LOUISIANA. 



481 



publican platform which pledge our party to the 

 faithful payment of our public debt. 



That we advocate the reduction of national taxa- 

 tion and a redistribution of the imposts in such a 

 manner as to impose the least possible burden upon 

 the people. 



That we pledge ourselves and our party to the 

 faithful execution of the constitutional and statutory 

 provisions for the public education of all the children 

 of the State without distinction. 



That we insist upon the enforcement of the consti- 

 tutional and legal guarantees of the civil and politi- 

 cal rights of all men, without distinction of race or 

 previous condition. 



The fusion with the Packard or custom- 

 house party was finally effected by the State 

 Central Committees, the following ticket being 

 agreed upon : For Governor, Wm. P. Kellogg 

 (custom-house) ; Lieutenant-Governor, C. C. 

 Antoine, colored (custom-house) ; Secretary 

 of State, P. G. Deslonde, colored (Pinchback) ; 

 Auditor, Charles Clinton (custom-house); 

 Attorney-General, A. P. Field (custom-house); 

 Superintendent of Education, . . Brown, 

 colored (Pinchback); Congressman at large, 

 P. B. S. Pinchback, colored. 



This left but two State tickets in the field, 

 the fusion ticket of the Democrats, Reformers, 

 and Liberals, headed by McEnery, and the 

 ticket of the united Republicans, headed by 

 Kellogg. The election, both for presidential 

 electors and State officers, occurred on the 4th 

 of November, the day previous to the presi- 

 dential election in the other States of the 

 Union. The election passed off quietly, but a 

 dispute arose at once with regard to the re- 

 sult. According to the election law in force 

 up to this time, the Board of Returning Offi- 

 cers consisted of the Governor, Lieutenant- 

 Governor, Secretary of State, and two other 

 members chosen by these three. The members 

 chosen were John Lynch and T. C. Anderson, 

 and the Board had the power to fill vacancies 

 in its own number. The law required this 

 Board to canvass the returns within ten days 

 after the election, and to publish the result. 

 George E. Bovee, the Secretary of State, had 

 been suspended from office, and F. J. Herron 

 was acting in his stead, and on the 13th of 

 November the Governor removed Herron, on 

 a charge of defalcation, and appointed Jack 

 Wharton. At the meeting of the Returning 

 Board, on the same day, it was decided that 

 Pinchback, having been a candidate for office 

 at the late election, could not act, and he with- 

 drew, and F. W. Hatch was appointed in his 

 place. Mr. Anderson, who was present at the 

 meeting, was pronounced ineligible, on the 

 same ground, and his place was filled by the 

 appointment of Durant Daponte. These changes 

 were made by the votes of Warmoth and 

 "Wharton, as a majority of the members of the 

 Board so far as constituted, and the Board, 

 when completed by this process, consisted of 

 Warmoth, Wharton, Hatch, Daponte, and 

 Lynch. Mr. Lynch refused to act with this 

 Board, and he and Mr. Herron, who claimed 

 that Governor Warmoth could not legally re- 



VOL. XII. 31 A 



move him from the office of- Secretary of State, 

 chose James Longstreet and Jacob Hawkins 

 to act with them, thus constituting another 

 Board, consisting of Warmoth, as Governor, 

 ex ojftcio, Herron, Lynch, Longstreet, and 

 Hawkins. Subsequently, George E. Bovee, 

 the suspended Secretary of State, took the 

 place of Herron, being reinstated in office by 

 the Supreme Court of the State, on the 4th of 

 December. 



It was alleged, by the opponents of War- 

 moth, that he had, by the appointment of 

 Supervisors of Registration, secured the rejec- 

 tion of the names of many legal voters, and 

 that, in many parishes, the election was null 

 and void, and that his purpose was now to 

 count in and return the McEnery State officers 

 as elected, although that headed by Kellogg 

 was in reality legally chosen. It was also 

 claimed that the Returning Board with which 

 the Governor proposed to act was not legally 

 constituted. William P. Kellogg immediately 

 brought suit in the United States Circuit Court, 

 before Judge E. H. Durell, for an injunction 

 restraining the Warmoth Board from canvass- 

 ing the returns, except in the presence of John 

 Lynch, Jacob Hawkins, James Longstreet, and 

 Francis J. Herron, and from submitting them 

 at all to Jack Wharton, Frank H. Hatch, and 

 Durant Daponte. A temporary injunction was 

 granted, on the 16th of November, and the 

 defendants, consisting of Warmoth, McEnery, 

 the returning officers in their interest, and the 

 New Orleans Republican Printing Company, 

 were cited to appear before the court on the 

 19th, to show why injunctions should not be 

 granted, pendente lite, until the points at issue 

 should be determined. The Printing Company 

 was included to prevent the printing of any 

 returns, by the Warmoth Board, in the offi- 

 cial organ. 



The trial of this case began on the 25th of 

 November, and, in the mean time, Governor 

 Warmoth called an extra session of the Legis- 

 lature to meet on the 9th of December, and 

 promulgated the new election law, which was 

 passed at the last session of the Legislature, 

 but hitherto not approved. The provision of 

 this law as to the Board of Returning Officers 

 was as follows : 



SECTION 2. Be it further enacted, etc., That five 

 persons ? to be elected by the Senate, from all politi- 

 cal parties, shall be the returning officers for all elec- 

 tions in the State, a majority or whom shall consti- 

 tute a quorum, and have power to make the returns 

 of all elections. In case of any vacancy by death, 

 resignation, or otherwise, by either of the Board, 

 then the vacancy shall be filled by the residue of the 

 Board of Eeturning Officers. 



It was claimed that the promulgation of this 

 law abolished all returning boards acting un- 

 der the old law, and left it to the Senate at 

 the coming session of the Legislature to choose 

 officers to receive and canvass the votes cast 

 at the late election. 



The case of Kellogg against Warmoth and 

 others, was argued at length before Judge 



