Year: 1878

empted persecution from any quarter of individuals
or past political eoncuct.


One week after the letter to which have just re-
erred was written Governor Packard, Withdrawing
rom the contest, said in his pnblic announcement:


On this dav, the fifteenth anniversary of the sur.
lender OF New Orleans to the forces of the United
states, 1t becomes my duty to to you That
he aid and countenance of the National Government
nave been wlthdrawn from the Republicans OF Lou
siana, and that government revolutionary in form


practically on the point of usurping the control OF
affairs IN this State. firmly believe that had the
egn government been recognized, it could nave
sustained Itself without the intervention of troops,
but the order for withdrawal issued under the cir
and in the manner it was issued clearly
Indicated That even moral support which the legal
government of Louisiana should have received from
The National Administration, would be denied. Had
the General Assembly continued in session at the
state house, should have deemed it my duty to
have asserted and defended my government to the
last, notwithstanding the withdrawal of troops; but
with the Legislature disintegrated and no prospect
Of present success cannot task your tried fidelity
by asking you longer to continue to aid me in the
struggle have thus far maintained. therefore an-
nounce to you that am compelled to abstain for the
present from all active assertion of my government.
waive none Of my legal rights, but yield only to
superior force. am wholly discouraged by the fact
that, one by one the Republican State governments
Of the South have been forced to succumb to torce
fraud or policy. Louisiana. the first State rehabili-
tated affer the war; is the last State whose govern
ment thus falls, and believe it will be among the


first to raise itself again to plane of equal and hon.
est representation advise you to maintain your

rights of citizenship and free government. We
strive for these and not tor man men, 1t grieves
me beyond expression that the heroic efforts you
have made and the cruel suffefings you have UNDER
gone to maintain Republican principles in Louisiana
have had this bitter end To those who so gallantly
stood by me in the long contest we have passed
through tender my heartfelt thanks. To all
counsel peace, patience, fortitude and firm trust
that eventually right and justice will prevail.


The process of disintegration of the Packard gov
ernment had been completed. The policy of the
oP of
remittng the of the South to the whites
properly speaking n contradistnc.ion to the Repub
lican organization which since the year 1865 had
looked to the northern idea its basis OF support,
had been consummated in Louisiana. Now, Mr..
Speaker, there is in history no instance recorded
where magnanimity and generosity were carried to
this extent. 1t was not negative in simply with
drawing the troops and letting the contending par
sion had disintegrated Legislature which had
elected United States Senator, and it had gene
positively to work in the direction of this policy and
1t had accomplished it. And the President had
every right Mr.. Speaker, to believe to hope, to
pect at that time looking hopefully on the expert
ment, that it would be met with the spirit in which
the Louisiana Legislature resolved. But the policy"
did not stop here.


The President was thorough.goin and earnest in
the experiment he had started. He did not mean
hereafter that it should be said that because he had
kept anything back his experiment had not sue
eeded, and he may have in his overconfdence and
trustfulness been willing to go to undue lengths,
thinking that at last if the Southern States aud es-
pecially Louisiana, to which / am now referring,
should treat his generosity basely future events and
the will of the great American people would set it all
right.


Governor Packard had alluded, as I havel just
stated in his farewell address to his legal rights
none of which he waived. He only had one resort,
and that was to the supreme court of his State.
Three judges were then existing, Chief Justice King,
Ludeling and Leonard, the last at present member
upon this floor, and that court constituted quorum
with power to make decisions and power to settle the
law in Louisiana as to its government. That court
in the process of conciliation, whatever may have
been the motive, was broken up. The chiet-justice
was taken from the court and appointed to the arg-
est political Office in the State of louisiana He was
made collector of the city of New Orleans and the
supreme court of Louisiana became thing of the
past The last resort the governor of Louisiana had
was taken away was gone. and the appeal which the
American people have ever cherished to the highest
tribunals of justice was swept away from him. He
was all bereft. 1t was like taking the last plank
from the spent swimmer; boat and mast and spar
and rope had all been taken, and the last floating
thing upon which he could put hand to hold his head
above the black waters torn from his grasp Lou
isana left in possession of the Nichols govern
ment.


Now, say again that no experiment in this direc-
ton was ever made SO thoroughly as President
Hayes made this. Indeed, it was SO thorough that
he carried but few of his party with him in all his
steps.


What followed? The Legislature and Governor
Nichols and everybody had promised that persecu-
tion for political offenses should cease. Now
what did that embrace? Whom did it cove? ?
Nobody expected that the Nichols government
would go to work and prosecute the men who had
been engaged in outrage and murder upon the in
offensive coored citizens who sought to enforce their
right to the ballot. The President could not have
feared that Governor Nichols his officials would
begin prosecuting their own friends. There was
something embodied and involved in this promise in


this pledge, in this compact Of the Nichols legisla-
ture and its governor, which was meant to protect


Republicans, white and black, in Louisiana. ask


gentlemen to transport their minds-I ask the Presi-
dent of the United States to transport his mind back
six months, tothe 1st Of May 1877 and to ask him


SELF what would have been his reply if any man had


then predicted to him that in less than sixty days


the men who foremost of all had made themselves
offensive to the Louisiana Democracy because they


had carried out the law Of that State and had there


by become political offenders in the State of Louisi-
ana and throughout the country in the eyes of the


Democratic party, would be prosecuted, and when
indictment failed would be hurried by other process


ses to trial and imprisonment. Remember that con-


ciliation at its full blossom and everything had


been done, 1 have recited it, by the President.


Would the President have listened a moment to


such prophecy? Would any man have been SO


faithless In Southern honor as to have made it?


But what has actually taken place in Louisiana? ]


Go not here 60 into other States to how the poli


cy' has worked do not need to. The members Of
the Louisiana Returning board had already felt the
strong hand of the Democratic party upon them.
That party in its evaporation at seeing its efforts to
maintain its hold upon Louisiana by violence and
intimidation unsuccessful through the elimination of
the returns by the returning board had shown its spite
and rage when in the last winter it had brought
them to Washington, had incarcerated them in un-
healthy, noisome places in this Capitol, had kept
them for weeks and weeks, had hailed them before
partisan committees had brow-beaten and attempted
to degrade and disgrace and criminate them to no
effect. And when the presidential election case was
and President Hayes was declared to be elected


these men, not like malefactos, not like criminals
not like hoary-headed rascas, as they were called
upon this floor the other day. did what you do, Mr.
Speaker, whatsI do, what the gentleman from Lou
isiana does when Congress closes its sessions, re-
turned TO their homes and neighbors.


There was no fight the part of one of these men
There no Sinking the face of friend or foe in
Louisiana, but they returned to their homes; and
when eonciliation had blossomed and the governor
had declared its full acceptance, these men had a
right to bseve that they should be treated like other
citizens of Louisiana. had right to believe it; my
friend beside me the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Gar
fieli) had right to believe it,; the President had
right to believe it. Was that treatment accorded
them? One of these gentlemen, Mr.. Speaker, to-day
is in prison in Louisiana; he has been tried by a
Louisiana court; he has been convicted by Lousi-
jury; he has made his motion for new tria, ,and
/ see little encouragement for him in that. Let me
say that with my mind exercised this subject'I
followed the daily reports in the newspapers of the
trial ard declare that there was no testimony ad-
mited in that that would have been allowed to
bear weight before jury in my State for single
moment, connecting Mr.. Anderson with the charge
uoon which he was tried. The fact is, Mr.. Speaker
that he stood up and was arraigned a political
offender against the Democratic party; that he was
tried such that he convicted such and that
he awaits his sentence and punishment as such. L
nothing to the form of the prosecution. Even