Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1878 — THE LOUISIANA CONSPIRACY. [ARTICLE]

THE LOUISIANA CONSPIRACY.

The Certificate from that State Which ’ Elected Hayes Proven to be a Forgeyr. [Washington Telegram to Chicago Times.] This afternoon brought out the most serious revelations yet developed by Potter’s committee. The stupendous forgeries exhibited this afternoon will shock the moral sense of the entire country. It is no longer a question resting upon any statements or documents of James E. Anderson, bnt on the positive evidence that all of the certificates but one of the proceedings of the Hayes Electoral College in Louisiana, used before the Electoral Commission and joint convention of Congress were forgeries. To understand fully how these forgeries became imperative it is necessary to review the case as it was presented to-day. Under the law regulating the proceedings of the Electoral College certificates of proceedings are required to be made out in triplicate. One set of returns is filed with the State authorities, one is sent by mail to the President of the Senate, and the third is sent by a messenger to the President of the Senate. The reason for sending two sets of returns by two.different methods to the President of the Senate is to guard against the loss of either. Now, it is a fact as developed to-day that, after the Hayes Electoral College adjourned in Louisiana, the returns according to law were made out upon the 9th of December, 1876. One set was mailed on that day to the President of the Senate, and that was received. A subsequent examination shows this to have been irregular in its form, enough so to insure its rejection, but it is the only one that is an honest document. The messenger who came with the duplicate brought it in an envelope which had no outward indication of what were its contents,as the law requires. The President of tbe Senate therefore refused to receive it. He ordered it to be returned to the State of Louisiana for tbe purpose of having the proper authorities indicate upon the envelope what its contents were before he would receive it. This document went back to the State of Louisiana, and it appears that the Republican officials there were frightened by its return, and thought fLof. there must’be some irregularity about the one chat had been sent by mail. An examination proved this to be true, so they went to work and made out a new set of returns in' duplicate, and forwarded one by mail and one by messenger, as they did with the originals. But it appears that Levissee, of the electors in the Hayes Electoral College was absent from New Orleans at the time the second returns were made. These returns were forwarded on the 29fch of December, and Levissee’s name is forged upon both of them. This Mr. Levissee swore to today, and stated most positively that he had not been in New Orleans after the 18th of December, and had signed no document whatever after fixing his signature to the original returns, immediately after the adjournment of the Hayes Electoral College. But the strangest part of it all is that the return that was first sent by a messenger and rejected by Senator Ferry, because it did not bear upon the exterior of the envelope any indication of what it was, in some fashion found its way into the possession of Vice President Ferry. So far as Mr. Levissee’s signature goes, the last two are forgeries. The returns that should have been left in the office of the Secretary of State of Louisiana were called for during the investigation, of the electoral count a year ago last winter, and they have disappeared. It is understood that they have been destroyed. But who destroyed them is yet to be developed, as well as who are the guilty parties who perpetrated the forgeries of the election certificates. The returns of the State election furnished here during the same investigation have also disappeared. Evidence is in hand to show that these documents were permeated with forgeries. Of course no one claims that the revelations of to-day have any effect in changing the results, but it does show the desperate criminality of the Republican officials in Louisiana, who did not scruple at bold forgery in the culmination of their work.

Senator Kellogg is the man who is most interested in to-day’s revelations, for his name appears upon the forged duplicate as genuine. If his name is there, it is argued that he must have been a party to the forgery of the name of Levissee. The testimony of Anderson is no longer a subject of conversation by the side of these later revelations. Naturally one asks what was the object of these forgeries ? It must be remembered that the contest was so close that every certificate was 'subject to the closest scrutiny. If there had been no trouble with the original making out of the return of Hie Hayes Electoral College in Louisiana then there would have been no need of forgery, but the return of the duplicate sent by a messenger revealed upon scrutiny that it was irregular, and that it was not made out in accordance with law. Then ensued a scene of great demoralization. If the case was rested upon certificates technically informal then all would be lost. Objection to the counting of such certificates would be fatal and cause their rejection. But Levissee was absent. He had gone into the Red river country, beyond the reach of call, and his signature to anew set of returns could not be delayed, and the certificate already in Ferry’s hands was one that could not stand. Anyone familiar with the school of Louisiana politics will not be surprised to know that forgery was called to the aid of the gang of thieves, who had by perjury and forgery secured the State thus far. They had gone too far to be cheated in the end. If only a breath of this could have been known during those stormy days of the closing scenes in the joint convention—if some member with the knowledge of to-day could have stood up and said : “ Gentlemen, I object to the counting of the vote of the State of Louisiana, because one of its certificates is irregular and the other two here before us are forgeries,” imagine the sensation and results.