Human


nature is the same in both parties, and


both have practiced it in some form, in


every State of the Union. After the


war the white people of the States


lately in rebellion manifested a spirit


of intolerance and hate toward the


people who had been their bondmen


and were now suddenly lifted to citi-


zenship and suffrage, and for some


years this spirit made its record ia


deeds of frightful violence and crime.


But kinder feeling has been gradu-


ally evoked. Notwithstanding the ef-


forts of demagogues and carpet bag
thieves to perpetuate the estrangemeat


of the races. Free labor is now gene
rally conceded to be a success by the


men who fought for slavery. They
would not restore it if they had the
power, nor take the ballot from the
negro. Their old hostility to the


Union has measurably perlshed with
the Institution that inspired it. They
have suffered very severely from the
ravages of war, and have endured with
singular patience and long suffering
the cruel infictions of State govern
ment which has been fastened upon
their necks by fraud and supported by
Federal despotism. What they now
ask is good government and a fair op-
portunity to rebuild their shattered
fortunes. They are intensely anxious
to rid themselves of the remorseless
usurpation under which they have so
long groaned; and in the scuffle for
deliverance against a powerful and
perfectly unscrupulous foe, it would
be strange if they had not sometimes
sought the votes of the colored people
by the current methods of politi-
cal warfare. But if they have prac-
ticed intimidation, the Republicans of
Louisiana are not the men to upbraid
them. The kellogg government is
itself an organized intimidation and !
standing menace of all honest men,
while it has taken into its embrace the



years past the Republicans of Louisi-
ana have practiced intimidation ex-
tensively and vigorously. The United
States marshal for the State has used |
cavalry to intimidate Democrats. In |
his official capacity, and while at the
same time chairman of the State Re- !
publican Committee, he has on several
occasions employed Federal soldiers in
the service Of his party, just as the ar
my and revenue officers we're used in |
Alabama in securing the election of |
Spencer to the Senate of the United |
States. The white and cOlored testi- |
mony submitted to the Returning
Board during its late sessions, and
subsequently taken more fully by the
committee now In Loui-
Siana, show that the negroes themselves
are among the most savage and fero-
cious intimidators in the State, and |
that the crimes and outrages inflicted |
on their colored brethren for daring to |
vote as they please are full match for
any of the kindred performances charged |
to the Democrats. The more intelli-
gent classes of them are powerfully |
lmpelled by the reasons already men
toned to break their party ranks but
in attempting to do so they are obliged
to risk their lives. The wives of col
Ored men frequently threaten to leave
them if they vote the Democratic tick
ct, and for doing so | believe this
threat has sometimes been executed
and divorce demanded from the hus-
band. Colored Democrats are turned
out of church for the same cause, and
a case has recently been reported in
which the rite of baptism was denied
to a coloTed man because he had left
the Republican party. Mr.. Nordhoff
says that in parts Of Southern Louis
ana the negroes are still summoned
from the fields to political meetings by
order of Gen. Butler; and he mentions
/ case where a candidate for a county
ofice circulated a printed general or
der" commanding all the colored men
10 vote for him, and signed ~ S.
Grant, President" which secured him
he solid colored vote. In a political
canvass in Louisiana the negroes are
indoctrinated with the idea
hat they will be sold into slavery if
he Democratic ticket should be elect
I'd, just as Senator Morton told the
people of Indiana in the late canvass
hat if Tilden should succeed, slavery
would certainly be re-established, the
rebel debt saddled upon us, and the
oyal debt repudiated. The Republi-
IAN howl about intimidation, which is
low sounding through the land, comes
With an i'll grace from the leaders of
party who demanded the votes of eighty
thousand office holders for Hayes and
Wheeler on penalty of dismissal, and
ested their fidelity to their master by
ewing contributions upon their earn
ngs. But still more utterly preposte-
'ous is the complaint of the Republi-
,an party of Louisiana about intimi-
lation in that State. When such
eaders as Kellogg, Warmoth, Packard,
Jasey and Pinchback, armed and
,quipped with the whole power of the
State government, and re- enforced by
he army and navy with the entire p1-
ronage of the Federal Government
uperadded, the cry of Democratic in
imidation is like the whine of a mailed
giant for military protection against
IN unarmed boy.