490 



LOUISIANA. 



Cobb, and K. A. Cross, were " duly elected and 

 appointed " presidential electors. The forego- 

 ing statement referred to gave the following as 

 the vote for the different candidates : 



McEnery .................................. 88,723 



Wickliffe ................................... 83,859 



St. Martin .................................. 83,650 



Poche ...................................... 83.474 



De Blanc ................................ 83,633 



Seay ............................... 83,812 



Cobb ...................................... 83,530 



Cross 



Kellogg .................................... 77,174 



Burch ................ ..................... 77,162 



Joseph ............................. ........ 74,913 



Sheldon .................................... 74,902 



Marks ..................................... 75,240 



Levissee .................................. 75.3i)5 



Brewster .................................. 75,479 



Joffrion .................................... 75,618 



The Democratic Committee on Returns cer- 

 tified to the same result, as obtained by the 

 compilation made from "sworn duplicates and 

 certified copies of the original statements of 

 votes filed in the clerk's offices of the district 

 courts, as required by law." It also added the 

 vote for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, 

 giving 84,487 to Nicholls, and 76,477 to Pack- 

 ard ; 84,242 to Wiltz, and 76,471 to Antoine. 

 In announcing the result in an address to the 

 people, the chairman of the Democratic Cen- 

 tral Committee said : 



This victory is all the more to be appreciated be- 

 cause of the difficulties under which it was achieved. 

 The entire registration and election machinery was 

 in the hands of the Republican party. The Govern- 

 ment, State and Federal, under Kellogg, Packard, 

 Pitkin, Casey, and others, exerted their combined 

 influence, patronage, and power, against our efforts 

 to overthrow corruption and misrule. Our citizens 

 were arrested and dragged from their homes on the 

 most frivolous and shallow pretexts, and the Federal 

 soldiery were distributed in every quarter of the 

 State. Not content with this, an effort was made to 

 disfranchise, through the United States commission- 

 ers, in violation of the constitution, a large portion 

 of the white voters of the city of New Orleans, which 

 was partially effected. 



In the country parishes polls were opened at re- 

 mote places without previous announcement, and in 

 many instances were not opened at the places desig- 

 nated by the Supervisor of Registration, in clear vio- 

 lation of law. 



Notwithstanding all this, and much more could be 

 charged, the citizens of this great Commonwealth, 

 white and colored, arose alike against the corrupt 

 party in power^ and cast their ballots in favor of 

 honesty and reform. 



Tha election throughout the State was peaceful 

 and quiet. No outbreak occurred anywhere. 



Our opponents, seeing the magnitude of our ma- 

 jority, started the bold and frivolous charge of in- 

 timidation as a pretext for throwing out a number 

 of parishes where the most peaceful elections were 

 held. Affidavits with cross-marks were manufact- 

 ured in the custom-house. 



We have fully met all these charges with abun- 

 dant and conclusive proof, and we have exposed the 

 grossest frauds on the part of the Republican party. 



Your forbearance and toleration have been great 

 under the wrongs and provocations sustained by 

 you. We ask you to bear still longer. 



It cannot be that, with the overwhelming majority 

 iu your favor, you can be deprived of the results 

 of your victory, save by the grossest and most glar- 

 ing injustice, such as will startle and disgust the 

 honest sentiment of the whole country, without ref- 

 erence to political parties. 



We have won a fair and complete victory, and it 

 will not be torn from us by trickery and fraud. The 

 voice of 84,000 people expressed fairly and openly at 

 the ballot-box cannot be stifled by uuy process that 

 will not bear on its face a wicked and shameless 

 fraud, which the good men of all parties must con- 

 demn and undo. 



Messrs. Palmer, Trumbull, and others, of the 

 Democratic visiting committee, in an appeal to 

 the people of the United States, after compar- 

 ing the vote as it appeared on the face of the 

 returns with that announced by the Returning 

 Board, made the following statements : 



In view, however, of the returns, and the law and 

 the facts which should control the Returning Board, 

 with which we have made ourselves familiar, we 

 have no hesitation in saying that the result shown 

 by the votes actually cast cannot be changed without 

 a palpable abuse of the letter and spirit of the law 

 governing the Returning Board, and a manifest per- 

 version of the facts before it. Irregularities have 

 been committed in some instances by officers con- 

 ducting elections and making returns, but they are 

 about us much on one side as the other; and as to 

 intimidation, violence, or other illegal acts prevent- 

 ing a free and fair election, there is evidence on both 

 sides, but not of such a character as to affect the 

 general result. In most instances the acts of vio- 

 lence proceeded from mere lawlessness, as in the 

 case of Henry and Eliza Pinkston, and had no con- 

 nection with politics. It is a significant fact that in 

 the parishes where it is alleged that voters were 

 kept from the polls by intimidation the total vote 

 was as large as at any time heretofore. An hon- 

 est and fair canvass of the returns, even under the 

 Louisiana law, cannot materially reduce Tilden'a 

 majority as shown on the face of the returns. 



The Returning Board in reaching its result 

 counted about 2,500 ballots bearing the names 

 of only three electors as for the entire eight, 

 and threw out various polls, including all those 

 of East Feliciana and Grant Parishes. 



The following statement shows the changes 

 made, with the exception of those caused by 

 throwing out a few disputed votes from several 

 polls, amounting in all to 612 : 



