LOUISIANA. 



437 



in which they favored the execution of said recon- 

 struction acts, and rendered the open and active 

 assistance above referred to, and that no acts shall be 

 deemed such assistance or such favor to said recon- 

 struction acts except an open advocacy of or voting 

 for the Constitutional Convention. 



The chairman of the Board of Registration, 

 appointed by Governor Warmouth, was William 

 Baker, who had formerly caused much dissatis- 

 faction to the citizens of New Orleans in the 

 office of Street Commissioner. Mr. Baker is- 

 sued instructions to the supervisors of registra- 

 tion, giving his interpretation of the oaths pre- 

 scribed by the acts of September Vth, and direct- 

 ing the officers to refuse to register any person 

 concerning whom they had any doubt. With 

 regard to the third form of oath given above, 

 he said : 



It must be borne in mind that the only way_ in 

 which any person could have aided reconstruction 

 prior to January 1, 1868, was, by favoring and voting 

 for a convention to revise the constitution of the State, 

 at the election held on September 27, and 28, 1867. 

 Those who opposed and voted against a convention 

 did not aid reconstruction, for, had a majority of the 

 people voted against it, this State would no more have 

 been reconstructed than is Mississippi at the present 

 time. 



This interpretation of the law gave rise to 

 much complaint respecting the manner in which 

 the registration was to be conducted for the 

 coming election, and a committee was appointed 

 in the General Assembly to investigate the ac- 

 tion of the Board of Registrars. This commit- 

 tee reported unfavorably to the views taken 

 by Mr. Baker of the restriction to be placed 

 upon registration, and recommended a supple- 

 mental act " to define more fully the powers 

 and duties of the Board of Registration and 

 supervisors thereof for the registration of the 

 qualified voters of the State." A law was ac- 

 cordingly passed, giving the registrars much 

 less discretion with regard to their duties than 

 they ha'd been inclined to take. 



The Governor saw fit, on the 19th of Septem- 

 ber, to issue a proclamation notifying 'the quali- 

 fied voters of the State that there would be an 

 election on the 3d of November, for the choice 

 of electors to vote for the next President and 

 Vice-President of the United States, and for 

 Representatives in Congress of the State of 

 Louisiana, and commanding all supervisors of 

 elections, and other officers therein concerned, 

 to hold the election for those purposes ; " said 

 election to be conducted and returns thereof 

 made in all respects according to the provisions 

 of the constitution of the State and laws in such 

 cases made and provided." 



The Democrats of Louisiana prepared to en- 

 ter with spirit into the political contest of the 

 autumn in unison with the party throughout 

 the country. Their State Central Committee 

 called a convention, to meet at New Orleans on 

 the 30th of September, "for the purpose of 

 filling vacancies upon the Democratic electoral 

 ticket for electors and alternates at large, and 

 for district electors and alternates who may be 

 found ineligible under the Fourteenth Amend- 



ment of the Constitution ; for the nomination 

 of candidates for Congress, and for the purpose 

 of consulting together in the interests of the 

 Democratic party in the approaching cam- 

 paign." The Convention met accordingly on 

 the 30th of September, and continued in ses- 

 sion the greater part of three days. The Com- 

 mittee on Resolutions at first made a connected 

 report "on the state of the country," in which 

 they arraign the reconstruction policy of Con- 

 gress as founded on proscription. Of the con- 

 dition of things in their own State, they say : 



Our present State government presents a spectacle 

 calculated to excite no other feelings than those of 

 shame and disgust. The ascendency of the negroes 

 at the ballot-box has enabled them to elect the Lieu- 

 tenant-Governor and about one-half of the Legislature 

 of their own race, and a large number of reckless and 

 unprincipled^ adventurers from other States, who have 

 no home or interest here, and are entire strangers to 

 our laws, manners, and customs. These two classes 

 have obtained the absolute control of the State gov- 

 ernment in all its departments, and have inaugurated 

 a system of profligacy, bribery, and open and shame- 

 less corruption that we hope, for the honor of human 

 nature, is without a parallel. 



These men seem to labor for but two objects, to 

 perpetuate their own power, and to devise new and 

 hitherto unheard-of schemes for plundering the State. 

 They have created about two hundred new offices, 

 with enormous salaries, and have increased and, in 

 most instances, doubled the salaries of the old ones. 

 Under this profligate legislation the public debt is 

 daily increased at a fearful rate ; the public credit is 

 utterly ruined, and the ability of the people to sup- 

 port the enormous taxation levied upon them, by men 

 who pay no portion of it. constantly diminishing. 

 Nor is this all. The white people of the State, smart- 

 ing under a sense of wrong, groaning under an almost 

 intolerable load of taxation, seeing their money daily 

 squandered to enrich needy adventurers, while they 

 are in the same proportion impoverished and ruined, 

 are becoming hourly more restless, discontented, and 

 hopeless of the future. 



The resolutions afterward adopted by the 

 convention were the following : 



Resolved, That the Democracy of Louisiana, assem- 

 bled in convention for the first time since the adjourn- 

 ment of the National Democratic Convention, indorse 

 the platform of principles adopted by that body, and 

 pledge themselves to maintain and defend them. 



Resolved, That the nominations, made by that con- 

 vention, of Horatio Seymour, for President, and Frank 

 P. Blair, for Vice-President, have already received 

 the warm approval of the Democracy of Louisiana ; 

 that we recognize in them men worthy to be the 

 standard-bearers of constitutional liberty in this its 

 hour of extreme peril, and we pledge them our con- 

 tinued, earnest, and untiring support. 



Resolved, That we heartily and entirely indorse the 

 recent letter of General Robert E. Lee and other dis- 

 tinguished Southern citizens to General Rosecrans, 

 and declare that it is a truthful statement of the feel- 

 ings, wishes, and purposes of the people of the South. 

 That, while we are urged by every consideration of 

 material and political interest to desire a full and 

 speedy restoration to the Union, with all our con- 

 stitutional rights, and we recognize, to the fullest ex- 

 tent, our duty to support the Constitution, to obey 

 the laws passed in conformity with it, and to main- 

 tain the Union in its integrity. 



Resolved, That we recognize the abolition of slavery 

 as an accomplished fact, and that it is not our interest 

 or wish ever to revive it. That we believe that the 

 interests of the two races in the South are inseparably 

 connected, and we pledge ourselves to protect and de- 



