424 



LOUISIANA. 



tion. The resolutions suggested that the State 

 Central Committee, in issuing its call for the next 

 State convention, should fix the representation; ap- 

 proved the action of the Legislature on the suffrage 

 question ; commended the action of the Federal 

 Government in respect to the Mississippi; and ap- 

 proved the appropriations for improving the river. 



The National Republicans are composed of the 

 sugar planters and those in their interest who went 

 over to the Republican party in 1894 on the tariff 

 issue. They refused to admit negroes to their con- 

 ventions as the regular Republicans do. They held 

 a State convention on Jan. 4. The resolutions 

 dwelt particularly on the question of protection. 

 They made State nominations, headed by E. N. 

 Pugn for Governor, and later in the month, Jan. 

 29, they combined with the Populists on the follow- 

 ing ticket : For Governor, J. N. Pharr ; Lieutenant 

 Governor, J. B. Kleinpeter; Secretary of State, J. 

 W. McFarland ; Treasurer, John Pickett ; Attor- 

 ney-General, Lucien D. Suthon; Auditor, H. P. 

 Kernochan ; -Superintendent of Education, G. A. 

 M. Cook. 



The Populists met at Alexandria Jan. 8 and 

 named the following candidates; For Governor, A. 

 B. Booth ; Lieutenant Governor, S. Whitehead ; 

 Secretary of State, J. W. McFarland ; Treasurer, 

 H. E. Nelson ; Auditor, John B. Kleinpeter; Su- 

 perintendent of Education, G. A. M. Cook ; At- 

 torney-General, left for Executive Committee to 

 fill. ' 



A movement to combine with the Republicans 

 and sugar planters and accept their candidates for 

 Governor and other officers was not successful, but 

 a motion was carried to empower the State Central 

 Committee to fill the vacancies that might occur 

 by resignation or otherwise. 



The resolutions demanded free coinage of silver 

 and free and fair elections, and denounced the pro- 

 posed suffrage amendment as a vicious fraud. 

 They declared against ring rule, bossism, and ma- 

 chine politics, which they asserted to be prevalent 

 in Louisiana. 



The committee authorized to complete the State 

 ticket met at Alexandria, Jan. 23, and agreed upon 

 the fusion ticket headed by J. N. Pharr. 



The Republican State Convention met at New 

 Orleans on Jan. 29. There was a lively contest be- 

 tween the delegates favorable to Mr. McKinley and 

 those in favor of Mr. Reed. The result of the 

 voting was a moderate victory for the Reed men. 

 The resolutions were as follow : 



'"Whereas, The defeat of the suffrage amendment 

 and securing of free and honest elections in this 

 State is of paramount importance to the Republi- 

 can party; 



"Whereas, The convention of the People's party 

 and the convention of the National Republican 

 party have in their platforms declared against the 

 adoption of said suffrage amendment and in favor 

 of honest elections ; 



"Whereas, Both conventions have declared in fa- 

 vor of protection to American industries and Amer- 

 ican labor; be it 



"Resolved, By this convention, representing the 

 Republican party of this State with its 100,000 

 votes, that it does hereby indorse and recommend 

 to all Republicans to support by their suffrage 

 the ticket nominated by the People's party at Alex- 

 andria on the 23d of this month and by the Na- 

 tional Republicans on the 27th of this month." 



Trouble arose between the parties in some of the 

 parishes, the most serious in St. Landry. At Pal- 

 metto, the center of the negro section of that par- 

 ish, are about 400 negroes who usually register 

 and vote. When the registration office was opened 

 the supervisor of registration appeared accompa- 



nied by 200 white "regulators," representing the 

 " white supremacy " faction, armed with Winchester 

 rifles. These men gave notice that no negro should 

 register or vote there, and laid down the following 

 as their platform : 



" The white men of St. Landry claim that, as the 

 negro is a purchasable political commodity, who 

 will sell out without regard to principle, they are 

 determined that the only way to prevent themselves 

 from being included in the sale is to take the man- 

 ly plan and prevent the consummation of an infa- 

 my that no brave people can stand. They do not 

 believe in ballot-box stuffing, and are therefore 

 compelled to take this course to free themselves, 

 and are prepared to take all consequences." 



Several negroes who had declared their intention 

 to vote were flogged by the regulators, and in a 

 shooting affray 2 negroes and 2 white men were 

 killed. On April 7 there was another riot in the 

 parish. A party of 100 negroes left Grand Prairie 

 for Opelousas, but were intercepted about halfway 

 by a band of regulators and told they would not be 

 allowed to register. They attempted to pass, when 

 they were fired upon and 2 were killed and 6 or 7 

 wounded. The others were given 50 lashes each 

 and returned home. 



On April 20, the day before the election, 200 

 armed and mounted men surrounded Opelousas in 

 St. Landry Parish, and as many others were armed 

 to oppose them. There was a skirmish 3 miles 

 from the town, in which some blood was shed, and 

 a desperate fight was expected on election day ; but 

 the regulators dispersed in the morning, having, it 

 was asserted, forced many negroes to surrender 

 their registration papers and pledged others not to 

 vote. There were disturbances also before or after 

 election in St. John Baptist and Natchitoches par- 

 ishes, and militia was ordered to both places. 



The face of the returns gave the election to the 

 Democrats ; but their opponents charged fraud, 

 and claimed that their candidates had been elected. 

 They claimed that they had sworn evidence that 

 the vote in the black parishes was not one fourth as 

 large as the majorities returned for Foster by the 

 election commissioners, and that about 50,000 votes 

 were counted for Foster in the black belt. 



The election result remained unsettled until May 

 14, when the tellers of the General Assembly made 

 two reports. The majority report was as follows : 

 " We have examined the returns as furnished by the 

 Secretary of State, and find the result to be as tabu- 

 lated on the accompanying statement. We recom- 

 mend that the presiding officers declare the result 

 so ascertained M. J. Foster to be elected Governor, 

 and R. H. Snyder Lieutenant Governor." The vote 

 was: Foster, 116,216; Pharr, 90,188; Snyder, 118,- 

 477 ; Kleinpeter, 86,487. 



The minority report was as follows : " The under- 

 signed beg leave to report that they have not been 

 able to examine and correct the vote as provided by 

 Article LIX of the Constitution, because what purport 

 to be the returns of election are mere tabulated 

 statements from the board of supervisors of the 

 several parishes, and no legal returns were pre- 

 sented to your committee. The undersigned beg 

 fui'ther to report that they are informed that the 

 legal returns are now in the office of the Secretary 

 of State, whose office is in this building, and we 

 therefore pray that the Secretary of State be ordered 

 to produce instanter and lay before the General As- 

 sembly said legal returns, consisting of the original 

 tally sheets, compiled statements of voters and lists 

 of voters, in order that this honorable body may ex- 

 amine and count the vote for Governor and Lieu- 

 tenant Governor of this State as provided by Article 

 LIX of the Constitution." 



The Legislature refused to go behind the returns 



