LOUISIANA. 



491 



uur repugnance 10 uepUDiican 

 not baaed altogether upon the f 

 pation ; valued M groat principl 

 they have been violated, yet it 



clamoring for party purposes that one tot of men 

 1 be substituted tor another as public officials. 

 Our repugnance to Republican rule In Louisiana is 

 not based altogether upon the fact of its being uur- 

 'ples are, and grossly M 

 it ia not for that reason 

 ale of Louisiana are clamoring for 

 i . I ;!'. The people demand that those elected by 

 tin-in shall govern, so that they shall bo relieved 

 t'mm the oppression, that has grown intolerable; 

 that the taxation which has become confiscation. 

 nmy bo lightened ; that hideous and wide-spreaa 

 p \t-rty mid distrust may be removed; and that 

 they may be permitted to live by honest industry ; 

 that an honest government, for their protection, may 

 be substituted for systematized robbery. 



For these reasons, we, the down-trodden people 

 of once fine Louisiana, now call upon the people of 

 the free States of America, if you would yourselves 

 remain free and retain the right of self-government. 

 to demand, in tones that cannot be misunderstooa 

 or disregarded, that the shackles be stricken from 

 Louisiana, and that the power of the United States 

 army be no longer used to keep a horde of adven- 

 turers in power. B. R. TORMAN, Chairman. 

 ARCH. MITCHELL, ) 

 W.C.RAYMOND, } Committee. 

 F. C. ZACHARLE, ) 



ROOMS OF THE COMMITTEE OF SEVENTY, | 



NEW ORLEANS, December 22, 1874. j 

 At a meeting held this evening the foregoing ad- 

 dress was read and unanimously approved. 

 R. H. MARK, Chairman, 

 JOS. W. COLLINS, Secretary. 



On the 24th of December Mr. Oscar Arroyo 

 tendered his resignation as a member of the 

 Returning Board ; in doing which he said : 



I am compelled to adopt the present course by the 

 rulings of the board in the last few days, in return- 

 ing to the Legislature, as elected, members who 

 were unquestionably defeated, rulings which, to my 

 mind, are so clearly partisan and unjust, defrauding 

 the people of Louisiana of their chosen representa- 

 tives, that my self-respect will not allow mo to 

 longer retain a seat on the board. 



On the 24th of December the Returning 

 Board completed its labors. The laws de- 

 fining the duties of the board, its method of 

 proceeding, and the principles upon which its 

 decisions were based, are set forth in its re- 

 port as follows : 



NEW OnLEANS, December 24, 1874. 

 The Returning Board, in closing its labor of can- 

 vassing and compiling the vote of the State given at 

 the election of November 2d last, states that it is only 

 just and proper that the returning officers should 

 give a statement of the difficulties attendant on their 

 labors, and the principles laid down, drawn from 

 law, to direct them in the discharge 01 their duties. 

 In the first place, this election was very loosely con- 

 ducted by the Commissioners of Election, so much 

 BO that not at one-tenth of the polls in the State 

 were the forms required by law observed. The 

 law requires that the supervisors of registration for- 

 ward to the returning officers the original list of 

 votes kept by the Commissioners of Election ; sec- 

 ond, a statement of the persons voted for, and the 

 number of votes received by each ; and, third, the 

 tally-sheets, all of which the Commissioners 01 

 Election are required to furnish to the supervisors, 

 and they to forward them to the returning officers. 

 In many cases no lists of voters were kept by the 

 commissioners, or, if there were, they were not 

 forwarded to the Returning Board by the supervi- 

 sors, and many that were lorwardcd to the Return- 

 ing Board were not signed or sworn to, as the law 



requires. In many oases there was DO statement 

 of the persons voted for, and the number of votes 

 received by them, forwarded to the Returning Board, 

 for the reasons that none were furnished by the 

 Commissioners of Election to the supervisors, and 

 many that were returned were neither signed nor 

 sworn to, and in many oases there were no tally- 

 sheets forwarded to tuo Returning Board to ana* 

 ble it to test the accuracy of the statement of the 

 voter, and in some instances only tally-sheets were 

 returned to the Returning Board, without a list of 

 voters, or statement of votes, and they not signed 

 or sworn to, as the law requires. 



This being the case, it became necessary that the 

 papers received from the polling-places should be 

 carefully examined. There were over six hundred 

 and fifty polling-places in the State, and there was a 

 large list of candidates, so it became a very labori- 

 ous duty, which occupied the board nearly a month, 

 laboring from 11 A. M. to 4 P. M., and from 7 to 

 11 v. M., every day. The law requires that in 

 such canvass and compilation the Returning Board 

 of officers shall observe the following order : 

 It shall compile the first statements from all polls 

 or voting-places at which there shall have been 

 a fair, free, and peaceable registration and elec- 

 tion. Whenever from any poll or voting-place 

 there has been any riot, tumult, acts of violence, 

 intimidation, armed disturbances, bribery, or cor- 

 rupt influences, which prevented or tended to pre- 

 vent a fair, free, and peaceable vote of all qualified 

 electors entitled to vote at such poll or voting-place, 

 such returning officers shall not canvass, count, or 

 compile a statement of votes from such poll or vot- 

 ing-place until statements from all other polls or 

 voting-places shall have been canvassed and com- 

 piled. The Returning Board of officers shall then 

 proceed to investigate the statements of riot, tu- 

 mult, acts of violence, intimidation, armed disturb- 

 ance, bribery, or corrupt influences, at any such 

 poll or voting-place. 



The board has followed this requirement of the 

 law, as it was its imperative duty to do, and in 

 examining the proceedings of the Commissioners 

 of Election forwarded to it by the supervisors, when 

 either of the counsel appointed by the political par- 

 ties objected to the count of any polls, and laid be- 

 fore the board any evidence to sustain such objec- 

 tions, such polls were passed over and not can- 

 vassed until the board had compiled the vote from 

 all the polls not objected to. In the progress of the 

 examination a large number of polls were objected 

 to, including some in twenty-seven of the parishes, 

 and in some of these parishes all of the polls were 

 then objected to. The grounds of objection to some 

 of the polls were the failure of a substantial com- 

 pliance with the law in conducting the election and 

 making the returns to the supervisors; to some 

 that the returns of the commissioners had been 

 changed after they had been made to the super- 

 visors ; and to the far greater number that the voters 

 had been intimidated so that they did not register 

 or vote, or were compelled to vote differently from 

 what they desired. Had the board decided that any 

 thing like a strict compliance with the forms of law 

 in holding the election and making the returns to 

 the supervisors would be required, the effect would 

 have been that so many of the polls would have 

 been thrown out that there would have been no elec- 

 tion in the State. The board then adopted a rule 

 that when the supervisor had returned any evidence 

 showing an election was held, although it only be a 

 tally-sheet, unsigned or sworn to, that in the ab- 

 sence of fraud or intimidation it would compile the 

 vote as shown by such evidence or document, if it 

 may be called evidence. This decision disposed of 

 a good many protests to the reception of polls, but 

 when substantial forms of law had not oeen ob- 

 served, and evidence of fraud or intimidation was 

 produced, the failure of substantial compliance with 



