Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1875 — Louisiana Sub-Committee. [ARTICLE]

Louisiana Sub-Committee.

Soon after the meeting of Congress, in December, the House of Representatives created a committee to investigate the Southern situation. They were authorteed and directed to inquire into aßeged outrages. This committee was divided into sub committees, one of which, consisting of Messrs. Foster, Phelps and Potter, proceeded to New Orleans, and was there at the opening of the Louisiana Legislature. Its report has just been submitted to the public. It was written by Potter, a Democrat, and has the signatures of the other members, both of whom profess to be Republicans. The account given of the organization of the Louisiana House of Representatives, and the so-called military interference, is almost identical with that given by Gen. Sheridan. A careful comparative examination fails to disclose a Single material difference in the two accounts. This is all the more significant from the contrast in the prevailing tones of the two reports. The most npticeable thing about the Congressional report is its silence upon the main feature of the situation. No one would suspect from anything contained in this document that Louisiana

had been the scene of assassinations, collective or isolated. It would not be inferred that life is specially insecure in that State, or that there is any more immunity from arrest and there than there is in toe North generally. The correctness of representations, herein, made by President Grant aha Gen: Sheridan, is not brought in question. The committee simply Jgnore the subject. We submit that this omission is disgraceful. A good deal is said about taxation, the rarity of white Republicans, the mode of procedure before and by the Returning Board and kindred matters, all of weighty importance in themselves, but all combined of less consequence than the insecurity of life. Several wholesale butcheries have occurred, and the aggregate of isolated cases amounts to over 1,200, and the assassins go scot free. Such, we say, is the representation made by the President and toe Lieutenant-General of the United States, and the committee is entirely oblivious of the whole matter. Such a report is a disgrace to those who make it, and ought to be rejected by the House. The latter should demand a report on toe main issue of the case. It looks very much as if Foster and Phelps had made a play-spell of the investigation, allowing Potter to run the business to suit himself. We are disappointed in Foster. He had done some good work in Congress. Phelps is a conceited fop, with immense inherited wealth and a silly affectation of wit. He is just the fellow to be made the tool of a crafty and polished politician like Mr. Potter. The latter did just What-was to be expected of him. He tout his eyes to all evidence against the Democracy, and distorted. and magnified all toe evidence against the Republicans. Even then he has not made out his case. It is not claimed by the Republican party that Kellogg is a paragon of political virtuo, or that everything done by the party in that State is justifiable. On the contrary, there is a desire to have toe entire facts in the case brought to light, and every man, from Kellogg down, receive his deserts," be the same rewards or punishments, small or greet. Fortunately the disreputable omission of toe Congressional report will not be very important, practically, for Gen. Sheridan is at work preparing a full statement touching assassinations in Louisiana. The committee, hv confirming his report of the attempted but abortive Wiltz usurpation, has prepared toe public to accept with infplicifcf aftfe in its accuracy that forthcoming report. In this way the committee has rendered valuable service, albeit Foster and Phelpß were simply Clay in the hands of the potter.— Chicago Journal , Jan. 18.