f 3 75 F 375 . U51 Copy 2 STATE OF LOUISIANA. SPEECH OF- HOIST. J. E. WEST, OF LOUISIANA, UNITED STATES SENATE, APRIL 15, 1S74. WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1874. V:.,.^ SPEECH OF HO^T. J. R. WEST The Senate haAinj: under consideration the bill (S. No. 446) to restore the rights •of the State of Louisiaua — Mr. WEST said : Mr. Pkpsident : What is termed tlie Louisiana question lias been a prolific source of agitatiou before Congress and before the country ever since the presidential election of 1872. It may be expected that a renewal of the discussion of this question by the only repre- sentative in this body that that State is permitted to have will be undertaken with a view either to denounce the opponents of the cause which he maintains and extol the merits of those who act with him in its support, or with the other purpose of replying seriatim to all the arguments that liave been adduced in favor of setting aside the government now existing in that State. Until I am compelled to do so, I shall speak in no unkind terms- of the men who have engaged in the outrages that have been perpe- trated of late years in Louisiana. Others may feel warranted in de- nouncing them in terms that are not only painful to me to listen to, Ijut would he more painful to me to proclaim. I shall therefore not seek to vindicate one class of the citizens of Louisiana at the expense of the shame and exposure of the other. I shall deal to some extent with a class of politicians who come up here and represent to the Congress of the United States that they are " the peoiile of Louisi- ana." I will discuss their claims to be considered our people. I am honored by a representative positicni of both classes here. I shall speak, therefore, in no unnecessary ,unkindness of the class to whom I am politically opposed ; nor shall I claim anything more for the pai'ty friends now controling the government in my State than the credit to which they are entitled for the ettbrts made by them since their incoming to power to retrieve past errors and alleviate the burdens which distress her people. In replying to the arguments so far made in favor of congressional interference, I shall confine myself to one proposition to-day, and that is, that all the informati In examining into this contest the committee comparatively lost sight of the other and more importajit branch of the subject, or at least entered into it in a manner so imperfect as in no degree to war- rant Congress in assuming to exercise, for the first time since the reconstruction of the South, the powder to order an election for State officers under Federal legislation and control. McMillen on one side and Ray on the other each conducted Ms case, not the case of Louisiana. Louisiana's case has never been heard here, and until it is heard I shall rest Avith perfect confidence ui)on the good sense of this body, knowing that it will not overturn a government until it knows that it was established in defiance of the Avish and the intention of the i)eople of the State. The Senator from Wisconsin, [Mr. Carpenter,] in his last appeal to the Senate on the Louisiana question, has asserted that both sides agree upon sundry ]>ropositions connected therewith. In furtherance of tills assertion, however, he assumes one ])osition as mutually agreed upon that is by no means assented to by myself, and I do not believe that he will find anotlicr lieliever of his assert ion in this liody. He says in his siiecchdeliveredonthe 4th of March last, and printed in the Recohd of March 10: T ask the attention of the Senate to the fact that at this electicm electors of Pres- ident and Vice rrcsidcnt oin^lit to have been elected, because I claiiii lliat tlie decis- ion of l.otli HdiiHcHof (:on;;rrsH icjccting the vote of the eleclc.rs iif tlial Slate, and denying I^imisiana any voin- whatever in the election of I'lesident and Vice- J'ntsident, is an :idjudilished by the pretended election <,i NovenibVr 4, 1872. If anything was accoini)lislied at'that election, then presid.nlial cK-i tors, agovernor, and otlier State olhceis, and a Legis- lature were elected. Hut if no presidential electors were elected, then no election of govenior and other State oiiicc;rs and members of the Legislature was efTected. Contfress having decided that the election was void as to presidential electors, it follows that the election of State officers and members of the Legislature held at the same time, and subject to the same objections, must be void also. The Senator broadly aud unwarrantably assumes a fact tliat the record totally contradicts him in. I cannot recall at the present mo- ment, but I think it was on the 12th of February, 1873, that the two Houses met to act upon the votes cast by the different States. On the 10th of February the Committee on Privileges and Elections of this body, who had been directed to inquire and report as to the presiden- tial election in Louisiana, Arkansas, aud other States, reported iu regard to Louisiana as follows : We find that the official returns of the election of electors from the various parishes of Louisiana have never been counted by anybody having authority to count them. They never said that that election was void ; nor did Congress come to any such conclusion, because although Congress determined that question, respectively each House for itself, the record shows what was the conclusion in each House as to the result of that elec- tion. The Senate resolved as follows : That all the obiections having been considered, no electoral vote purporting to be that of the State of Louisiana be counted. And the House resolved : That in the judgment of the House, none of the returns reported by the tellers as electoral votes of the State of Louisiana should be counted. The only conclusion that Congress has come to in regard to the vote of Louisiana is the conclusion that I want to hold you to to-day, that you do not know how the election has gone in Lonisiana, and until you do know you have no right to interfere with it. We are told that the Kellogg government is a gross usurpation, and that dii'e consequences are to result to the dominant party iu Congress and in the country, and that we as Senators will be gros.sly derelict of our duty unless we apply a remedy which it is alleged exists under the instruction of the Constitution that the United States shall guar- antee to every State in this Union a republican form of government. This proposition has so far mainly been urged upon us by the Senator from Wisconsin. In the bill which he has introduced to restore the rights of the State of Louisiana he has assumed an existing state of facts in regard to affairs there from which I totally dissent, and which assumption I contend and shall endeavor to show to the Senate is not at all warranted by the information -in its possession. In the first place, let me ask what is our right of interference ? That right must be based upon two general grounds; first, whether it is conferred upon lis by the Constitution upon any given state of facts ; and second, whether that state of facts exists. I shall leave the argument on the first of these propositions to the more experienced members of this body, whose views will interest, instruct, and enlighten the Senate to a degree that I should be entirely without expectation of equaling, and I shall confine myself altogether to the proposition that the Senate has not been informed, nor attempted to inform itself, as to whether a state of facts exists growing out of the election of 1872 iu Louisiana that either requires or even justifies Congress in interfering. I assert aud maintain that the Senate does not know that William P. Kellogg was not elected governor at that time ; that the information laid before the Committee on Privileges and Elections of the Forty-second Congress related entirely to what was done bv certain returning boai'ds, to what occurred through an order issued by a judge of a Federal court, and that the examiuation held by that committee scarcely touched upon Avhat, if we are to exercise our right of interfereuce, is the true subject of inquiry : Hoiv did the people of Louisiana vote on the 4th of November, 1872; for which person of the two then seeking their sulirages for the office of gov- ernor on that day did they actually vote ? With the exception of myself, and I do not know that I ought even to except myself, nobody has given greater attention to this, matter than the Senator from Wisconsin. He, after spending these weeks elaborating his report and studying that testimony, admits in the Senate that he does not believe Mr. McEnery was elected. Now, we know perfectly well that there were two men voted for ou that day. The Senator from Wisconsin says : I do not tliink that Mr. McEnery was in fact elected. Now, can there be an election without a result ? If he does not think that in fact Mr. McEnery was elected on that day, he must think in fact the other man was. That is the question for Congress to determine, it seems to me, before it is called upon to determine whether it has the right constitutionally to interfere. In a case somewhat analogous, the New Jersey case of 1840, known most generally as the Broad Seal case, and to which I shall have oc- casion to refer as I proceed. Congress took a direct and thorough method of ascertaining the facts connected therewith, as my friend from California [Mr. Hager] very well knows, for he was counsel in the case. It may with some truth be contended that neither the acts of a returning board nor the order of a Federal judge can impose a government upon the people of a State, and that a government estab- lished by either of such means is no more repxxblican in form than were it established by force of arms, however it might subsequently rigidly comply with the written form of a republican constitution. It is the voice of the people alone that constitutes a government under our institutions. That " governments derive their just powens fi-om the consent of the governed " is an axiom too familiar to be for- gotten, and I contend that Congress has not in its possession any evidence worthy of regard that Mjt. Kellogg is governor in viola- tion of the consent of the governed; and until it is so informed, it can do no greater wrong, can in no manner more widely depart from its obligation as one of the co-ordinate braiiches of the Government of the United States to guarantee to Louisiana a republican form of government, than unjustifiably to set aside the present government in that State and impose upon her people the necessity of making another choice tlirough the bill of the Senator from Wisconsin. William P. Kellogg is to-day governor of the State of Louisiana. He is recognized as such by your Chief Executive, by your co-ordinate branch of Congress who have admitted to seats upon'their floor mem- bers properly certified by him to have been elected. He is recognized :xs such also by the supreme court of that State, and Congress ought to be satisfied, before it undertakes to overthrow him as the governor of one of the sovereign States of the Ujiicni, that he holds the office con- trary to the desires, contrary to the expressed wish and intention of the people governed. They should know that, and they should know what tlie people of Louisiana willed in 1872 and what their wish is to-day before they undertake to interfere with him. There is not a particle of evidence of that kind here. If he holds the office by the wish and according to the iutention of the people governed, then his goveruuieiit is repubhcau in form under the constitution of that state, and as all the evidence goes to show that he does so hold it, those who would oust him from his position are compelled to show proof to the contrary. Now let me call the attention of the Senate for a few moments to the political antecedents of that State. Then also let me ask your attention to the conclusion that the Senator from Wisconsin himself admits, that the State on the day of that election was largely repub- lican and cast a majority of republican votes. In April, 1868, the republican vote of the State of Louisiana was 64,901, and the demo- cratic vote was 38,000, giving a republican majority of twenty-six thoiisand and some hundieds. Under the necessity, as it seems, of the democratic party in the year 1868 to carry that State at all hazards, they instigated such scenes of violence thi'oughout the State that on the day of the election for Grant and Seymour in 1868 the colored people refrained ffom going to the polls. In the parish of Orleans alone, which only five months before polled 14,000 republican votes, we had to content ourselves with 240 — two hundred and forty white men who had courage enough to go up and cast their votes. And so throughout the State ; parishes that had cast from 500 to 1,000 votes for the republican candidate only a few short months before were found without a vote, and in some instances casting one, or two, or tkree votes. Is it any wonder under such circumstances that a dem- ocratic majority of forty-odd thousand should be rolled up and that the republican vote had fallen oft' some 50 per cent. ? The democratic vote had increased 100 per cent, and the republican vote had fallen off 50 per cent., so that that election was a farce. Then when we come to the election of 1870, when peace and tran- quillity prevailed once more in the State and there was not that in- tense political excitement, we find that the republican State candi- date received 65,500 votes and the democratic vote relapsed to its former number of 41,000, giving a republican majority on that occa- sion of 24,000 agam. Now, I assert, and I can prove both by the testimony taken before the committee and by the conclusion ad- mitted by the Senator from Wisconsin himself, that the colored people of Louisiana who Avere largely in the majority voted almost en masse in 1872 for the republican candidate. I do not think any Senator here will refute my assertion that as a class the colored men of the South are a unit as republicans. In some comments of Senator Trumbull, formerly a Senator from Illinois, on the report of the ma- jority, he commented upon the division of the races in Louisiana and quoted the census to show that there were a hundred and odd more white males in Louisiana than there were blacks. He quoted the census correctly; there is no doubt about that; there are that num- ber. The relative division is eighty-seven thousand and odd whites, and 86,913 blacks, males twenty -one years old and upward ; but the Senator did not quote far enough. He should have examined the column of citizenship, and he would have discovered that the black citizens were 15,000 majority over the whites. Mr. CARPENTER. Will you give me the page ? Mr. WEST. Page 619. We have an aggregate of 173,979 males, black and white, but we only have an aggregate of 159,001 citizens, black and white, and I ask you where are you to look for your unnatiual- ized people ? Not among the blacks ; we all know how they became naturalized. Now turn to page 629 of the first part of the census and you will find the same result derived there in a classification particu- larly of the State, and yoii will find also that in one single parish, the parish of Orleans, there are 9,000 unnaturalized foreigners. 8 Now, I will admit that if we were to go by the census or were we to go by such presumptions, you have no authority to establish a o-overnrtient in that State or in any State ; but when a State govern- ment is in existence the knowledge of the choice that its people did very probably make should make us pause before we assume that they did not make that choice, and we shotild so assume arbitrarily if without proper knowledge of the facts we order that people to choose again. It is necessary that the Senate should be asked once more to take a retrospective view of the political events that preceded the election in Louisiana in 1872. There Avere factions in both parties, or rather both parties embraced individuals and partial organizations inclining to a third, the liberal party. Several months before the presidential election the main parties in rivalry compacted their organizations and entered the field respectively as' units. The republicans fell back upon their own lines and presented an unbroken front. The few re- maining liberal rej)ublicans were gradually dissolved in the demo- cratic organization. They first dropped the name of republican and finally surrendered and became part of the democratic party, which, to signalize the event, took unto itself a new name and was known thereafter in the canvass by tlie title which we also ascrilie to it here, the fusion party ; so that parties relapsed into their own normal ele- ments, black and white. Assuming that we have no white republicans there, and referring to the testimony of the parties particularly interested to prove that the black men voted the democratic ticket, we find it is the reverse. I will qiiote now from the testimony of Mr. McMillen. Mr. McMillen, who appeared here as a candidate for a seat in this body and conse- quently desired to make as favorable a showing for his side of the question as he conscientiously and honorably could, when asked as to that election " How many thousand votes were there in the colored vote that voted for Greeley ? " he replied : My impression always has been that there have been about as many colored peo- ple who voted in opposition to the icpiiUliian ticket from one cause and another as there were of white people who votril tlie ripul)licau ticket, and that four or five thousand would cover the eutiie iiumbei- tlirouj;hout the State. There was the admission which probably forced the conclusion upon the Senator from Wisconsin that the colored population of the State, outnumbering the white, in the last election were almost unanimous in their support of the republican ticket. Now what testimony did they bring forward to rebut that ? and this is the only rebutting testimony in the whole book ; all the other testimony pointing to the conclusion that the Senator admits. They brought forward a colored democrat ; they did get one. They had a man by the name of Arm- stead, a colored man, nominated as secretary of state on the demo- cratic ticket for the ]Mirpose of catching probably some votes of that race; and he admiti^ that al>out two thousand up in Northern Lou- isiana voted the whole ticket from his information. He was cross- questioned by this very contestant, Mr. ISIcMillen, who also wanted to establish the fact, if he couhl, that the colored men voted the democratic ticket, and Mr. McMillen lace and power ; and yet so stands the chronicle of the time. Among the many gentlemen who have been here claiming to represent the people of Louisiana in this effort to overthrow the government of that State was the candidate for the oflice of attorney-general on the fusion ticket, Mr. Ogden. As an illustration of what he at one time tliought of the fellowship with which he eventually allied himself I give his remarlvs as reported to have been made in the democratic State convention. This is the report : Keferring to tlie statement that we could not succeed without the co-operation of " some power without reaard to the character of that power," the speaker spoke in de])T'ccatiun; terms of the proposition. He thought that a good ticket of honest men would sucei't'd. The refmiu movement had utterly confused the jxiliticsof the State and prt' vented the coalition with a certain individual. You might call it sickly sentimentality, he said, but he utterly rejected the proposition of a coalition with "Warmoth. [Applause.] It is not sickly sentimeutality to uphold one's principles. Honesty is the best policy. * * * * * * It was true, he added, tliat those who would form this coalition thought that suc- cess could only be obtaiiii'd liy a fraudulent registration. * * * He again warned the people from coalescing with Warmoth, who was a paralytic and a beggar before the people. And yet in two months thereafter this gentleman spoke at the same stand with Governor Warmoth in support of the fusion ticket, and clasped hands across the infamous, not the bloody, chasm. What was the basis of this alliance? What was the service proftered on one liand and the reward promised on the other ? Recourse must be had now once more to the report of the Senator from Wisconsin ; and I will ask the Clerk to read what is marked on page 44 of the report. The Chief Clerk read as follows : The tostinioiiy shows that leading and sagacious politicians of the State, who were ■acting with WariuDth, cntei taim-d tlie ojiiuion before the election that Warmoth's control of the election machinery was equivalent to 20,000 votes; and we are satis- fied, by the testimony, that this opinion was well founded. Mr. WEST. Now I will ask the Clerk to be kind enough to turn to page 871, and read the testimony given by J. Q. A. Fellows. The Chief Clerk read as follows: Question. In your conversation with leading democrats in New Orleans duiiug the last canvass or two, at the time the fusion was made liy (Jovernor Warmoth, state what their calculation was that his accession to the party would be worth to them. . Answer. I will premise by stating that for several years I have held myself somewhat neutral in politics, waiting for .an opportunity to arise when I could unite with one party or anotherfor the best interests of the State ; and last spring and summer, when the canvass was approaching and being carried on, there was an efl'ort made by some moderate demociats and reforniers, and a large number of othei- jieople in Louisiana, especially in New Orleans, that stood in the same posi- tion with mysilt', to make a uniou with the best portion of the republican party, and secure tlir govcrnmtiit of the State in all proper things. A fusion was contin- ually thought of by the democrats with the governor. I was solicited time and again, probably by thirty, I tliink, to join in the movement to make the fusion. 10 During that time say for two or three months, the whole matter was canvassed over and over again. They said that, with the assistance of the governor, or fusioa with the governor, they could certainly carry the State against the republican party, or the custom-hcfuse party, or the negro party, as they called it. I thought it could not he done; that he had not votes enough at hiH\'(>niniand to doit. I nndeistood that he had not over 1,000 voters that were his followi is. They ad- mitted that there were nomore than 2,000; but theysaid this: that his power, with, the assistance of the registration and election laws, was good for 20,000 votes by his appointing his men, or men who would work in his interest, as registrars, and the manipulation of the registration, and the appointment of commissioneis of election and in placing the election polls, and they thought his influence was good for 20,000 votes. ThisT was the rejjeated calculation of every one I talked witli that finally went into the fusion party. Others refused to go in who were called "last- ditch" democrats, or "straight-out" democrats; many of them refused to go in the fusion, and many of them voted for Grant and Kellogg who were within my ac- quaintance. They made the same calculation ; there was the calculation of oiie or two thousand followers, enough to make fifteen or twenty thousand altogether. Mr. WEST. The reading by the Clerk just at this momeut says that that "was the common talk of the i^oliticiaus in Louisiana as he understood it at that time. Now, that it was not only the com- mon talk of the politicians, but that it was the sentiment of the dem- ocratic party at large of that State, I have evidence here. The Pica- yune of December 24, 1872, in discussing some questions connected with the election, shamelessly admits that this alliance was entered into for that very purpose. Here is its language : All who went into the Greeley and Brown fusion movement were nece8.sarily thrown into politiral nlatious with Wai'moth, who was in tlie s:inii' line of policy, and as he had control of the ballot-boxes under the infamous registration and elec- tion laws of the State, it was thought to be neither neces.sary nor expedient to throw him otf, since he was in a position to insure a fair election and perhaps keep some negroes from going to thepolls. There is the admission. These infamous registration and election laws that the democratic party had been crying out against for two whole years they then hugged to their bosoms and used them for their own base purposes. I will quote again from the same paper, of a diiierent date, to show how far the respectable leaders of the demo- cratic party in that State admitted that they had gone into this un- holy alliance, how far they admitted that they were going to practice upon the ballot-box, and that although we might have a peaceable and a fair election, as they called it, when the votes came up to be taken out of the box they tumbled up Jack. That was the reason we had a peaceable election in Louisiana, because we did not believe that such infamy could be engaged in. We did not believe that whole ballot-boxes could be taken and returned with the number of 500 votes, and without the name of a single republican in a precinct strongly republican. Now, we have here the proceedings of tlie rati- fication of the fusion ticket, the shaking hands across the bloody chasm, in which the democratic candidate for governor, John McEu- ery, says : It is known to many of you, my countrymen, that when the democratic conven- tioniu .Tune assembled in vour city I was tlic tinn. decided, (Aitspoken iidvoeate, in that convention and out of it, for union and ((nilition of the conserv;itive eleuitMits upon a Just basis in oii|npsitiou to lli,e powi r of tlie military despot who sits en- throned at \V;isliinglon ; tlir man \v1h> in tlic cxerei.se of despotic power has robbed usof our rig)ils .sitiiii;; I'ntbidned at Wasliington. In this fusion, in this compact — if I may .so term it^ — is r(t the votes east for presiden- tial electors and members of Cdiijrrcss, kt't])iiiji sc])aratr tallylist.s on thi', Foiui No. l.providinl for tliat purpose, anil making up and coniplitinu llic statcuunt of votes for c.adi poll, upon Form No. 1. Tlieu clo.sti tlio box, ri'seai it, and proceed in a similar manner, until all tlie uatiimal votes have been counted. The republican party in the counting of the national votes was allowed to be represented under the law of Congress by the super- visors appointed ))y the district or circuit judge, but as 80(m as the counting of the national votes was done with they excluded those men aiul i>ractice(l their frauds in secret : Tlien proceed with the counting of the State and pari.sh votes, bearing in mind 13 the factthat the United States supenasora of election and deputy marshals have no right whatever to scrutinize, inspect, or be present at the counting of the State and parish votes. " Then on November 2, 1872, the same State registrar of voters, in reply to the request of the chairman of the republican central com- mittee that republican judges or commissioners should be allowed at the polls m the State of Louisiana, flatly denied the republican party a single representative. State of Louisiana, 1 Office of State Registration of Voters, Neto Orleans, November 2, 1872. Sir: In reply to your communication of date, I must respectfully decline com- pliance with your request io appoint one commissioner of election at each pollino- place, ti'om the republican party, at the general election to be held November 4, In regard to your second request, I have the honor td inform you that the list of polling places in this parish will be published in the officialjoimial and other papers to-morrow, 3d instant. Very respectfully, „.,„.," ^ B. P. BLANCHARD, nmte Aegisier of Voters and Supervisor of Registration, Parish of Orleans. Hon. S. B. Packard. President State liepuhlican Committee. Now, sir-, will any Senator on this floor rise in his place and say that he countenances such proceedings as that ? Will he rise in his place here and say that he believes a fair election could be held under such circumstances, or that the returns show anvthing like the choice of the people when that choice had to be submitted to such an ordeal as that f Where is the Senator who will say that he con- siders that justice was done then to the people of -Louisiana ? Sir, it was with such preliminaries for a fair election as I have stated here, that severe exclusion which the fusion party desired to have of republican witnesses at the polls, that the sun of Auster- litz, as my friend from Kentucky [Mr. McCreeryI said, illumined the glorious field on that morning the fusion party rallied around the banner of equal rights— equal rights, when a white man had a chance to vote and a black man could not ! To follow out my friend's illustration the chief was surrounded by his marshals. He'^only had to give them the instructions to carry out his ideas, and the repub- lican party was routed as the Austrians were on that memorable day. True, he had no Murat ; there was no Lannes, or Bertrand, or Berna- dotte ; but there were convenient tools at hand who stood ready to carry out his instructions. " Go to those parishes and cheat the ne- groes, or let me never see your face again." That was his order; that was the glorious sun of Austerlitz that illumined the field— a field which I as a Louisianian blush to say was illumined in that way. The curious in the valorous exploits of those creatures in the political combat can gratify their desire for information by referring to their deeds recorded in this testimony. The achievements of one of them were so unjiaralleled and extraordinary that I can scarcely avoid giving him the notoriety of personal mention. Mr. Gaboon, who went to Madison Pari.sh as supervisor of registration and election, signalized his devotion to his mission by reporting a regi.stration of 1,718 Avhite voters in that parish, whereas the census of 1870 gives only 936 total white population. But his courage seems to have failed him, and after taking flight to New Orleans, where he secured all the facilities for making up his returns to order, he only returned 838 democratic voters— something less than 50 per cent, of his registration, but liberal • enough, however, in comparison with the census and the democratic vote of lfc70, which latter only reached 37 . As a sample of how these 14 returns were made up by that individual the Senator from New Jersey yesteday had quotations made from the testimony going to show that a justice of the peace went to the room where this man was making up these returns and swore him to them in blank. Now let us have a little more summing up of the legerdemain — for there is no other name for it — that was practiced there upon ballot- boxes. In the election of 1870 the (h'uiDcrats carried sixteen parishes in the State of Louisiana by an a.L;',nrcij,at(' majdrity of seventy-three hun- dred and odd. These same sixteen i)arislie.s were reported by the fusion board as giving an aggregate democratic majority of only 7,101 in 1872. Upon theii" own showing the democratic loss on their own ground was 262 votes. In the parishes exclusively democratic on this occasion the democratic vote fell back 262 votes in a majority of 7,000. In the remaining thirty-six parishes of the State, which were all carried by the republicans in 1870 by a ma,jority of 32,616, the fusion board in 1872 returned an aggregate democratic majority of 1,.556. At an election which showed large republican gains in every other State of the Union, an astonishing gain of 34,171 in the opposite direc- tion is claimed in the exclusively republican parishes of Louisiana by a board which admitted a republican gain in the exclusively demo- cratic parishes of the State. Where they could manipulate the elec- tion machinery, and wanted to do it in republican localities, they totally reversed the vote, and in their own parishes, where they did not use it, their own vote fell off'. Now, sir, with respect to four parishes which the Senator from Wisconsin seems to think ought scarcely to have been admitted, be- cause the testimony showed that the returns were forged, they only showed two hundred and thirty-odd majority for Mr. Kellogg. Let us throw them out and that only loses Mr. Kellogg 230 votes ! They were forged for the piu-pose of depriving Mr. Kellogg of his legiti- mate majority in those jiarishes of nearly 5,000 votes, as shown by the previous elections. It would therefore suit very well t«i show that they were forged, and throw them out, because that takes away 80 many majority for Mr. Kellogg. Doiibtless the Senate has long ago wearied of this story of fraud. It is a sickening and disgusting history, one which I would fain avoid recounting ; but it is necessary to the line of my argument, and after an allusion to one more glaring instance I will pass to other points. The report of the State registrar of voters sliows that the vote of the parish of Orleans by the census, not including unnaturalized persons, should be 29,43.'>. The fusion party registered .''>5,38.'j votei's and counted the votes of 36,359 ; whether they actually voted or not is another question. Such are only a few instances of the frauds shown by the testimony in the report. The whole book is filled with them. They were all per- petrated ))y and in the interest of the fusion party, for no members of the re)ml)Hean party Avere allowed as officers of the election. Aiul it is u))()n such returns as were made through these instruments of fraud that tlie Senator from Wisconsin asks us to say that William P. Kellogg was not elected govei'nor of Louisiana in 1872. Let us irom the record we have follow these returns, and judge of how nuich value they possess as giving an authentic account of the votes cast at the election. They lirst make their ajjpearance in Gov- ernor Wavmoth's testimony on pages 140, 141, 142. The governor says tlii'ic tliat they came into his ]>i)ssef^sion about the 14th of Novem- ber ; that he laid them before a certain board ; that he took occasion to count some of them for the purpose of seeing who were elected 15 presidential electors, and so certified himself. He also testifies that lie countetl them for the purpose of ascertaining who was elected a judge to a certain court wherein he wished a fiieud of his to he in- stalled ; and he goes on to testify that he kept possession of those re- turns until the 4th day of December ; and yet in a subsequent part of the testimony he says that these returns were out of his hands on the 14th day of Noveml)er and went into the hands of a returning board! By following up Governor Warmoth's testimony upon page 494, it is evident that he maintained only a nominal custody of these returns. On page 1079 he says they were compiled by tweuty-live or thirty clerks. On page 864 he says that he himself, unaided by any one, either clerks or members of a returning board, counted the whole vote forjudges in the parish of Orleans. The precise time when these returns, which are anj't-hing else than true returns of the election in Louisiana, were transferred from the Wharton bo^ird to the De Feriet board does not appear, and reference to their having been so transferred is only necessary to show that they were manipulated by still other parties before they finally found their way into the hands of the Forman lioard ; from the governor to one board — then counted solely by himself — then thi'ough the com- pilation of thirty clerks to another board, the Forman board. The chief of this board testifies, on page 75, tliat his board was elected on the 11th December by the senate ; not before noon of that day, it is presumed ; and yet before midnight of that same date, within twelve hours of his becoming a member of the board, he and some of his a.s- sociates compiled, counted, and returned under oath a mass of re- turns in manuscript that require sixty pages of this closely printed book to contain them. How much scrutiny did Mr. Forman and his a.ssociates give or have the opportunity of giving to these returns ? Is it not evident that the thirty clerks, many of them the dirty instru- ments used behind the ballot-boxes on the day of the election, had compiled the returns to suit, and the Forman board, eager to declare their party successful, compounded with their consciences and made oath to facts of which they had no knowledge ? Moreover, these re- tm-ns profess to be signed by two men, Senators Todd and Hunsaker, and I hold their affidavits that they never did sign them. Theii' names are forged. Some of the adventures of these returns were ludicrous enough. It having become necessary to remove them from the governor's office to prevent them from falling into the hands of the officers of the law, trusty henchmen were called into service, and during three nights and clays the authentic (?) returns of the famous election in Louisi- ana were transferred by them to a i>lace of hiding. In their pockets, in their pantaloons legs, in their boots, their hats, the reliable evi- dences of the expressed will of the people were sacredly transported. As one of the party tells me, "We went into the governor's office thin and came out fat !" They went in skeletons and came out Falstaft's. Their clothes were wadded with these authentic returns of the elec- tion in Louisiana. And then what did they do with them? They took them for safe-keeping to the quarters or the residence of a prom- inent candidate on the State ticket and left them in his charge a week for safe-keeping! They must of course have been very sacredly kept. Of course when they are brought here the parties that are in- terested in establishing them can with a deal of complacency a^ipeal to these as the returns of how the people in Louisiana voted on that day. Why, sir, they were pointed out to one of these gentlemen in the room of the Committee on Privileges and Elections; and the 1^ committee asked him if lie knew those returns. Yes, he said, he did know them ; he knew them exactly like a gambler knows his cards, by the backs. He knew they were put there, and without opening the box he said he knew those were the returns. Why ? Because he came there prepared to say that he knew they were the returns. And it is upon such vagrant testimony as this that the Senator from Wisconsin gravely asks us under our obligations as Senators to declare that William P. Kellogg was not elected governor of Louisiana. He has Avoven such a mesh of legal technicalities around the subject, made such a conglomerate of returns, legal decisions, parallel cases, j)recedents and orders of Federal judges, that men of ordinary reason are almost diverted from contemplation of the one great, important fact — the fact paramount to all others — whom did the people of Louisiana elect governor ? Sir, I am sick of returns ; one set is all a fi-aud, the other is all guess-work. I claim nothing by returns ; but by the voice of the sovereign people of Louisiana, as expressed at the ballot-box, I main- tain that the rej>ublican State ticket was elected, and no Senator here has, nor has the Senate itself, any evidence worthy of estimation to the contrary. Two men were voted for as governor. All the proof that John Mc- Enery was elected is shown to have been an organized fraud. If McEnery was not elected, his opponent was, and I repeat again that Congress cannot say to the contrary. In the New Jersey case to which I have alluded, and which will be found reported in Reports of Committees, tirst session Twenty-sixth. Congress^ and in the eighth volume of the Congressional Globe, there were five rival candidates on each side claiming seats in the House of Representatives, and upon the admission of one or the other side de- pended the election of a Speaker. There were one hundi'ed and six- teen democrats and one hundred and sixteen whigs returned to that Congress in-espective of the vote of New Jersey, which was at that time entitled to iive members in the House. Both of the contesting parties from New Jersey bore certificates based upon returns made according to the laws of New Jersey. Congress assembled on the 2d of December, 1839, and the question as to the rights of the NeAv Jer- sey members was not decided until the 8th day of July following ; and that question was not decided upon any return made by election officers, but comndssioners were sent into New Jersey who patiently examined the voters themselves, and that examination determined who was and who was not elected. Returns went for nothing in the case; it was decided by an examination of the voters themselves. The inquiry went to the fact as to how ballots were cast, and was not satisfied with returns. Mr. I'resident, it is a principle of the law of evidence "that the affirmative of the issue must be proved; and he who makes an asser- tion is tlie person who is expected to support it, before he calls on his opponent for an answer." I su)>niit that tlie Senator'from Wisconsin has not supported the facts alleged in the preamble of his l)ill. Congress dare not with the evidence licfore it overturn the government of a sovereign State. The right to inteii'en^ is not warranted by the facts that ah)ne can make that right. Will you do any less for Louisiana than convince your- selves what was the choice of her people? The Senator from Wisconsin has pictured some dire events that might arise from the failure of Congress to interfere in this nuitter. Let me ])icture another du-e event that might have arisen. Sujipose 17 iu the returns of the electoral vote for President in 1872, 179 votes had been returned for General Grant and 179 votes for his opponent, be it Greeley or Gratz Brown, and suppose then that the presidential election had depended upon the eight votes of Louisiana, would you have admitted the presidential electors by the returns sent here by the fusion board ? Would you have ordered a new election ? No, sir; but you would haA^e held this Government l)y the point of the bayonet until you ascertained how every man iu that State voted, and I claim that you shall do Louisinna the same justice here that you would have done the national Government iu ascertaining what was the choice of its people. Yoii would not have permitted for one moment a determina- tion upon returns so loaded with fraud as I have illustrated here, but the Avhole power of your Government woixld have been exerted to maintain itself until you could know what was the wish of the people of Louisiana ; and I ask you to do the same for us. Mr. President, the conclusions to which my mind is drawn by a consideration of the facts before the Senate are as follows : The bill of the Senator from Wisconsin is predicated upon the assumption that there is no valid executive in Louisiana, and her laws do not permit one to bo chosen until 187G ; that there is no valid Legislature, but an invalid one now enacting laws. But the Legislature is no longer enacting laws, and the laws of Louisiana will compel the election of a new one quite as soon as we could provide one. We have no shadow of excuse, therefore, for interfering with more, than the executive. We have no shadow of excuse for ordeiing a new election for the executive, merely because the wrong man is holding. If we have power to dispossess the wrong man, we have power to j)ossess the right one. Before we can order a new election, vre must find, not merely that Kellogg was not elected, but that no one was elected iu 1872. We know that an election was held on the day appointed hj law. ^^'e know that but two candidates were voted for. We are morally certain that one or the other had the greatest number of votes. If it be conceded that the State has no Legislature, we must pre- sume they will liaA^e one in November next. And we morally know that Kellogg or McEuery icas elected, and if we have any duty iu the premises, it is the duty of finding ivhiah was elected. That question has not been tried as yet. The Committee on Privi- leges and Elections tried the question whether McMillen or Eay was Senator. Another question was referred to the committee, but it was not investigated. Such testimony was taken as McMillen oliered upon one side, and Eay upon the other. The bill uoav sought to be referred to the committee is neither w^ar- • ranted by the facts, nor applicable to the political condition of affairs in Louisiana. The opponents of the present administration in Louisiana, led here by the Senator fi-om Wisconsin, are not insisting ujjon what they should claim as then- rights, if they have any rights at all. Balked in the fraudulent scheme whereby they sought to capture the con- trol of a State, they implore Congress now to afford them another opportunity. Sir, if they believe that they are in the majority iu Louisiana they know they will have an opportunity ere long to prove it. If they believe that McEnery Avas elected ihey should demand, and be satis- 2 w 18 tied with uotliiug less tban that he .should be iiossessed of the execu- tive chair. I am conviuced that Mr. Kellogg was elected, and my eftbrts shall be coiitiuued to maintain liim where he is. Did I think otherwise I would not hesitate a moment to bring forward measures looking to the installation of the rightful governor; but a new election ordered by Congress is no remedy for the evils which are complained of by those who favor it. Now, Mr. President, I will i)ass fi'om the politics of Louisiana and refer somewhat to her material and social interests. It has been the common charge rung throughout this country that the republicans of the South were responsible for the decay and the detriment and the disaster that prevail through many of those States. True, we are to a certain extent resj)onsible. Let ns understand what that extent is, and let us be judged by the facts that each Senator representing a State can present for consideration here. The oppressed condition of the industrial and agricultural interests of Louisiana and the prostration of the commercial business of New Orleans are referred to as the results of republican misrule. Even these adverse circumstances are much exaggerated, and it is a jiross error to attribute them as mainly due to political causes. We all know that whenever material prosiJerity lags, all jseople, and more partic- ularly our people, address their first complaints against the admin- istration of their government. This is the necessary consequence of our institutions. Dissatisfaction takes shape instantly, as opposed to the governing power, and the first thought of relief creates an ex- pectation that a change of political control will insure it. There is a maxim applicable here, and one which we will do well to consider in its application to the distress prevailing throughout the land, the spirit of Avhich is likely to control in a great degree the po- litical events of the next few years. It is said — Murder a man's family and he will brook it, Eut keep yonr hands out of his breeches pocket. Wlien the people of this country are distressed they will call us to account because their pockets suffer; and it is well for us to consider that maxim in its application to the country at large. That is a maxim Avhich is infliiencing Louisiana in the complaints that the 'political management of that State has brought all its distress itpon it. And yet tlu! people of Louisiana should consider what are the causes of the distress prevailing there, and by the record decree to whom polit- ical evils are attributable. I shall only speak now of the financial' affairs of the State. That agriculture has not of late yielded adequate remuneration to those eugiig(!d in it is due to failures of crops and other causes, and it has been in no way aftected by late political events. The misadjustment of the relations of labor and cai)ital also for a time has been preju- dicial, and Avill continue to work injury until better regulated. But in looking at the immediate condition of the finances of Louisi- ana, in considering tlie extent of the del)t of the State, it is well to inquire whether it is due to the republican party, and whether its exclusion from i)ower would bring iil)out a change for the bettei". There lias been a good deal of confusion as to tlie debt of tlu^ State of Louisiana. I present here the net debt of the State, withont any reference to contingencies, many of them having Ijeconu; oljsolete by the lapse of the legislation tliat made them, and I shall call the at- tention of the Senate ami of the country to the fact that when the State of Louisiana was relieved from Biilitarv control and n^mitted 19 to the control of the Legislature called into being nnder the policy of Andrew Johnson, the debt of that State was |5,018,635.14. Under Mr. Johnson's policy we had a democratic Legislature. It commenced its existence on the 1st of January, 1836, and it held one session in that year, and held another in 1867," so that the total exist- ence of the Andrew Johnson policy in the government of Louisiana was of eighteen months' duration, for it was suspended by the act of reconstruction of July 19, 1867. In eighteen months the democratic party of Louisiana, it being exclusively democratic, added $9,000,000 in round numbers to our debt, or, to give the exact figures, $8,997,300. A repuldicau administration extending from April, 1868, to the present time has increased the debt of Louisiana $10,077,471.86. The "Andrew Johnson policy" Legislature increased our dcltt, $8,997,300, as I said. The first republican Legislature approi.riatod .s-^,911,488, but did not increase the debt that much. The second republican Legislature ap- propriated $9,607,282, and the last republican Legislature during its existence, this Legislature that you are told is sqtiandering the sub- stance of the people of Louisiana, got along with one-lialf of the amount required by either of its predecessors, namely, $4,875,269, dur- ing the two years of its existence. Senators must bear in mind that the expenditures of the State of Louisiana are something enormous, attril)utable to the topographical formation of the State, and the necessity of protection against overflows that are now, as I speak, inflicted on those people, rendering necessary an expenditiu-e for levees alone annually almost of as much money as would run an ordinary Commonwealth in this vicinity. The administration there has been criticised for what is called a repiuliation of the debt. With a debt of $24,000,000 in that State, quite half of which is due to the democratic party, a great portion of it duo also to the unfortunately dilapidated condition in which our levees were loft at the conclusion of hostilities in that direction, and to the necessity that devolved on us to repair them — with such a debt oppressing us what was to be done ? We had the alternative to pay, to repudiate, or to compromise. The property-holders of that State, who are iu the main the democratic party, took counsel to- gether. Some of them recommended repndiation; some of them recommended the scaling of the debt ; and they finally, through the instigation and by the suggestion of the chamlier of commerce, sub- mitted a bill to be acted upon by the Legislature scaling the debt down to sixty cents, so that, although this somewhat questionable exj)edient has been entered into and adopted by a republican Legis- lature, it was done at the request of and in tlie interest of the demo- crats, and they must not take exception to it. Mr. CONKLING. How is it with people out of the State, credit- ors ; are they to take exception to it ? Mr. WEST. No ; they had better take sixty cents, because if the democrats get into powqr they Avill not get a cent. [Laughter.] Ho\^' tliat action was viewed by the chamber of commerce, a demo- cratic institution, I will show. Mr. Saiiilidge offered a resoUitioriof thanks to the Legislature, comnienrtiugthem for passing tlie fimding hill ami the evident intention shown toward measiu-es in the iiiti rest of loform. Mr. Oglcsl 1 y said such a resolution ought to pass. The ohamher had advocated the measure, and 11 was iliie to tlic Lc^islaliirc to thank tlu-iii lor their action. * ■■ * The Legislature hail acted iiinre I'aAdralily towaid the. lioudliohlers than toward us. If they had made it .">() i)ei' eiiit. it would liave Ix'eu au even thing: as it was they gave them 10 per cent, the advantage. The Chattanooga hondhohlers were the only ones who complained. 20 So the chamber of commerce wanted the debt of the State cut down to fifty ceuts on the dollar, and the republican Legislature said " no ; we think we can pay sixty, and Ave Avill make it sixty." Noat, sir, I know Avhat the sentiment of the peo]>le of that State is in retjardto that measure. I know that it meets almost uniA^ersal approval there, and Avhere it is disapproA^ed it is by those who, if they hadthepoAver, would relicA^e themseh'^es of what they consider a terrible and unjust incubus, and Avould repudiate cA^ery dollar of it. Mr. I'resident I Avant now to speak of the condition of business aftairs in Ncav Orleans. I want to give my convictions that the in- terruption to business in Louisiana, and especially in New Orleans, is not mainly due to political causes. I can remember the time when every pound of goods almost that was consumed Avest of the Allegha- nies, and the exception was so rare that the remark is justifiable — " cA^ery pound " Avas transmitted to that region by Avay of Ncav Orleans. The first time that eA^er I raised my hand to earn my own liAT.ng I did it on the DelaAvare KiA-er, in loading Aa'c hundred barrels of flour to go by the Avay of New Orleans to the city of Saint Louis in 1838. Whole ship-loads would go to that city of goods bought in New York and Philadelphia and Baltimore and Boston, for Saint Louis, Louisville, Memphis, aud Cincinnati, and whole steamboat-loads would come down AA^ith produce that is now transmitted by raikoad, by the transcontinental lines of commuiiication ; so that in the mere matter of forwarding in NeAV Orleans the great supplies to the West and the great products of the West sent back to us we had a large and industrious community engaged. Furthermore, we had a market there for Avestern merchants. They used to resort there. We had our palatial dry-goods stores, our ex- tensiA'e hardAA^are stores, our extensiA'c boot and shoe trade, now gone to a great extent. But AA^hy gone ? From political causes ? Not alto- gether. At the outbreak of the Avar, or shortly before it, the raikoad lines Avere just about perfecting a communication across the continent, and that means of communication, the direct resort of merchants to NeAV York and the large cities of the East, competed materially first Avith our lines of transportation, and next with our resources of supply. NcAV Orleans was already beginning to feel that the Mis- sissi])pi had more moutlis than one, and that she did not sit the queen of (unpire at the moutli of the great river. So it Avas. The Avar came on, closing up the mouth of the Mississippi Ei ver, closing up the dry-- goods trade, the grocery trade, the boot a.ndshoe trade, and the hard- ware trade, paralyzing the South and electrifying the North ; and when business Avas resumed there, at the close'of the Avar, Ave found that our customers had all gone Nortli. Our lines of communication Avere brolcen up. And we did more tlian that, Mr. President; we dis- couraged northern capital from coming among us by refusing to con- sort socially Avith any man Avho dift'ered politically with the majoi-ity of the Avliite people there. These are some of the causes to which tiio decay of business in New Orleans is attributable. I feel them and I know them. I saAvthat city years ago Avhen it Avas n martbusy Avith all the ener- gies of connnerce, now to a degree paralyzed and' its ])roperty lying vacant and seeking for tenants throngli tlie bigotry, in a great nieas- ure, and the i)rejudiccs of her people. Again, th(>, debt of the city wo are taxed with as a great abuse; that is radical or i'e])ublican dereliction again. Sir, aa'c never had a repMl)lican administration in tliat city that did not diminish the debt, anil when avc have had democratic administrations there the people 21 have almost besought the repiihlicaus to take the goveruiuent out of their liaiids that they might even save the very paviug-stoues from l)eing sold out of the streets. I have shown that the evils under which Louisiana svificrs are not altogether due to political causes, and for a 11 political mismanagement tiie opponents of the republican party in thnt State are quite as much responsible as that party itself; arid I have shown that if Congress has any duty to Y)erform in the piemises it is the duty of ascertain- ing who is the legal governor of Louisiana ; and before I conclude let me just say a few words in reply to the braggart boast that were it not for the Army of the United States the government of Mr. Kel- logg could not 1)6 sustained a moment in that State. Sir, I do not with any zest want to recall to the Senate the out- rages that have l)een perpetrated there ; Init I ask the Senate and I ask the country, in view of the innumerable lives that have been sacrificed there since 1866, whether four hundred and seventy-six troops ani any too many to preserve tranquillity and to repress out- rage and crime in that State ? Are they any too many to execute the laws — the mere revenue laws of the United States? And .suppose tb.^y are kept there for the purpose of pres*Tving tranquillity, suppo.se that if the J' were taken away the Kellogg government would not stand, why would it not stand? Su-, the Kellogg government will stand. It will stand forever, or republican government will stand as long as the people in that State are of their present mode of thinking; until you invite a war of races and ami the negro there. I tell Senators that 90 per cent, of the lepublican i)artyin my State are colored people. Can wo arm ihem to defend themselves again,st the minority, the whites? And a Senator on tliis floor brmgs in a bill to remit Louisiana to a state of civil war ! No, sir ; the jieople there are your wards. You have made them so Ytj your enactments ; and it is due to them that you should protect them. But if the men who oppose .the governmen t of Mr. Kel logg will meet us on the result of a fair election, we will meet them on that issue, but some of us — and they know it — are debarred from taking arms in our hands. Now, Mr. President, does the bill of the Senator fiom Wisconsin meet this case at all ? Is there any ground for it ? Can Congress interfere ? And would not every mau who should give his dispassion- ate judgment and reflection to this case be satisfied, as I am, that Mr. Kellogg is the legitimate choice of the people, and should be left there to exercise the powers conferred by the people ? I am obliged to the Senate for their attention. o W LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 014 544 758 6 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS nil' !!' lllll'IIIIIIMf 11' INI! I III nil 014 544 758 6 •