Terre Haute Weekly Gazette, Volume 8, Number 25, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 11 January 1877 — Page 5

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George W. Julian.

One of "the Wis® Men of the East" who was Present at the Birth of tho Republican Party

Pours Out the Vials of Just Denunciation on its Grey Hairs.

Acathing Rebuke to the Returning Boards.

A complete Review of the Entire Situation up to the Present He lour

Oelivered at the Eighth^ of January Convention."

Mr. Chairinan and Fellow Citizen* of Indiana: The remarkable political contest of thPe rear just closed haf

been

THE DISPUTE IN LOUISIANA. Soon after the late presidential election, when democratic rejoicing was exchanged for the chilling apprehension ,ol defeat and disaster through the action ot the Louisiana returning board, the chairman of the national democratic committee requested sundry gentlemen of the northern states to repair to the city of New Orleans in the interest of "peace, and a fair and honest return" of the vote cast in that state. The president ot the United States ordered the presence of an imposing military force "to perserve peace and good order, and to see that the proper and legal board# of canvassers

are

unmolested in the performance of their duties." He declared in this military order, that "should there be any ground of suspicion ot a fraudulent •count 011 either side, it should be reported and denounce^ at once," and

trol itto-ds isiana hav under the tuining bo ment of th

1874,

followed by very

serious and unexpected complications The condition ol public affair® i- .wc. ted to awaken general anxiety anu alarm, «nd calls for the best thought and high est endeavar of every citizen. I believe n« intelligent man can disguise from himself the fact that the crisis we have reached is profoundly solemnized by tokens 01 national danger and I must net enter upon my appointed task to-day without confessing my inability to per from it. and my regret that it was not committed to abler hands. Most fervently do I wish that I could point the safe way through the dangers which cloud the political sky, and menace the peace of #ur country but I must content mi self with analyzing the particular subject with which I am laical, and simpiv expressing, in conclusion, my individjal convictions as to the duty of the hour.

man worthy of the office of president should be willing to hold it, if counted in or placed there by fraud." He also appointed a

number

of prominent public

character* anc representative men in the party with which he is associated to visit the state of Louisiana, "to see that the board of canvassers make a fair count of the vote aciually cast," and expreised the hope that "fair men ot both parties would attend to this duty. The returning board itself so far recognized the gravity of the si'uatim and the wide-spread distrust ot iis integrity, that an official itivtaiion was extended to the visitors fiom distant states of the anion to attend its sessions, while canvassing the returns and ascertaining the result of a presidential election in Louisiana. THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THESE TROUB

LES.

These are very remarkable proceedings. They have no precedent in the history of American politi:s, and they bear withess to the fearful decay of public virtue, and the alarming drift of public affairs toward abnormal and revolutionary methods. At whose door lies the just responsibility? Who is to blame for the atmosphere of suspicion which now covers the land, and the feeling of national peril which recalls so painfully the opening of the year 1861. The answer

these questions is not unknown to the people. The present government of the state of Louisiana was founded in nagrant usurpation and bare faced fraud. It was conceived in the illegal order of a drunken and corrupt federal judge, and midwifed by the political knaves and traders who controlled the national ad ministration four years ago, as they con-

While the people of Lou-

ieen. prostrate and helpless 1 ot federal tyranny, the re-

has been the vile ipstrutyranny ii\ the

FURTHERANCE.OF ITS BALEFUL PURPO-

SES'

which it ha« flOugfct to drape over under the forma of law. It is the creature ol the same organized political rapacity which is trampled down law and iusuited deccncy in the states of the south during the past eight years. Under the act creating this board, its members hold their places for life, with power to appoint their successors. There is no appeal from »heir decision, whatever it may be, according to, the ruiing qf the supreme conK of the state, and no accountability to the people for iheir acts. Although they areA trilRinal ot special and limite 1 juriAliction,'*^ thwr acts whetn«r ministerial or jiidicial, are to be construed strict^, *n4 afe absolutely void if not authon*ecHy the law from which they derive all t\ieir.power, yet, according to the au^hority $i£eUr there is no re dress againsUheir Jftilimgs, however defiantly thev may .transo^ their jurisdiction or tramplOISt under their feet. For an* i-ejp^n #r dor no reason at all, they mly c*uM H» br count ®ut the vote of anC palish "V, jgrecinC' in the state, and thu» arbitrarily determine the charrcter of thegoveriWhtent under which her people are toljve, *nfcrary- to their choice, and the charaWsfl^Qs the national administration for four- years, should it depend on thf vdte oTtfcc state. Wn le the guilt ol the'bofcrd"i_ti an act so heaven daring, would be multiplied by tht lions whose voic it muld stifle, these millions wouldjbfe utterly without remedy, even in the congress of the nation, according to the leaders of the Republican par'.y. ..

THE RETURNING BOARD,

And who are the men constituting this autocratic if not omnipotent institution of the Republican party of Louisiana,

concocied

in the worst "days of carpet

bag government, and for the mo6t nefarious purposes? Two of thein are whit, men, and two colored. They are the same men who sat upon the board .n

took the majority of votes away from one side and gave it to the otuer by "unjust arbitrary and illegal action," as admitted bv a Republican congi essional committee o'f which one William A. Wheeler was a member. They are all members of the Republican pa *ty, and one of them holds a custom house office under the spoilshunting system of the present administration. J. Madison Wells, the president of the baard, who was elected Governor of Louisiana under the reconstruction policy of President Johnson, was summarily ejected from that office in

HONORED MAN,"

and charged him with "subterfuge and chicanery." lie declared that "his con duct had been as sinuous as the mark lert in the dust bv the movement of a snake," and that he had "nit one friend who is an honest man." After a stay in New Orleans of over three weeks, and mingling freelv with the people when not engaged in watching the action of the returning board, I have no hesitation in endorsing the statement of General Sheridan as true. Gov. Wells is not only a journeyman and expert in rascality, through long

years

he might falter in some emerges ywhich his more intrepid and satanic com panion on the board would enjoy as a luxury. But he is not wanting the qualities which have made the returning board famous, for he is a thoroughly accomplished knave and swindler. He counts well, and is. in a word, the fit companion and associate in offiie of the president'pf the body. Cassanave, oju of.the colored- members of the- board, is an undertaker by occupation, and was a a slaveholder before the war. He is a man of.lifriited education and intelligence and not jqualified by capacity or training for tjii position he occupies. He is a very strong partisan, but is regarded as a kindly, 'Will-disposed sort of man, whose worst ntisibrtune is that the thoroughly unprincipled men on the board use him as theirtcfcl. This must be regarded as certain,nt^the absence of any proof that he has aver opposed the confessed illegality ana fraud of his associates. Ken ner theJother colored man and junior member df the board is a very small, light mu'4tto, quick and sprightly in Ills? movements, but altogether unfitted by talents, etfucation or experience, for so responsible a position. He is a gambler and grog leller, a verv low fellow, and a few yearsfago was kicked out of a saloon in New0,rleans for stealing the money •f his employer.

SERIOUSNESS OF THE CRISIS. Gentlfcr len. these are the men who are to settle le issue of a presidential election for tl people of the United States, in the centennial year of the republic. A Louisiana tribunal, hatched into life by hucksteHig politician?,- shamefully unfit •o pass lirfon the average questions co~ nized iir tpe court of a justice ot the peace, and condemned'by th..- decent men of all parties fjor, its record of rascality and fraud, is to deridk as a finalitv. a question of the gravestTnagnitudc, to forty milliorts ol people. |Vas it surprising, in such a crisis, tttalfhe chairman of the national Democratic committee should ask some of the chosen friends efTilden and Hendricks to Visit Louisiana in the interest ol peace, and a fair count of the vote of the state? Was it strange that a thrill ofalarm was felt inevery section of the Union, and that men spoke with bated breath of the situation? And was the general anxiety at all assuaged by the sending of the troops to New Orleans? Did not the man who said "Let us have peace," destroy civil goverment in Louisiana by I he bayo net? Two years later, when this same returning board cheated the people .of the state out of the right to their own chosen rulers through a fair and valid electior, did he not b«ck up the outrage by the scandalous use of federal soldiers? Has not the man who said "Let no guty man escape," systematically taken sides with usurpation and roguery in Louisiana? Did he need troops in New Orleans, it the returning board was resolved to act honestly? Or did he mean to use them in sustaining it in the repetition of its past offences against justice and decency? The President, in ,his mili tary order to General Sherman, said that' "either party can afford to be disappointed in the result," but that "the country can not afford to have the result tainted by the suspicion ofillegal or false returns. 6id he mean this? Or was he firing at honor and fair play from behind a masked battery? The cmls was critical. Dan.uer seemed to be in the air. The hearts of the people were burdened with the problem of the hour, and all patriotic and sober men anxiously hoped for its peadeable solution. A CONFERENCE PROPOSED AND REJECT

ED—THE REASONS.

What was to be done? Representa* tive men of both political parties ha-1 reached the theater of trouble, as the avowed missionaries of peace and fair dealing. The men who represented the democratic side of the controversy, fully appreciating the seriousness the 6itua tion^ addressed a brief letter to Stanley Matthews, John Sherman, and other representative republicans who had been deputed by the President, proposing a joint conference "in order that such influence a» they possessed Yjjfiht by exerted in behalf of such a canvWkot the voters, as by its fairness and im:n»Bility should command the respect and ljjfouiesence of the American people of all parties." I submit to all just and reaeonable men that this was a fair and manly preposition. I am sure it was made in good faith and not a man who joined in it would have' been willing to see Tilden and Hendricks countea in by fraud. W«* simply asked for a fair count, and the supervision of the canvass by a conference respecting both sides of the disputed question. It might not have accomplished any valuable result, but in so threatening an aspect of public affairs the effort was ceruinly to be commended, and could not honorably be declined. What was the

and after the election in that year, resultjof the recent etectionrin Louisiana .t *. ..ntaK iiwav rfnm fin# 1 1 /*. 11.. autkAnfSM I««I1

1867

General Sheridan, for violating an act of he legislature respecting the repair ®f her levees, and seeking to prostitute the funds of the State to partisan purposes. General Sheridan branded him as a "POLITICAL TRICKSTER AND A DIS

of training and expe

rience, but he is a scoundrel aboriginally, and in saying this. I belie/e I simply give expression to the j."-neral sentiment of the state. Anderson, 'he other white man 011 the board is notq.iite vicious. The element of humanity is ir®fatally left out of his commotion. I is not so cold blooded. IF PLACED IN C.)MMA\':) OP P-RATB

SHIP

answer to our proposition by the deputies man. of the president and leaJers

1 I A

by iu lawfully constituted authorities will be made." Gentlemen, would any of you have believed it morallv possible for Stanley Matthews, John Sherman and their republican co-laborers in Louisiana to

FACE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE with a statement so shockingly incredible? And yet they were equal to the extraordinary task, and they are all honorable men. I will not be so ungenerous and impolite as to call in question their veracity but it can only be defended by an impeachment of their intelligence, almost as disgraceful as lying. No reason to doubt that a perfectly honest ard just declaration of the vote in Louisiana would be made by the famous returning board! Then they had mingled freely with the people of New Orleans without ever having heard of the notoriously bad haJacter of three of the four members ot' hat board! They had never heard that W lliam A. Wheeler, two years ago, pro nounced it a disgrace to civilization! They had never heard tnat it was proved before a cougrevsional committee of republicans, about the same time, that the president of this board perjured himself in the testimony he gave respecting the election of 1874! They had never heard of the perfectly well knowi fact that in that year this b-jard illegally and unjustly "took the majority of votes honestly and fairly given to the Democratic ticket, and 'counted them on the other side, as admitted by the congressional committee referred to, which was composed of the politica friends of these surprisingly innocent and ignorant politicians, and of the members of the board tsell! They had never heaid that General Sheridan summarilv turned the president of this board out of his gubernatorial office in 1867,on account of his shime less ras rrv and disregard of law! Who would supposed that our country was affiicti-d with so rare an assemblage of political Rip Van Winkles as that which repoited for duty in New Orleans under the lead of Sherman, Garfield, and Kelly? FURTHER REASONS—"THE INNOCENTS

ABROAD."

But those Republican patriats declined our proposal for a joint conference for the further reason that they were present as mere "witnesses, without power or legal influence" over the action of the board. They said they were "strangers, without official functions," and that "it would be a manifes: interference with state rights and local self government fer persons like ourselves without official rights, to attempt to interfere with or control" the actions of such a tribunal"Angels and ministers of grace defend us!" Will wonders never cease? John Sherman and his confederate republicans, preaching the gospel of state rights and local self governmer tin Louisiana! The chief apostles of federal usuapriion and the Christianity o. the bayonet striving to hide the villainies of a republican returning board under the mantle ofThomas Jefferson! TV sanctities of law invoked by the assassins of a state! Could anything be more sualimely impudent or more charmingly Satanic?

These emissanes of the president knew that the men who propose a joint conference were not such idiots as to suppose it would possess any official power over the legal functions of the board. When Senator Sherman pretended not to know this, the man was forgotten in the pettifogger. What we hoped from he presenc: ami co-operative act on o' leading republicans and' democrats Was the exercise of such a moral influence over this suspected tribunal as would secure publicity, impartiality and fairness in its methods of canvassing the votes and ascertaining the result Our purpose was unmistakable, and it accorded perfectly with the declared wish of the President, that "representative and fair men of both parties" would visit Louisiana "to see that the board of canvassers make a fair count of the vote actually cast."

The presence of these republican leader* in

New

Orleans in response to the invi

tation of their chief, was a clear recognition of ttie very power which they afterwards disclaimed by styling themselves "strangers," with no right to "control or influence any of the officers of tne board as to the manner irt which they sha.l per form ministerial or political duties." Fellow citizens, can any of you devine vhat brought these gentlemen to New Orleans? They recoil from the very thought of exercising any influence, legal or moral, over the action of the board, or the method of its proceedings. They say they know of no reason to doubt that it would make a perfectly honest and just declaration of the resuhs of the election. And yet here were twenty-six "eminent citizens" and "CHRISTIAN STATESMEN simultaneouslo leaving their homes for Louisiana at the call of the president, and attending the sessions of the returning board in succcssive squads till its work was done. What is the meaning of all this?

They say

the repubj

lican party? They say in the outset that tht^y "know of no reason to doubt that a perfectly honest and just declaration of on the

THK BOARD

they went as "witness

es," but whv go so far to witress a performance that would undoubtedly be conducted with perfect honesty and fairness? Why make a long journey for the mere purpose of becoming spectators of a roeeeding over which they could exercise neither legal control nor moral influence? These provoking questions are rendered all the more so by the sing ular fact that this formidable body of "witnesses," which the president detailed for dutv at New Orleans disobeyed their orders* The private cittaens and strangers, whose innocent and useless mission was that of simple spec.ators of the doings of the board, fail.-d even in that duty. They were in the court room in \yhich the board sat while canvas -i ig the ieturns and examining the papers, but with rare and very slight exceptions thev gave no more attention to what was going on, and manifested no more interest in the proceedings than if th whole affairs had related exclusively to the "denizens of another planet. Their -confidence in the board seemed to be so gushing and unreserved that they peacefully resigned themselves to their corres|ondence, their newspapers, and their cigars, while the presence of a formidable military force in this city to "see that the members of the bdard were unmolested in the performance jf their duties," was probably felt as a superadded solace to their souls They may have been "witnesses," to some of the acts of the boa 1 d, but if so, it must have been at night, in some appointed gathering of the politically cl'Ct, into which no fritnd of Tilden and Hendricks could be admitted. Ge.itlemen, I desire to do injustice to no

ENTERED UPON ITS REGU'

LAR DUTIES Novemher.. Was-it

20th

i, v..

gaily constituted The law creating it declares that it shall consist offive members, and that all the political parties of the state shall be represented. But there wereb jt four members, and these all Republicans and yet Senator Sherman, in the senate the other day, said "the board was legally constituted." What does he mean by so reckless a statement It is not denied that the action of four members would be as legal as that of the whole, so far as numbers are concerned but here is a positive r»quirement that all political parties shall be represented on the board. This is just as binding as the provision fixing the number of the body. A board consisting of two members could not act, because it would lack the numerical qualification prescribed by law, just as a board composed exclusively of members of one political party lacks the political qualification prescribe 1 by the same law. The fir^t duly of the board, therefore, without wh ch I think it was powerless to perform any other, was to fill the vacancy, which the law expressly authorized and required it to do. The counsel for the Democratic candidates formally asked the performance, of this obvious and imperative duty, suggesting the name "of a most worthy and well qualified man for the posi'io'n but the board refused. It defiantly trampled under foot the two-fo'd commat-d of the law to fill the vacancy, and to supply the political element which wanting President Wells, •THE PLAIN MAN," who seems to le .1 gi en1 favorite of Senator Sherman, said the Democrats had lost their rigi to a member of the board by the resignation ot Mr. Arroys, which I think took place a year and a half ago. He further said that the board had failed to agree as to the appointment of the gentleman suggested to, as it no her man could be found among the more than 80,00® Democrats and conservatives of the State. He made the further pitiful plea, that when this returning board was first created there was no mch organization as the Democratic-conservative party in the state, at if that fact could furnish the slightest excuse for violating the law to-day. This miserable drivel, by the side of which the worst formt of pet tifogging became rfefcpectable. is paraded jn the Senate of the United States ty* Mr. Sherman as a

VINDICATION OF THE BOARD. While in a recent debate in the house of representatives, Mr. Hale, of Maine, sought to extricate Governor Wells from his despicable dlemma by saying that at its late session the board had offered the vacancy to as manv as six Democrats, who successively declined it. This statement is'ab-M.lutely untrue. Not a Democrat was offered the position, although ,the board was urged, morning after morning during its sessions, to fill it. Why did it refuse For the perfectly manifest reason that a Democratic mem ber would be an unmanageable obstacle tdf the work to be done, ile would have a right to take part in the oral examination of witnesses. He would have a share in the work of canvassing the returns. He would have a right to be present in the secret conferences of the board, during iu. piotracted public sessions. And he would oe present at the final cooking of the returns by which the state was to be cheated, and would be the

WITNESS OF THE TRANSACTION.

These arc exactly the reasons why *he board stubbornly and brazenly refused to fill the vacancy and I believe no, man Svill d~ny it who is acquainted with its history, except the innocent and childlike Senator Sherman, and the guileless political babes who played their part as "witnesses" so inoffensively at New Orleans. Gentlemen, the defence of such lawlessness by honorable men in either branch of congress would be a melancholy fact, even if this board had been able*to point to a record cf unimpeachable good behavior in the past. But its character was bad, iri'the judgment of all political parties. It had

THWARTED THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE of Louisina two years before, by making the ballot the football of knavery and fraud. Its integrity was suspected by in. telligent men throughout the entire land and its action in thu* violating the princi pal that no man shall be a judge in hisown case, was as shameless as would t»e that of a judge of one of your own courts who should claim the right to occupy-the bench and charge the jury on the trial of an indictment agaitst himself, after a former conviction for the same offence. Its audacity in clutching at party ma chirery and scouting the virtues of honesty, impartiality and fairness, while proceeding to decide the grave issues of a st*.te and national election, is enough to provoke the laughter and the amazement of the devils. Senator Sherman clefends.it. He thinks 'Governor Well* "the peer ot any man in the senate," and he sees nothing wrong in the further fact that the clercical force of the board was also packed with Republicans. He «ays there was no law requiring a political divison of the clerks, and that the Democrats, when they have the offices, do not divide with Republicans. But tlvs is a vt-rv tranfpareut dodge The point here involved is uot one of law, but decency. The returning board is covered with public sus«icio i. Its character is *tained by fraud, If bent upon further tascalilies it would, of course, want a body of faithful clt rical scullions, skilled in the work of falsely and fraudulently canvassing and tabulating the votes, and all acting harmoniously in the service of their master. This, of course, would be seriously interfered with by

ihe

presence

of Democrats, while no harm would be done if honor and fair play were to -e the governing principles. All this is as palpable as the moral blindness» which hinders very distinguished and honorable gentlemen frjm seeing it.

But even if the board had the right

TO CANVASS THE ELECTORAL VOTE,

it clearly transcended its legal authority iu throwing out votes on account of intimidation and violence. Its simple duty was to canvass and compile the returns and proclaim the result, unless the commissioners of election or the supervisors of registration imposed upon it a further dutv by laying a egal foundation for It, as provided for in sections 26 and 43 of the state election law. That foundation must consist of the affidavit of the super visor of registiation or commissioners of elections, supported by the affidavits of three or more citizens, setting forth the facts of any riot, tumult, acts of violence, intimidation, armed disturbance, bribery or corrupt influences which prevented or tended to prevent a fair, free and peaceble election, and showing the number of qualified electors deterred by such proceedings from voting or registering. Th's statement must be made out within 24 hours after the receipt of all the re-,

*«a

turns for the different polling places, and shall be forwarded in duplicate to supervisor of registration of the parish. If this foundation is not laid, the board has no jurisdiction whatever, except to count the votes retui ned. It has no right to entertain any outside protest It has no right to attack the returns from any poll, ward, or parish in the state, for any of the causes specified. If the decision of the board i« fins', it is because its proceedings have travkei the law, and are therefore backed bv its authority. The board has no ex officio power to institute com plaints against any poll.

Tbe special provisions of the law have an unmistakable meaning. Their purpose is that all the supervisors shall bs engaged simultaneously in their several parishes in completing their returns and statements on the spot where the election was held, without communication with each other or wiih persons beyond the parish, and before they can obtain information of what has been done in other parishes, or any clear knowledge of the residt. The design is to exclude from the consideration of the returning board all ex post facto complaints which might be trumped i:p at the last moment, for dishonest purposes. And this was the declared opinion of Messrs. Hoar. Wheeler and Frye. in the famous report of Feb ruary, 1S75, in which they say, Wc are cleat ly of opinion that the ret'.irnii'g board has no right to dr anything except to canvass and complete the returns whi.'h were lawfully r.-ade to them by local officers, excejt in cases wt ere they were accompanied bv the certificates of the supervisor or commissioner provided in the third section." I believe

NO SUCH FOUNDATION

for the jurisdiction of the board, as the law requires, was laid in any parish ol the state, and certainly not in any of the tive which have been the chief theatre of alleged intimidation and violence. The action of the board therefore, in seeking to defeat the will of the people of Louisiana by disfranchising more than 13.000 democratic voters, was not only a flagrant usurpation of authority, but an unpardonable sin against "the habit of obedience: to the form, of law," which the visiting committee of republicans at New Orleans lately solemnly warned us "should be sedulously inculcated," and that redress for even actual grievances should be avoided and condemned as revolutionary, disorganizing, and tending to disorder and anarchy."

REPUBLICAN INTIMIDATION.

Gentlemen, there is another considera lion involved in this discussion which I must not fail to notice namely, that intimidation is a game which two may play at. I do not pretend that the democrats of Louisiana are wholly innocent of this political vice. Human nature is the same in both parties, and both have practiced it, in some form, in every state of th.* union. After the war the white people of the states lately in rebellion manifested a spirit of intolerance and hate toward the people who had been their bondsmen and were now suddenly lifted to citizen ship and suffrage, and for some years this spirit made its record in deeds of fright tuf violence and crime. But a kindlier reeling has been gradually evoked, notwithstanding the efforts of demagogues and carpet-bag thieves to perpetuate the estrangement of the races. Free labor is now generally conceded to be a succcss by the men who fought for slavery They would not restore it if they had the poirer, no- take the ballot, from the negro. Their old hostility to the Union has measurably perished with the institu ti jn which inspired it. Thev have suffered very severely from the ravages of war. and have endured with singular patience and long suffering t}ie cruel inflictions of a state government which has been fastened upon their necks by fraud and supported by federal despotism. What they now ask is good government and fair opportunity to rebuild their shattered fortunes. They are intensely anxious to rid themselves of the remorseless usurpation under which they have so long groaned and in the scuffle for deliverance against a powerful and perfectly

UNSCRUPULOUS FOE,

it would be strange if they had not sometimes sought the votes of the colored people by the current methods of political warfare. But if they have practiced intimidation, the republicans of Louisian are not the men to upbraid them. The Kellogg government is itself an organ ized intimidation and standing menace of all honest jnen, while it has taken into its embrace the rogues and ruffians of of the s-ate. For years past the republicans of Louisiana have practiced intimidation extensively and rigorously. The United States marshal for the state has used cavalry to intimidate democrats. In his officisU capacity, and while at the same time chairman of the state republi can committee, he has on several occasions employed federal soldiers in the service of his paity, just as the army and revenue officers were used in Alabama in securing the election of Spencer to the sei ate of the United States The while and colored testimony submitted to the returning board during its last sessions, and subsequently taken more fully by the congressional committees now in Louisiana, shows that tht negroes themselves a-e among the most savage and ferocious intimidators in the stage, and that the crimes and outrages inflicted on their colored brethren for daring to vole they please are a lull match for any of the lindred penormar.eecharged to the democrats. The mors intelligent classes of them are powerfully impelled by the reasons already mentioned to break .luir party ranks but in attempting to d. so thev are often obligi-d to risk their lives. The wives of colored men frequently threaten to leave them ii they vote the democratic ticket, and for doing so I believe this threat has sometimes been executed and a divorce demanded of the husband. Colored dtmo. crats are turned out of church for the same cause and a case has recently been reported in which the rite of baptism was denied to a colored man because he had left the republican party. Mr. Nordhoff says that in parts of southern Louisiana the negroes arc still summoned from the fields to attend political meetings by order of General Butler and he mention-* a case where a candidate for a county' office circulated a printed "general order' commanding all colored men to vote for him, and signed "U. S. Giant, president," which sccured for him the solid colored vote. In a political canvass in Louisiana the negroes are thoroughly indoctrinated wth the idea that they will be sold into slavery if the democratic ticket should be elected, just as Senator Morton told the people of Indiana in the late canvass that if Tilden should succeed slavery would certainly be re-established, thej

t'»: *lr»',-"" T!t 7J

Ifi

nehel debt *?ddfo opSH Of. Slid ft* debt repudiated. THE REPOBUCAIV about intiraid: tkn,jvb* his now aouad ing through the land, Cfflnes with an ill^ grace from the leaders of a party wfco demanded the votes of eighty thousand officeholders far Hayes and Wheeler "on penalty of dismissal, and t«ted their fidelity to their masters levying contributions upon their earnings But still mo utterly pretK»teroii»- is the complaint of the Republican party of Louisiira iibout intimidation in that state. With such leaders as Kellogg, WarcnOth Packard Casey and Pinc'nback, armed and equipped with the whole power of* the state government, and reinforced by' thr:army and navt with the entire patronage of the federal government supersadded, the cry of Democratic intimidation is like the whine of a miiled giant* for military protection against ail unann*ed boy. THE COUNTING OF Till VOT»—

CONCLUSION.

Ge.itlemen, I have thm dealt With' this Louisiana question somewhat fully and Mi-rouglily because of Its fearfuK magnituc-e and the gr-ve can sequences which wait upon its decision. If I rTr» right in the views I have expressed and the conclusions I have reached. Louie^ iana has cast her vote for Tilden and* Hendricks, and they are fairly and certainly elected. But in contexplation ©1'^ law no election hat taken place until* the president of the senate sinll. in the presence of the senate and house of representatives, open all the certificates, anc*1 the votes shall then be counted." Who. is to count these votes? Upon the an»« swer to this question depends the issue the most fearful struggle lor the presidency that has ever stii red the passioi»of the American people. The presidingofficer of the Senate, we are told, is to decide this question. Hi is to &e the grand returning board of the nation, from whose decision there is nj appeal. Mr. chairman, he has no more right to count the votes and declare the result than yoo ,' hare. On this subject we** are fortunately not le.t tcu«

GROPE IN THE DARL.

According to an unbroken chain precedents, beginning with the electtorv of Washington and reaching down to the present time the counting of the electoral vote is to be done by Congress, or under its authority and oirectien. But now after the meaning of the constitution hasthus been printed and stereotyped by the uniform usage of more than 80 years, and aconformi to this usage will no long** serve the behests of tbe party in power, its leaders suddenly face upon the recoriM they have made in the Senate within the past

WE PLEAD VOH PEACE.

and the calamities of war can only

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months and propose to save-

their political fortunes by the REVOLUTIONARY EXPLOIT, I have mentioned. While Grantism* stretched on its bed of death, is gasping?* out its prayer for deliverance from thejudgment to come, the political •ntrcen-' aries, who have served at its al*ar for the past eight years, now assume the office, of physician, and arc anxious to save the, life of their patient by nostrums of deadly poison to the constitution. Shall we allow this to be done Are wc to sit quietly by while the republic is Mexican— ized by the senatorial junto of malignantor who have so long kept themselves in thefront by making the late war the harlot of their ambition Why wait lour year*. for a remedv, when wc hold it in our1 own hands now, through the congress of the United States Why talk about an appeal to the ballot for the redress of oar wrongs hereafter, if we allow it'-to be come a cheat and a lie to-day These questions can neither be postponed nor evaded. The crisis compels us lo pander them, in seeking an honorable wajf out of the dreadful dilemma In which the country is placed. Not in submission Uv

FLAGRANT ACRSOF TYRARNY^ but in resistance, must we expect our deliverance. Senator Morton and his fellow conspirators tel) us that the president of the senate will count the elector-^ al vote, anJ declare the result, aad that,#" need be, it will be enforced by 'he army and navy. This is simply a threat of revolution. The vital qflestion before the country is not which of two men shal} be president, but whether the man who has been elected shall be deprived of hie office by fraud or force. It is because we advocate peace, and recoil from thf thought of civil strife, that we demands obedience to the constitution and Amen*' can fair play in the settlement of the momentous issue which fearfully -divide*

our aopeal to public opinion, whicta Daniel Webster pronounced "the, mightiest power on earth," and we invoke that power in the work of curbing the evil genius of the men wh »se unbridled* iM ambition has palsied their reason and de-! voured their love of country. I do not-i believe the s:our^e of war is in store for" us, but it ean only be certainly averted! by the people thenwelves pronouncing their convictions ankpurposes with suctw unmistakable earnestness and emphatic prior to the day of counting the electoral: vote as shall foreshadow certain disaster!*# Js to anv revolutionary movement.

hey of the republic, sovereignty

might their sovereignty

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take us through tbe madness which shalfc set the constitution aiM^liws at defiance. .\ It is for the sake of peace that we wouIJK warn these plotters of treason that their enterprise will be resisted-'if they1-under-*«V'* take it, and that the «ofcmn duty of- the"? people to maintain the constitutional rights of the government, will make- re-* si.stance inevitable unless they are ready to put on Ihe livery of slaves. We make

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BY ARGUMENT, BY PFRSUASION^ ^FRJW by persist nt appeals to the judgment of^t all sober and patriotic men of whateveR party, and by popular assemblies throughout the country of eana st and determinr ed men, such as we see here to-day, I believe a public conscience may he created tnat will drive the republican leaders« from their purpose. In this work oQ popular agitation every citizen should* share. Tne seriousnesa of the crisis do-*'" mands his voice on the side of law and int*1*he in re to a I a a -«id Edmund Burke, "where there is atfc[^« abuse. '1 he fire bell at night disturb* »our sleep, but it keeps you from lx- 1 burned in vour bed. Let the peoj™speak, fvr they hold in their hands the

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be invaded without their con sent. A century ago our fathers took up arms in defense of their right, to a vqice in the government which dealt with ieir .. liberty, their proper^ and their live*. We assert the same right r.ow, when we ask that the will of the people be regis"~~~~{"Conciudedoa ^rthpage.}

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