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New Oeleani, I^f ^.,1^7i^i878 
 
 To the Republicans and all fair minded 
 men of the GowUry: - . ^ ^ 
 
 The peculiar position in which I have 
 been j>hiceu by The enemies of the Repub- 
 lican party, and the inveterate traitors to 
 the Union in this State of Louisiana must 
 be pleaded as my excuse for addressing 
 you. As the vilest calumnies, unsupport- 
 ed by a particle o( sufficient evidence, have 
 bet'Ti scattered broadcast over the whole 
 country, I deem it a duty to myself, my 
 late associates, and to the great party to 
 which 1 belong, to send after these cal- 
 umnies such an antidote, as a few facts in 
 the personal history of the chief conspira- 
 tors and their tools can supply. When it 
 is'known that 
 
 FIVE SUCCESSIVE GRAND JURIES 
 have tiimly and positively refused to find 
 a true bill > gainst me, at the high behest 
 of the Attorney-General; and the prosecu- 
 tion against mo and my associates is bas- 
 ed Tipon "information," some public in- 
 terest will attach to the personal charac- 
 ter of the informers. The central figure in 
 this conspiracy is that most supple tool of 
 the traitors of Louisiana — 
 
 JUDGE WILLIAM R. WHITAKER. 
 
 e He conspired to defraud the Government 
 
 of the United States of six hundred thou- 
 
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 A 
 
 sand ($600,000) dollars with which hn v^a.s 
 entrusted as Assistaut Treasurer, succeed- 
 ed in the conspiracy and btauds indicted 
 for the felony. 
 
 On the 17th day of April, 1877 a nolle 
 j[>7'osequie was entered iu the case. Tbe 
 celebrated declaration of the Nicholls gov 
 ernment was made about the san e time, 
 the declaration that it was the purpose of 
 that government to allay anxiety and 
 discountenance all attempts from whatev- 
 er source,to prosecute persons for political 
 offenses. Judge Whitaker has conducto'l 
 himself in the late trial of General Ander- 
 son, as though he had undertaken a con- 
 tract with the Democratic; party to do 
 their dirty work, and recti ve as his re- 
 ward full rehabilitation into their societj^ | 
 He stated to several persons, and to law- 
 yers of high standing before the trial of 
 Anderson, that tbe Jury was packed lor tbe 
 purpose of his conviction. He stated fur- 
 ther that no motion having for its objec^ 
 the removal of the cause from his jurisdicjp I 
 tion, would have his sanction. That all 
 motions for that object would be overru-^, 
 led. Judge Whitaker was elevated frooiM I 
 the Criminal Dock, to do the dirty work 
 of the party that is now controlling him, 
 
 NINE OF THE JURORS 
 in the Anderson trial swore thatthey were 
 prejudiced against the prisoner, yet they 
 were forced to serve. Two of them had 
 declared. openly that Anderson ought tj^l 
 
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be huug. Biiriug the greater part of the 
 tiial Julge Whitgktjr was in a beastly 
 state of iutoxicatiou. 
 
 ATTORNEY GENERAL OGDEN 
 
 is an elder in the Presbyterian church. He, 
 too, was aware of the fact tuat the jury 
 was packed, and aided and assisted in the 
 nefiii ious scheme by which the packing 
 was accomplished. He said he intended to 
 force the trial because he had ii is jury pre- 
 pared for conviction — that he kept Lit- 
 tlefieM oncealed in his room, to prevent 
 hia testimony being taken on Anderson's 
 trial. This Attorney General is wholly 
 unreliable as a sworn officer He has spec- 
 ulated upi'U ih- collection of taxes. He 
 attempted to force the Grand Jury last 
 summer to find bills of indictment against 
 the Returning Board. Appeared before 
 the Grand Jury and insulted witnesses, 
 and threatened them with incarceration 
 if they refused to swear exactly what he 
 desired. Failing to procure such evidence 
 from ttie witnesses as he wanted, he ac- 
 companied the Judge before the Grand 
 Jury, and had him (the Judge) to repri- 
 mand the witnesses and threaten them 
 with incarceration, if they did not give 
 such testimony as required by him. The 
 Judge attempted to force the Grand 
 Jury to find a true bill to satisfy the wants 
 and wishes of the Attorney General 
 against the Returning Board, but finding 
 all their extraordinary efforts futile, they 
 
I 
 
 were compelled to fall back u] on tbe al- 
 ternative mode of 'Mnformatlon." 
 
 ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL 
 
 EGAN 
 is a worthy and pliant tool in the 1 ands of 
 the Attorney General. He 8tan<ls indict- 
 ed for murder in his own purish, having 
 assassinated a broiher lawyer on account j 
 of his success in practice over him. 
 Mr. CHARLES CAVANAf, 
 
 the important and reliable witness of this 
 trio of villains, Whitaker, Ogden andE^an, 
 is a man of bad reputation for veracity, 
 especially when a political or personal in- 
 terest is involved. Hundreds of men in 
 this city would not believe him under 
 oath. He holds a prominent position in 
 the City Government although he has de- 
 nounced the female teachers of the public 
 schools as prostitutes! 
 
 WILLIAM R. SMART, 
 the custodian of the Vernon records, 
 would omit no *'lie" that he could utter 
 that would be likely to convict me. Dur- 
 ing the rebellion he stole my stock, killed 
 my hogs, and poultry, and put the vote to 
 his company if they should kill me, and 
 burn my dwelling over the heads of my 
 
 family. 
 
 A. E. BURK, 
 
 another prominent witness, absconded 
 
 from the little town of Xenia, Clay county, 
 
 in the State of Illinois, and changed his 
 
 name from 
 
A. E. hURK to E. A, BURKE. 
 Debts have f llowed him her^ for liquida- 
 tioD over the signature of A. E. Burk, and 
 some of them have been paid by him 
 thus affirming the fact of his absconding 
 and chariging bis name. 
 
 The names of the jurors that were im- 
 parmelled for the trial of Anderson and 
 myself were furnished by the Democratic 
 Committee. Their political status, as wf 11 
 as their views, as to the proper punish- 
 ment was canvassed by the Judge, At- 
 torney Heneral and Democratic Commit- 
 tee before being placed on the panel. 
 
 0"e of the jury commissioners testified 
 before the Court, that the list of jurors 
 placed in the jury box from which tales- 
 men were drawn, after exhausting the pa- 
 nel, was furnished by 
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC EXECUTIVE COM- 
 MITTEE, 
 
 and this fact was known to "Deacon" Og- 
 
 den, the ' assas'^in" Eagan, ani the *''petti- 
 
 toRger," Finney. 
 
 The re urna f om Vernon parish were 
 made up in the town of Alexandria, in the 
 parish of Rapides fully eighty (80) miles 
 from where the electir»n was held. And 
 yet the Returning Board are charged with 
 and made responsible for all the changes 
 which it is alleged have been made in 
 these returns since the votes were counted 
 by the Commissioners of election, 3 7ery 
 one of whom was a Democrat. 
 
 The Judge, Attorney General, the As- 
 
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 sistant Attorney General and the District 
 Attorney, have thrown every obst-itcle in 
 the way, and used every exertion to pri - 
 vent us from producing, or haviuj^ our 
 witnesses, by urginor a speedy trial, and 
 have denied every legal light ciaime'd by 
 our attorneys. 
 
 R. L. GIBSON 
 has seen fit on the floor of Congress to 
 calumniate the Returning Board and has 
 attempted a justification of their persecu- 
 tions. This colored Democratic Repre- 
 sentative seems to claim a right to assail 
 the white race becnuse he feels boastingly 
 proud of the commingling of the African 
 with the Cauca'sian blood in his veins. 
 "When I was acting f treman of the United 
 States Grand Jury, in 1874, this colored 
 representative of Louisiana, iu thb Con- 
 gress of the "STation, was presented to the 
 Grau'lJury, for ''violation of election law, 
 fraudulently filling the boxes with tickets, 
 that were never ballotted" and would 
 have been indicted by the Jury, and 
 probaby sent to the penitentiary, but for 
 my leniency and forbearance. The evi- 
 d<^nce of his guilt, taken before the jury, 
 is yet iu the hands of one of its members. 
 The lineage of this Representative without 
 a nationality, can be fully established by 
 many of the old inhabitants of Adams 
 County, Mississippi, as well as by many 
 of his neighbors in the parish ot Terre- 
 bonne, Louisiana. 
 These are samples of the T)rincina1 tnolc; 
 
cm fiction of the members of the Keturn- 
 ing board in the case improperly called 
 tue "State of Louisiana vs. J. Madison 
 Weils at. al.,'' but leally and truly is, and 
 should be called, the case of 
 SAMUEL J. TILDEN VS. RUTHERFORD 
 B. HAYES. 
 
 It is a contest for the office of President 
 of the United States and the putronaj^e of 
 the Executive D'^partmeuts cf the Feder- 
 al Governmement. 
 
 It is chiefly managed by David Dudley 
 Field, with the advice and pecuniary as- 
 sistance of the National Democratic Com- 
 raittee. 
 
 A vsrdiet of a packed jury of TiOuisiana 
 Democrats, procuied iu the manner above 
 pointed out, will, it in expected be ac- 
 cepted by the people of the United States 
 as a.Tuciicitii settlement of Mr. Tilden's 
 title to the Presideuoy. It is a bold and 
 despera e game for a great stake. Myself 
 and colleagues on the Returning Board are 
 merely the outposts or picket guard which 
 they hope to oapture, and then they will 
 s rprise the garrison if possible, and 
 claim the patronage of the. government as 
 
 THE SPOILS OF WAR. 
 In corroboration of this view, I refer you 
 to the movements all along the line of the 
 enemies camp. To the well grounded re- 
 ports that a large sum of money has been 
 sent here from New York, to be used in 
 the trial; to the fact that the National 
 Democratic Committee has been hastily 
 called together, though no national elec- 
 tion is pending. To the fact that several 
 
 nf thPi rtffir»Ara nf f.hA nnnrt innln/linor thp. 
 
ant Attorney-General, and ShuifJ, the 
 principal witnesees, pevera' of the jurors 
 and many of the aiders rnd abettors of 
 the proceedings, are stained with crimes 
 of one sort or another, includinjr treayou, 
 murder, larceny, perjury, suboruati n of 
 perjury, libel, attem])tiiig to defraud V( - 
 ters at the polls, and other seriuns oftensed 
 Few t.uga>;ed in the p osecution have 
 clean hands', and yet the Deraocraiie 
 National Committee, inspired by tlie Me- 
 phistophiliau 
 
 DAVID DUDLEY FIELD, 
 
 hope by the employment of such tools in 
 place, and in a ca8«, wheie the other side 
 has no possible chance of a fair trial, or 
 scarcely any to be heard, to make up such 
 a case, as shall enable them to wrench th»- 
 sceptre from the handsof Pres dent Have>!, 
 and give it to the henchman of the dem- 
 ocracy. 
 
 The eyes of the leaders ef the Rebellion 
 are already fixed upon the high places of 
 the Government, which they ftel assure*! 
 are as good as in their possession alieady, 
 as nothing stands in the way, bai 
 
 WELLS AND ANDERSON, 
 
 whose conviction they have contract d for 
 and the contractor^} ar*^ burying on the 
 work 
 
 This is a National, not. a personal ques- 
 tion It is a renewal, in insiduous ^uise, 
 of the tremendous conflict of 1876, per- 
 haps of 1861. 
 
 It becomes theRebublicaus of the North 
 to be on their guard and give our Louisi- 
 ana hirelings to understand, that it is time 
 for them to be quiet, or be prepared for 
 open, determined, and unrelenting war. 
 
 J. MADISON ^ELLS. 
 
Hjp 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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