LOUISIANA. 1 



represented on the board ; at that time there was no 

 party known ua the Democratic Conservative |mrtv ; 

 tin ri- was no provision in the law for a reorganiza- 

 tion of i In- board ; BO it could not have been con- 

 templated that t lie board should bo changed to suit 

 shifting political organizations that might subse- 

 quently be made. 



To the fourth objection, that this board should 

 not canvass or count the votes for presidential elec- 

 tors, as there is no law giving this board jurisdic-' 

 tinn : The law creating this board says : " Section 2. 

 That this board shall be the returning officers for 

 all elections held in the State." This seems to us 

 to cover that for the presidential electors so clearly 

 that there is no room for doubt ; the objection as to 

 whether the '' doctors" are State or Federal officers 

 in not material. 



To the fifth objection, that this board cannot can- 

 vass or count the votes cast for Brewster or Levisse'e 

 as candidate for presidential electors, for the reason 

 that on the day of the election they were holders of 

 offices of trust or profit of the United States, and 

 were consequently ineligible to the position of elec- 

 tors : This point will be reserved until the evidence 

 shall be produced, merely suggesting that we have 

 doubts as to whether this board can question tbe 

 eligibility of candidates, our powers being confined 

 to the canvass or compilation of the vote. 



The canvass of returns was then begun, in 

 spite of protests against the board proceeding 

 before the vacancy had been filled! On the 

 21st there were several new protests tiled. 

 Henry M. Spofford, counsel for the Democratic 

 candidate for Secretary of State, protested 

 against the rules of the board forbidding him 

 to be present to inspect and object to returns, 

 and against the "executive sessions." A pro- 

 test was made, on behalf of the United States 

 Supervisors, against being excluded from the 

 sessions of the board, and claiming the right 

 to witness all the proceedings. The Demo- 

 cratic committee entered two protests, one , 

 against the rules excluding them from the ses- 

 sions of the board, and against the proceedings 

 going on with the vacancy unfilled ; and the 

 other against counting ballots from the parishes 

 of Iberville, West Baton Rouge, Iberia, and 

 St. Martin, for all the Republican candidates 

 for electors, where they bore only the names 

 of W. P. Kellogg, J. Henri Burch, and Oscar 

 Joffrion. Other protests, of a similar character 

 to the latter, were filed, it appearing that in 

 other parishes also ballots had been cast bear- 

 ing the names of only a part of the candidates. 

 The protests were simply placed on file, while 

 the work of compiling the returns went on. 

 On the 22d several new protests were filed. 

 On the 23d a motion was made in writing by 

 Democratic counsel, setting forth that various 

 returns had not yet been filed with the Re- 

 turning Board, but were still in the possession 

 of supervisors, who had been in the city of 

 New Orleans for some days. Affidavits were 

 submitted in support of these statements, and 

 it was moved that the supervisors be ordered 

 to bring in these missing returns. The same 

 day a communication was received from the 

 chairman of the Democratic Executive Com- 

 mittee, renewing the request for the appoint- 

 ment of Dr. Hugh Kennedy to the vacancy on 

 the board. On the 25th there was further dis- 



cussion regarding missing returns. It was stated 

 that those of Franklin Pariah had Wen lying 

 in au express-office ten days, and others were 

 at different places in the city of New Orleans. 

 The canvass of the uncontested parishes was 

 finally completed on the 27th, and those were 

 taken up in which there were protests against 

 the counting of the votes from one or more 

 precincts or polling-places on account of irreg- 

 ularity, intimidation, or fraud. Testimony was 

 taken and arguments heard until December 

 2d, when the Returning Board went into se- 

 cret session to complete the work of canvass- 

 ing the returns. The result was promulgated 

 on the morning of December 6th. It an- 

 nounced the vote for presidential electors to 

 be as follows : 



W. P. Kellogg... 76,188 



J. H. Burch 75,127 



Peter Joseph 74.014 



L. A. Sheldon 74,027 



Morris Marks 74.418 



A. B.Levissee 74,008 



O. H. Brewster 74.017 



Oscar Joffrion 74.786 



John McKncry 70,608 



K. C. Wickliffe 70..' 09 



L. St. Martin 70,.*68 



F. Poch6 70,885 



A. De Blanc 70.680 



W. A. Seay 70,S25 



K. G. Cobb 70.428 



K. A. Cross 70,6t 



A certificate was signed by the four return- 

 ing officers, declaring that Kellogg, Burch, 

 Joseph, Sheldon, Marks, Leviss6e, Brewster, 

 and Joffrion, were " duly and lawfully elected." 

 S. B. Packard was declared to have been " duly 

 and lawfully elected" Governor, and C. C. 

 Antoine Lieutenant-Governor. The vote for 

 Governor was given as 74,624 for Packard, 

 and 71,195 for Nicholls; for Lieutenant-Gov- 

 ernor, Antoine 74,669, and Wiltz 71,093. In 

 like manner the election of the other Republi- 

 can candidates for State officers was certified 

 to. The persons declared elected to Congress 

 were R. L. Gibson and E. J. Ellis, Democrats, 

 and C. B. Darrall, G. L. Smith, J. E. Leonard, 

 and Charles E. Nash, Republicans. The Legis- 

 lature, according to the announcement of the 

 Returning Board, consisted of 19 Republicans 

 and 17 Democrats in the Senate, and 71 Re- 

 publicans, 43 Democrats, and 3 Independents, 

 in the House. 



On the 5th of December John McEnery, 

 signing himself " Governor of Louisiana," cer- 

 tified that he had, " in presence of Horatio N. 

 Ogden, Attorney-General of the State of Lou- 

 isiana, and of the Hon. A. L. Tissot, Judge of 

 the Second District Court in and for the par- 

 ish of Orleans in said State, examined dupli- 

 cate original election returns of the general 

 election, held in this State on the 7th day of 

 November, A. D. 1876, and that the foregoing 

 statement contains the true vote cast and 

 counted at the various precincts in the State 

 at said election for candidates for presidential 

 electors." He also certified that John McEnery, 

 Robert 0. Wickliffe, Louis St. Martin, Felix P. 

 Poche, Alcibiade De Blanc, W. A. Seay, R. G. 



