Year: 1875

supported the Kellogg Government who were
| "not themselves Oflce-holders, or related to
"ofiice holders or those having official employ
"ment.p Now, this is o small proportion OF CIT
| izens to be vested with so much power unless
| they are supported almost unanimously by the
negroes. We suppose it will be conceded that
| 1t is not impossible that many negroes would
under certain circumstances vote tho Conserv-
ative ticket. We submit that under the rulings
of the Kellogg Returning Board, which the
President has backed up with military force,
and which the Administration party in
Congress sustains, the possibility of any
change in the negro vote is put beyond the
reach of the negroes themselves. For
wherever the returns from any Parish in
dicated either that the negroes had voted the
Conservative ticket or had refused TO vote at
all, the returns were thrown out by the
Kellogg Returning Board, and the negroes
were made, without consultation or consent,
to vote for the Kellogg ticket.


1t is not denied in any quarter that the
original returns showed the election of the
Conservative State ticket, and very largo
Conservative majority in the Legislature. 1t
is only asserted that the Returning Board had
the right to throw out such returns as they
pleased. upon the ground of intimidation, and
that their action was perfectly just and legal in
doing so. The Committee however, after making
diligent search for some evidence of intimi-
datlon to warrant the action of the Board,
were constrained to report that there were
no facts to bear out the charges. They say
"No general intimidation Of Republican
voters was established. No cOlored man
l hoI fhraatapad
assaulted by any Conservative because Of
"politcal opinion, or discharged from en-
"ployment, or refused employment OF all
those who testified to intimidation, there
"w was hardly any ono who of his own knowl-
"edge could specify reliable instance OF
"such acts, and of tho white men who were
produced to testify generally on such sub
"jects very nearly all, if not every single
zone, was the holder of an Office" There
was in short no ground for tho action of the
Board except the barefaced assumption that
the negroes ought to vote the Kellogg ticket,
and that if they did not do it they must have
been intimdated Without discussing the
| question whether the negroes were in duty
bound to vote the Kellogg ticket, or any
other, we may be permitted to inquire what





this Are tho honest masses of the Repub-
lican party in Congress ready to establish
such rule 7


Here is a State Government run by adven-
turers with Returning Board of its own,
| whose action is final, to canvass the vote of
the State for Legislature end State officers.
| The Returning Board, upon a fimsy pretext
| that voters have been intimidated, deliberately
reverse the apparent action of the voters and
| declare elected Legislature Of their own
choosing. What is to prevent this process
being continued and the reign Of the Kellogg
Ring 80 fortified as to be perpetuated indei-
nitey The Ring is beyond the reach of
the people, since no change of a negro vote
will be allowed. 1t goes so long as it
pleases to lump the negro registration and
count it solidy for Ring candidates And
this is the state of things that the
whole military power of the Government is
used to uphold and sustain. Is it wisef
Leaving out of view all considerations of
present injustice, fraud, and wrong. is it good
policy to set up precedents by which State
may be so held and governed And if a State,
why not the whole countryf This is more
than question of to-day it reaches forward
into the future. 1t is moro than a local ques-
ton; the principle involved affects the whole
country. Will the gentlemen who are pro-
posing to sustain the action of the Admins
tratiOn-which is, in fact, an approval of the
acts of the Returning BOard-please tell us how
it is possible even if all the negroes in the
State vote the Conservative ticket, to Overturn
the rule of the Kellogg RingP