206 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES (ELECTORAL COMMISSION). 



P. Poch<, A. De Blanc, W. A. Seay, R. G. Cobb, 

 and K. A. Cross, to be electors by a majority for 

 each of six thousand and upward of all the votes 

 cast by qualified voters for electors at said election ; 

 and said electors received a certificate of their due 

 appointment as such electors from John McEnery, 

 who was then the rightful and lawful Governor of 

 said State, under the seal thereof; and thereupon 

 the said McEnery, Wickliffe, St. Martin, Poche, De 

 Blanc. Seay, Cobb, and Cross, became and were 

 vested with the exclusive authority of electors for 

 the State of Louisiana, and no other person or per- 

 sons had, or could have, such authority or power, 

 nor was it within the leual power of any State or 

 Federal officer, or any other person, to revoke the 

 power bestowed on the said McEnery, Wicklifi'e, St. 

 Martin, Poche\ De Blanc, Seay, Cobb, and Cross, or 

 to appoint other electors in their stead, or to impair 

 their title to the office to which the people had up- 

 pointed them. 



III. Because the said Kellogg, Burch, Joseph, 

 Sheldon, Marks, Levisse', Brewster, and Joffrion, 

 were not, nor was either of them, duly appointed an 

 elector by the State of Louisiana in the manner di- 

 rected by the constitution and laws of said State 

 and of the United States ; and the lists of names of 

 electors made and certified by the said William P. 

 Kellogg, claiming to be, but not being, Governor of 

 said State, were false in fact, and fraudulently made 

 and certified by said Kellogg, with full knowl- 

 edge at the time that the said Kellogg, Burch, Jo- 

 seph, Sheldon, Marks, Levisse", Brewster, and Jof- 

 frion, were not duly appointed electors by the quali- 

 fied voters of said State, and without any examina- 

 tion of the returns of the votes cast for electors, as 

 required by the laws of the State. 



IV. Because the pretended canvass of the returns 

 of said election for electors of President and Vice- 

 President by J. Madison Wells, T. C. Anderson, G. 

 Casanavej and Louis Kenner, as returning officers of 

 said election, was without jurisdiction, and void, for 

 these reasons : 



1. The statutes of Louisiana, under which said 

 persons claimed to have been appointed returning 

 officers, and to have derived their authority, gave 

 them no jurisdiction to make the returns or to can- 

 vass or compile the statements of votes cast for 

 electors of President and Vice-President. 



2. Said statutes, if construed as conferring such 

 jurisdiction, give the returning officers power to ap- 

 point the electors, and are void as in conflict with 

 the Constitution, which requires that electors shall 

 be appointed by the State. 



3. Said statutes, in so far as they attempt to con- 

 fer judicial power, and to give to the returning of- 

 ficers authority in their discretion to exclude the 

 statements of votes, and to punish innocent persons 

 without trial by depriving them of their legal right 

 of suffrage, are in conflict with the constitution of 

 the State of Louisiana, and are anti-republican and 

 in conflict with the Constitution of the United States, 

 in so far as -they refer it to the discretion of the re- 

 turning officers to determine who are appointed 

 electors. 



4. If said Louisiana statutes should be held valid, 

 they conferred no jurisdiction on said Wells, Ander- 

 son, Casanave, and Kenner, as a board of returning 

 officers, to make the returns of said election or to 

 canvass and compile the statements of votes made 

 by the commissioners of said election, for the reason 

 that they constituted but four of the five persons to 

 whom the law confided those duties ; that they were 

 all of the same political party ; and that there was a 

 vacancy in said board of returning officers which the 

 said Wells, Anderson^-Caaanave, and Kenner, failed 

 and refused to fill as required by law. 



5. Said board of returning officers had no juris- 

 diction to exercise judicial functions and reject the 

 statement of the votes at any poll or voting-place 

 unless the foundation for such jurisdiction was first 



laid as required by the statute, which the papers and 

 records before saicl board of returning officers showed 

 was not done to such an extent as to change the re- 

 sult of the election as shown on the face of the re- 

 turns. 



6. Said returning officers, with a full knowledge 

 that a true and correct compilation of the official 

 statements of votes legally cast November 7, 1876, 

 for presidential electors in the State of Louisiana, 

 showed the following result, to wit : 



Vote.. 



John McEnery 83,723 



B.C. Wickliffe 63,859 



L. St. Martin 83,650 



F. P. Poch6 83,474 



A. De Blanc 83,633 



W.A. Seay 88,812 



K. G. Cobb 83,530 



K. A. Cross 68,603 



W.P. Kellogg 77,174 



J. H. Burch 77,162 



Peter Joseph 74,913 



L. A.Sheldon 74,902 



Morris Marks 75,240 



A. B. Levisse' 75.895 



O. H. Brewster 75,479 



Oscar Joffrion 75,618 



And that said McEnery, Wickliffe, St. Martin, 

 Pochd, De Blanc, Seay, Cobb, and Cross, were duly 

 and lawfully elected electors, illegally and fraudu- 

 lently changed, altered, and rejected the statements 

 of votes made by the commissioners of election and 

 the returns of supervisors of registration, and de-> 

 clared the following to be the state of the poll, to 

 wit: 



Votot. 

 John McEnery 70,508 



E. C. Wickliffe 70.509 



L. St. Martin 70,558 



F. P. Poche 70,335 



A. De Blanc 70,536 



W.A. Seay 70,525 



E.G. Cobb 70,423 



K. A. Cross 70,556 



W. P.Kellogg 75,135 



J. H. Burch 75,127 



Peter Joseph 74,014 



L. A.Sheldon 74,027 



Morris Marks.. 74,418 



A. B. Levisse 74,007 



O. H. Brewster 74,013 



Oscar Joffrion 74,736 



The said returning officers thereupon falsely and 

 fraudulently certified that said Kellogg, Burch, Jo- 

 seph, Sheldon, Marks, Leviss6, Brewster, and Jof- 

 frion, were duly elected electors ; when the fact was 

 that, omitting the statements of votes illegally with- 

 held by supervisors, those before the returning of- 

 ficers which it was their duty to, but which they did 

 not, canvass and compile, showed majorities foi 

 McEnery, Wickliffe, St. Martin, Poche", De Blanc, 

 Seay, Cobb, and Cross, ranging from 3,459 to 6,405. 



5. That said returning officers, before making any 

 declaration of the vote for electors, offered for a 

 money-consideration to certify and declare the due 

 election of the persons who, according to the face of 

 the returns, received a majority of the votes, and 

 were duly and properly elected. Failing to find a 

 purchaser, they falsely, corruptlj, and fraudulently, 

 certified and declared the minority candidates elect- 

 ed, after having first applied for a reward for so do- 

 ing. Wherefore the undersigned object to the cer- 

 tificate or declaration of the election of electors 

 made by said board of returning officers as utterly 

 void, by reason of the fraud nnd corruption of said 

 board of returning officers in thus corruptly offering 

 said certificates for sale. 



V. The undersigned especially object to counting 

 the vote cast by the said A. B. Levisse", for the rea- 

 son that the State of Louisiana was forbidden by the 

 Constitution of the United States to appoint the said 

 A. B. Levisse" an elector, because he was at the 



