LOUISIANA. 





within our borders ample protection guaranteed to 

 1 HlnTtN. At present and for some weeks 

 t the Btate-Houso liaa been garrisoned by United 

 ktes soldiers, and our city ban presented more the 

 ppearance of a military post than of a great com- 

 il metropolis, while the agricultural interests 

 State have been greatly hindered by the oper- 

 ations of a part of the army in the country parishes. 

 Tin- Returning Board is to meet on the llth of this 

 month, for the purpose of canvassing and compiling 

 otion rut urns, and will be assembled in the 

 State-House. We cannot but consider it extremely 

 improper that the important civil work with which 

 that hoard is charged should bo executed in the 

 mid-t of bayonets or the Federal Government. Inter 

 anna tilent leges. 



At the commencement of the new era which seems 

 tin wiling upon our people, we wish to assure you and 

 the people of the United States of our devotion to 

 tin- principles of the Constitution and of our steadfast 

 purpose to uphold the cause of public liberty and 

 good government. 



J. DICKSON BRUNS, ' 



II. N. OGDEN, 



H. F. JONAS, > Committee. 



A. J. LEWIS, 



F. C. ZACHAEIE, 



It now became the duty of the Returning 

 Board to canvass the returns of the election. 

 For this purpose that body assembled in New 

 Orleans early in November. Permission was 

 given to a committee of three from each party 

 to be present at the meetings of the board. 

 The committee of the Democratic party at 

 once filed a protest against the authority of the 

 board to canvass the returns, on the grounds : 

 " 1. That the law creating the board was un- 

 constitutional; 2. That the law gives them ju- 

 dicial power which they could not possess ; 

 and, 3. Admitting it to be constitutional, its 

 j)ertonnel was not according to the spirit or 

 letter of the law. 11 



The labors of the Returning Board were 

 such that the results of the election were not 

 declared until the 24th of December. This 

 time was spent in examining the numerous 

 cases of fraud and contested elections brought 

 to the notice of the board. On the 28d of 

 December the committee appointed by the 

 Conservative and Democratic party to witness 

 the canvassing and compiling of the returns by 

 the Returning Board published a statement, in 

 which they claimed that, at the election of No- 

 vember 2d, there had been chosen four Con- 

 servative and two Republican Congressmen, 

 and seventy-one Conservative and thirty-seven 

 "Republican members of the Legislature ; also 

 "lat Moncnre. the Democratic candidate for 

 State Treasurer, had been elected by 4,851 

 majority. In submitting this statement to 

 the public the committee " certify under oath 

 that the above statement and compilation for 

 members of the House of Representatives were 

 compiled by us from the sworn duplicate re- 

 turns in our possession, and have been by us 

 compared with the duplicate returns in posses- 

 sion of the said Returning Board, and corrected 

 thereby, and correspond to the compilation 

 and canvass, poll by poll, and parish by parish, 

 made by said board. 1 ' 



The committee then withdrew from the 

 sessions of tin- board, l>ut b.-tore doing to en- 

 tered the following protest : 



The undersigned committee, on behalf of the Con- 

 servative Democratic party of the State of Louisiana, 

 beg leave to present the following final protest against 

 the action 01 the board in refusing to decide upon 

 and promulgate the returns from the jmrinhes of 

 Avoyelles, Bossier, Ascension, Assumption. Carrol I, 

 Conoordio, Natchitoches, Red River, and St. Tam- 

 many, and against the contemplated reference of the 

 same to the Legislature. 



The protest here exhaustively reiterates in forcible 

 terms wherein the board failed to perform its duty 

 in relation to these parishes heretofore published, 

 and says : lw The action of this board, therefore, in so 

 referring contested cases, as intimated by them, to 

 the Legislature, would be unwarranted by law and 

 unprecedented even in the shameful and disgraceful 

 proceedings of the Lynch-Bovee Board; nor hus the 

 illegal action of the board been connneu to the im- 

 proper consideration of subjects in the manner of its 

 procedure, but its decisions seem to be guided by no 

 other will than party interests." 



In the case of the parish of De Soto the board 

 declined to receive and canvass the duplicate original 

 returns lodged by law with the clerk of the District 

 Court, as it would seem for the very purpose to sup- 

 ply the Joss of those forwarded through the Super- 

 visor of Registration, when it wan established that 

 the latter had been fraudulently made away with by 

 a dishonest supervisor of registration. In the case 

 of Carroll Parish, while the fraudulent and forged 

 returns were rejected so far as they concerned Re- 

 publican candidates, they were received and counted 

 against all Democratic candidates. 



In the case of Avoyelles Parish the board went 

 outside of the returns to canvass and allow a round 

 majority of 150 in favor of the Republican candidate, 

 basing its action on estimates and conjectures. In 

 the cases of Natchitoches, St. Tammany, "Red River, 

 Assumption, and other Parishes, the returns from 

 the polls, invariably and largely Conservative, have 

 been rejected on insufficient, ex parte testimony, 

 often contradictory in its nature, so as to give Re- 

 publican majorities in parishes unquestionably Con- 

 servative. In most of these cases the Republicans 

 have been allowed to interpolate evidence after the 

 testimony was chosen so as not to allow its rebuttal, 

 and the evidence filed by the Conservative Com- 

 mittee has been abstracted or purposely mislaid, so 

 as not to be before the board in its deliberations. In 

 all of these decisions the board seems to have been 

 guided by no fixed rule of right, but has varied its 

 action so as to promote Republican interests and de- 

 feat Conservative majorities, involving itself in a 

 mass of contradictory and opposing rulings which 

 offer no clew to its comprehension save the steadfast 

 devotion to purpose of returning Republicans whether 

 they have been elected or not. Not a single protest 

 filed by this committee has been sustained, although 

 it is notorious and established by irrefutable testi- 

 mony that in many parishes of the State the United 

 States army, under direction of the chairman of the 

 Republican State Central Committee, was used on 

 election-day to intimidate Conservative voters and 

 drive them from the polls. 



The committee now think it their duty to declare 

 tbat they are reluctantly driven to the conclusion 

 that this board as a court of elections, for such it 

 is under the decision of the Supreme Court, has en- 

 tered into a corrupt and revolutionary conspiracy 

 with the present usurping Governor of the State, to 

 overturn the duly-elected General Assembly of the 

 State, and to substitute therefor one of its own crea- 

 tion and manufacture. For these reasons this com- 

 mittee feels now compelled to withdraw from further 

 participation in the counsels and deliberations of this 

 board. In doing so this committee deems it to be 





