Year: 1875

Had not the intricacies of Louis
lana politics exhausted public patience
no uncomfortable interest would be
taken in the evidence supplied by the
Committee Of Investigation, and of
which We have had pretty fully re-
port from day to day.


Those, however. who have read the
evidence can not fail to have been
impressed by the fact that the result
of the last election in Louisiana was
shaped by such influences as consid-
erably diminish the claim set up for
it as fair and free election by the
people, if the colored citizens of the
State are to be reckoned as people aud
entitled to the franchise. Whether
these influences were sufficient to in
validate the election and justify the
Returning Board in throwing out the
vote of whole parishes and districts,
| as was done, is a question we do not
propose here to consider, but it may
be safely predicated, on the action of
previous Boards, and the temptation
to secure partisan ends. that this
| Board omitted no pretext upon which
| il could, with any show of decency,
reject a vote whereby an opponent Of
the Kellogg administration could be
returned to the Legislature.
The point we wish to make, and
which the evidence confirms, is that
there was an organized attempt to
persuade the colored voters that it
would not be wholesome to get to the
polls with a Kellogg ticket ia their
hands. The devices resorted to pro-
duce this impression were as various
as the emergencies of the different
districts demanded, and ranged from
simple assurances of nOn-empleyment
to downright murder. There is no
going back of the evidence in these
particulars; it is too specific in names.
dates and circumstances.


As to intimidation by threatenings
of non-employment, there was no
particular effort to conceal that.
Resolutions were in many places pub
licly adopted urging the whites not to
employ those who voted the Radical
ticket, and after the election the
names of those who did vote it were,
in one instance at least, published
with no other object in view than 10
mark them out as persons who must
in this way be punished for voting ac-
That this method of intimidation had
titc CucCs VI AOCpinS AuuNACuo VI wi
ored voters from the polls there can
elusive that such was the result The
laboring men counted the cost and
staid away from the polling places.
But this method did not work sue
cessfully in some parishes where there
were more intrepid voters. or where
they had such backing as made them
bold in their avowal of purpose to
! vote the Radical ticket It was in
these parishes that warnings of peril
and murder were frequent just before
! the election. 1t does not appear that
murders were committed from any
| mere bloodthirstiness. The victims
were selected with some care, and
were chiefly those whose taking of
would serve as most salutary ad-
! monition.


In how far the White Leagues were
responsible for this blood-shedding is
! not clear. 1t was a political associa-
ton, organized on military basis,
and though not like the Ku Klux, an
! to accomplish all that secrecy could
achieve, having quite as effective ma
| chinery, and moving to its purpose as



Had it not been for the mobility de-


rived from it's military character, and
| its thorough subordination to the au


thority with which its head was in
vested, the revolution of September
so silently aud promptly that neither
kellogg nor any of his Radical associ-
ates had more than a suspicion of its
|


pared to shed blood to accomplish its
ends, either in turning out the exist.


ing administration, or In controlling an
election, may be fairly inferred from
| what it did not do, owing to the re


straining influence of the United


States forces, or from what it did dc


in dealing with the Metropolitans


The fact also that it armed its mem


bers is presumptive of meditated


purpose to use them, either as an or.


ganized body, or for individual emer.


gencies When a man is put on tria
for murder, the fact, if proven, that he


was armed before its commission, i:


taken to be evidence of deliberate in


tent to shed blood.


But if the murders, of which there


is abundant proof, we're committed a
the instigation of the White Leaguers
| it is to be said they were committed


only where other and milder method.


would not succeed. The Leagues, We


have been repeatedly assured, are


composed of high-toned gentlemen


and high-toned gentlemen do not GO


about shedding blood miscellaneously


and with the freedom of Texas des


perado. There was no needless noise


about the bloody business. As the


evidence shows, the victims selected


were put cut of the way quietly-st


quietly In most cases that murder was


not suspected until there was disap


pearance to be accounted for; ano


then came the alarming intimation


which was quickly spread about, tha,


such or such a Radical had been dis


posed Of as a warning to others.


1t is a serious mistake for those
! who defend the action of the Conser


vatives in Louisiana to deny these


facts. They are matters of proof, anC


the evidence is accumulating in &


formidable mass. If they wish to OBJ


tain credit for intelligence and sin


cerity, they will not undertake the


folly of denial, but dwell upon the


provocation which led the people t.


adopt such desperate remedies. Ant


this is, indeed, the only mitigating


circumstance. Believing the kellogg


administration to be a fraud fastened