224 



CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



to presidential electors. After setting or.t the 

 election law of 1870, and the circumstances 

 under which it is claimed the Lynch board and 

 the Warmoth board were elected and organ- 

 ized, the report proceeds as follows : 



The election for presidential electors, members of 

 Congress, State officers, and members of the Legis- 

 lature, was held in Louisiana on the 4th of Novem- 

 berj and the returns of the election in the various 

 parishes were sent to the Governor by the Super- 

 visors of Registration, as required by law. The 

 Governor refused to act with the board known as the 

 Lynch board^ or to open and lay before that board 

 the returns ot the election from the various parishes ; 

 but opened them and prepared to make the count 

 before what is known as the Wharton board, which 

 was then enjoined from further proceedings by Judge 

 Durell. The official returns which had been sent to 

 the Governor were by him withheld from the Lynch 

 returning board, and never at any time came into 

 the possession or under the examination of that 

 board. The Legislature of Louisiana, at its session 

 in the winter of 1872, passed an act abolishing the 

 returning or canvassing board, as created by the act 

 of 1870, and authorizing the State Senate to elect a 

 returning board, to have the same powers as the 

 former, and making other changes in the mode of 

 conducting the elections ; and on the 20th of No- 

 vember, 1872, the Governor, who had not signed 

 this act, but kept it in his possession during the 

 pendency of these proceedings in the Circuit Court 

 of the United States, and also proceedings of a like 

 character commenced in the eighth district court of 

 the State, signed the bill and published it as a law. 



" This is the act which abolished the Lynch 

 board. Again the report says : 



Some two or three days preceding the 4th of De- 

 cember, the Lynch board officially declared that M. 

 F. Bonzano, J. Lanabere, C. H. Halstead, L. C. Crou- 

 danez, A. K. Johnson, Milton Morris, J. Taylor, and 

 John Ray, whom we shall designate as the Grant 

 electors, had received a majority of all the votes in 

 the State for electors of President and V ice-Presi- 

 dent, and the Secretary of State de jure, Mr. Bovee. 

 not then in possession of the office of Secretary of 

 State or the State seal, but who had been decided 

 by the Supreme Court of the State a few days before 

 to be the lawful Secretary, made a certificate of elec- 

 tion to the persons so declared chosen as electors, 

 and on the 4th of December they met and cast their 

 votes for President and Vice-President, according 

 to the requirements of the act of Congress. They 

 did not, on that day, however, seal up their vote, 

 but kept it open for several days until Mr. Bovee, 

 the Secretary of State, got possession of the State 

 seal, so as to attach it to their certificates of election. 

 The Secretary of State had no right, under the law, 

 to make any certificate upon the subject, unless for 

 the information of the Governor, and his certificate 

 constitutes no legal evidence of the election of the 

 persons therein named the Lynch board. 



" And I call attention to the language of the 

 Senator from Indiana in this his first report 

 from the committee, -which was unanimous : 



The Lynch board, in making the count and decla- 

 ration as to the election of electors, did so without 

 having before them any of the official returns of the 

 election as made out by the officers of the election 

 under the laws of the State, and had no legal evi- 

 dence before them .at all upon which they could 

 count the voteSj.but their count was made upon doc- 

 uments, affidavits, and statements, ex parts in their 

 character, having no legal validity, and which could 

 not, in the nature of things ? form the basis of an 

 accurate and reliable declaration of the result of the 

 election. 



" There, Senators, is the judgment passed by 

 the Senator from Indiana upon the validity of 

 the canvass by the Lynch board. 



" Mr. President, bearing in mind that the 

 Senator, in this report, was speaking of the 

 election of November 4, 1872, for the election 

 of presidential electors, State officers, and Leg- 

 islature, and that the same objections exist to 

 the validity of the election of State officers and 

 Legislature as in regard to presidential elec- 

 tors ; that the election for all was held at the 

 same time, under the same election laws, and 

 that the returns for all these officers were made 

 in the same way ; that the canvass by the 

 Lynch board was made in the same manner 

 as to all these officers, and that, if one is in- 

 valid, so also is the other, am I not justified in 

 saying that the Senator from Indiana, by this 

 report, in effect determined that the election 

 failed as to State officers and Legislature, as 

 well as in regard to presidential electors? 

 "What we call an election consists of several 

 parts. There is, first of all, a registration of 

 voters. Secondly, the casting of ballots. Third- 

 ly, the counting and canvassing of votes. Each 

 step in this process must be performed accord- 

 ing to law to secure the legal result which we 

 call an election. 



" It will be seen, by carefully examining this 

 report, that the fact that the votes were not 

 legally canvassed and certified was regarded as 

 conclusive that the election as to presidential 

 electors was void. 



" The two Houses of Congress adopted, or 

 at least acted upon, the doctrine of this report, 

 and decided that the so-called Grant electors 

 had not been duly elected, and therefore the 

 votes cast by them for President and Vice- 

 President could not be counted. 



" Now, Mr. President, it is clearly estab- 

 lished that the election of the Kellogg govern- 

 ment was subject to all the objections and 

 afflicted with all the infirmities which both 

 Houses of Congress held conclusive against the 

 election of presidential electors. It will bear 

 repetition that the election of the Kellogg gov- 

 ernment was, at the same time, in the same 

 manner, surrounded by the same circumstances, 

 canvassed by the same board, and in the same 

 manner, and, in every particular affecting its 

 validity, identical with the election of the 

 Grant electors, 'which both Houses of Con- 

 gress have declared to be absolutely void. 



" Therefore, am I not warranted in declar- 

 ing that Congress has already, in effect, de- 

 clared that the Kellogg government never was 

 elected ? 



"In connection with this report, I should 

 add that the decision of the Supreme Court 

 of Louisiana was made before that report. 



" Notwithstanding the decision of that court, 

 now relied upon by the Senator from Indiana 

 to establish the validity of the election of the 

 Kellogg government, because it held that the 

 Lynch board was the legal returning board, 

 the Senator from Indiana regarded the pre- 



