Year: 1875

WASHINGTON, January 15.-The sub
committee appointed to visit New Or
leans for the purpose Of investigation
has reported to the general committee.
After givinga full account of the action
Of the returning board, the committee
report they are constrained to say that
the action of the board in the rejection
of the returns in the parish Of Rapides
and giving the seats for that parish to
the Republican candidates was arbitrary,
unfair and without warrant of law. If
the committee were to go behind the
papers before the board and consider
the alleged charge of intimidation,
upon proofs before the committee, their
finding would nee eSserily be the same.
Rspides parish was taken 80 a sample
parish of intimidation. Many Witness
es, of both parties, show beyond gues-
ton that there was a free, fair, and
peaceable election and registration.
There was no evidence Of any intimida-
ton of voters practiced on the day of
election, although it was asserted that
colored men had been found
who had been affected by threats OF
refusal to employ them, or to discharge
them if they voted the Republican tick
ct. No evidence either of discharge or
refusal to employ was produced. Certain
itnesses-themselves every one Office
holders-testified generally to such ac-
ton, but hardly any one was able to
specify a single Instance in which he
heard any employer so threaten or dis
charge any voter, or knew of any en-
plOye being so threatened or disch ,rSed.
Not one cOlOred man in the parish was
produced to testify either to such threat
or to the execution of such purpose,
whether then or after the election. The
committee allude to the numerous ille-
gal acts OF the returning boar, and say
again that they were constrained to de-
clare that the action of the returning
board, on the whole, was arbitrary, un-
just, and, in their opinion, Illegal, and
that this arbitrary, unjust and ille-
gal action alone prevented the return by
the board of a majority of Conservative
members to the lower house. The COM
mitttee confined their investigation TO
two parishes, and find that no
general intimidation of Republican
voters was established. No colored
man was produced who had been
threatened or assaulted by any Conser-
vative because of his political opinion,
or discharged from employment, or
refused employment. or all those who
testified to intimidation, there was
hardly any one who of his own knOwl-
edge could specify a reliable instance of
such acts, aud Of the white men who
we're produced TO testify generally on
such subjects, very nearly all, if not
every single one, was holder of Office.
No witnesses, we believe, succeeded in
naming in any parish five Republicans
who supported the Kellogg government
who were not themse elves Cffice-hOldeTs,
or related to Office-holders or those hav-
ing official employment. On the other
haBd, applications to United STATES COM
missiOners in various parishes, not
only for alleged crimes, but because of
alleged threats Of discharge and nom
employment or other interference with
their political preferences were frequent,
and those application warrants were
often issued, and white citizens arrested
and turned over for trial. In many TO-
calities troops were detained for service,
under marshals and deputy-marshals,
and not only made many arrests imme-
diately before the election, but reports
are that they were coming to particular
neighbOrhOOds about the time of the
election for the purpose OF making such
arrests, served, as the Conservatives
claimed, to intimidate and sometimes
even to produce stampede among the
white voters. How differently the two
parties look upon the same fact will Sp-
pear from the testimony OF Mr. Riddle.
He was United States commissioner
in the parish OF Iberia shortly before
oil nF
cOlOred persons he issued q large num-
Der of warrants; he considered it his
duty, upon the arrest of the persons
charged, to require bail from the sure
ties who possessed landed estates within
the parish, certified by the assessor of
the parish, to be of sufficient value, of
which title was approved by the regis
ter of deeds. This rule necessarily pro-
duced delay in procuring bail for the
persons arrested, and he was waited
on in one case by q procession
of citizens, who offered him bond
signed by every man in the procession.
This he regarded as in derision of his
proceedings, and refused to receive the
bond. He was called as a witness to
prove the intimidation that existed in
that parish, but he had himself no
knowledge Of any act of the kind except
this procession, which he thought was
calculated to intimidate colored voters.
He had no idea that the arrests made
upon his warrants, and the
proceedings under them, had any
effect in interfering with Conservative
voters. On the other hand the Conser-
vatives in that neighbOrhoOd thought
about this just reversely. Indeed, the
reports Of the military officers in com
mand of the forces of the United States
in the county, though generally indicat-
ing condition of quiet and order, take
som etimes an entirely different view of
the situation. On the other hand, it was
in the evidence that the blacks who
sought to act with the Conservative
party we're on their part sometimes ex-
posed to enmity and abuse.