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i t DEVOTBD TO POLITIOS, MORALITY, EDUCATION AND TO T4'B BRAL ,N'ERST OF H OQV Rt. YV PICKENS, S. C. THU1sDAY 19, 1877 A THEs SENTINEL W PUBLIona. VIY. THURSDAY. k -I ) * " L. ) 3 " I k M & C O . T&rmsof Subser9ption. Six Months . . . . . 75 ~~Adverw*ug Rates. Uts Inserted at the rate of $1 00 o (9) nine Ulies; OI LN8S, for the on, and 50 cents for each aubse M:ie for Tuan, six or t WaV2 mn 4fjalvorable terms. Advertisements not having the number of imertions marked on them, will be published until forbid and charged accordingly. The terms are so simple any child may um~s(4i thfw., 1N)np inesis: a square-. o .lIt endry in04ne we -ohargi by the space occupied, as eight or ton lines can b Me to occupy four or five squares, as the fd_R&br'aaf wish, and .is chariged by the space. MW A$7e#tisers will please state the num ber of squares they wish their advertisemonts to make. MW Business men who advertise to be bensfaed, w 1 hpar in mind that the 8E h 4 arge af4 incieising oir Ou d taken by the very class of dj ee they Afire. "4Tho Eleotoral Oonspiracy." Jud eromiah $. Black, in the Jul of the xorth American Review, contributes an article en titled "Ttie Electoral conspiracy," wt'idh isthe most complete and scath ing expose that has yet been made of the fraud which placed Mr. Hayes in the Presidential chair. Our space will only permit the reproduction of the most striking passages. After briefly -dertin.g to tho indignation telt by honest men throughout the oon4trbat the great outrage upon the rights of the people,Judge Black proceeds to depict the condition of affairs in the State of Louisiana pre. vious to the Presidential election. iMst,ro ddecribes the carpet bagger: WUAT THE CARPET-BAoGER Is. ThDep0le would not have. een wholly 4hed, either by the aoldier or the negro, if both had not been u 0 faston up,)n them the domi n0jp of another class of persons wltose rule was altogethor unendura b.e. These we call carpet baggers, not becanso the word is descriptive or ouphon ions, but because they have no other name whereby they are S kediM%ibngd he children of men. Teare unprincipeled adventurers, who 'sought their fortunes ini the Soath by plundering the disarmed and defenseless people; some of them were the dregs of the Federal army ther sdeawest of the camp followers; nssa1 were fugitives fromi Northern 4 justice; the.best of them were those who- wont down after the peace, red4jfor any deed of shame that Was' safe and prfitable. These, o$i1bining with a few treacherous "s%inrge"and some leading ne groe tweserve as decoys for the rest, 4a5t4elied' by the power of the gen osal governnent, became the stron% gl@4t.fo thieves that ever pilla goia people. Their moral grade Sfar lower, and yet they were much more powerful than the robber 1e4a $hat infested Germany after tkoueloee of the n Thirty Years" war* 'Ehefjawarmed over the States fro'm the Dotom!ac to the Gulf, and settled in~ hordes, not with intent to remain thei'0 but nierely to teed on the sub stance of a prostrate and defenseless phplb. They took whatever came witbIuytheir reach, intruded them soWffd}1o, all privato corporations, assumed the funictions of all offices, iifEddng'the courts of justice, and in mbny plabot they even "run the cherohd1es." l3y ford~e and fraud they oftbreabutrolled all elections or else proet elections from being held. .. Tid jrnedsixty of'themselves to oneOi gross, and ten or twelve of tig iarn and venal among thememsre at the same time thrust izft$ Thd Ben ate. Thia false repre sentatidlst ot a people by strangers andjalgties who had not even a bona y fderresidenco.smong them was the bitterest of all mockeries. Thee w. no show of truth or honor abo%t it-.., The pretended representative was always ready tb vote for any -mess. ure that would oppress anud enslave his so%called constituents; his hostility was unconcealed, and he lost no op portunity to do them injury. HIS DESoENT UPON LOUISIANA. The agricultural and commercial wealth of Louisiana made here a strong temptation to the carpet-bag gers. Those vultures snuffed the prey from afar; and, as soon. as the war was over, they swooped down upon her in floaks that darkened. the air. The State was delivered into their hands by the military authori ties; but the officers imposed some restraints upon their lawless cupidity They hailed with delight the advent of negro suflrage, because to them it was merely a legalized method of stuffing the ballot box, and they stuf fed it. Thenceforth, and down to a very recent period, they gorged themselves without let or hindrance. The depredations they committed were frightful. They appropriated, on one pretense and another, what ever they could lay their hands on and then pledged to themselves the credit of the State for unaccounted millioni more. The public securities ran down to half price, and still they put their frauduleut bonds on the market and sold them for what they would fetch. Tiro owners of the beat real estate in town or country were utterly impoverished, because the burdens upon it were heavier than the rents would discharge. During the last ton years the city of New Orleans paid in the form of direct taxes more than the estimated valuo of all the property within her limits, and still has a debt of equal amount unpaid. It is not likely that other parts of the State sufforod less. The extent of their spoliations can hardly be calculated, but the testimony of the carpet baggers tbensolves against one another, the reports of commit tees sent by Congress to investigate the subject, and other informnation from sources entirely authentic, make it safe to say that a general confla gration, sweeping over all the State from one end to the other, and doe stroying every building and every article of personal property, would have been a visitation of mercy in comparison to the curse of such a government. THE INVENTIVENESS OF SOOUNDRELISM This may seem at first blush like groes exagg'ration, because it is worse tihan anything that misrule ev er did before. The, greediest of Ro man proconsul. left something to the country they wasted; the Norman did not strip the Saxon quite to the skin g the Puritans under Cromwell did not utterly desolate Ireland. Their ra pacity was confined to the visible things which they could handle and use. They could not take what did not exist. But the American carpet bagger has an invention unknown to those old fashioned robbers, whid~h increased his stealing power as much as the steam engine adds to the me chanical force of more natural mus eles, Hie makes negotiable bonds of the State, signs and seals them "ac cording to the forms of the law," sells them, converts the pceeds to his own use, and then defles justice "to .go behind the returns." By this dle, vice his felonious fingers are made long enough to reach into the pock ets of posterity; he lays his lien on property yet uncreated; he anticis pates the labor of comning ages and appropriates the fruits of it in ad, vance; he coins the industry of future generations into cash, and snatches thte mnberitance from children whose fathers are unborn. Projecting his cheat forward by his contrivance and opern tng laterally at the same time, he gathers an amount of plunder which no country in the world would i ave fielded to the Goth or the Van TR GWs Ov tr PmEuantamo uoAaD. The wretched system of.; carpetp bag government could not possibly last. From the first it had no ral support. The native people and the honest immigrants, who went there for the purpose of legitimate business, held it in abhorrence, and the ne groes were not long in finding out, that it was a sham and a snare. As early as 1870, and before that, the handwriting was seen on the wall, which announced that a large and de cisive majority of all the votes, black and white, had determined to break up this den of thieves. They must. therefore, prepare for flight or pun ishment, unless they could contrive a way of defeating the popular will whenever and however it should be expressed. Then the returning board was invented. This was a machine entirely new, with powers never before given to any tribunal in any State. Its obs ject was not to return, but to sup, press the votes of the qualified elecs tore, or to change them to - suit the occasion. By the terms of the law it can exclude, suppress, annihilate all the votes of a parish for violence, iu tinidation or fraud, which it finds to have been committed and adjudges to have materially, influenced the result of the polls. This is judicial authority so broad that no court would consont to exercise it-inflict ing the fearful penalty of disfran chiseMent upon thousands at onco, without hearing and without legal evidence, not for any offouse of their own, but for the supposod sin of oth. ers over whom they confessedly have no control. Of course it is in direct conflict with the State constitution, which declares that all judiciall pow er shall be vested in certain ordained and established courts, and forbids it to be used even by them except upon trial beforo a jury, and convia tion on the testimony of credible witnosses confronted by the accned and cross-examined by cousl. It is besides, a most insolent affront to the fundamental princi pies of all elective governm~ent, for it makes the poll of the people a mere mockery, which decides that nothing except what the returning board is pleased to approve and elects nobody whom the return. ing board does not graciously favor. Its power to veto a popular vote ex.. tends to all elections, for evary class of officers, judicial legislative, minis terial executive, including electors of President and Vice President. 11OW IT AMU ITS WORK. Tke board consisted of five persons ThIey were originally appointed by a carpet-bag Senate, without end of their tenure and with power to fill vacancies, which made them a close corporation an)d gave them p)erpetual succession. To put on some show of fairness, the law. required that all parties should be represented. This was at first thought to be met by the appoitmont of one Demiocrat, but when a deed of more than common baseness was to be done, the Demo crat was got rid of, and the other four, desiring to work in secret, refused to fill his place. APPLIED TO THlE PRIEsDENTIA L ELE(TioN. The election camoe off on the prop0l er day, supervised and controlled at every p)ollig laico by oflicers of the carpet-bag interest. According to their own count' tho result was a majority of 7,639 for th'e Tilden eloc tors. It hL. never yet been denied that this majority was made up of ballots cast by citizens logally quiali, fled. The vote was regularly taken and proper'ly counted, and a true res cord of it maide in perpetuam roi me moriamn. These facts being undis puted, it follows that the Tilden ee. tore wore duly appointed, if the peo pie of the State have the appointing power, which they certainly have, unless the constitution and the statuto books are not to he relied on. But the. opp9pents.of Tilden, #nd Hoadricks determined tbt the req cord of the appointmnt. *a4e. by the people should be muutilated a4d changed so as: t make it appear as it electors for Hayes and Wheeler had been chosen. They pretended to be. lieve that violence and Intimidation had frightened the African Hayti men from the polls, and that their cowardice onght to be visited, in the form of disfranchisement, on the heads of those who had Intrepidity enough to perform their politiqal duty. The allegations were utterly fae. It was made not only without evidence to sustain it, but in the face of overwhelming proof to the contram ry. All the places of registration and voting were garded by the creatures of the Federal and State administra tions, superintendents, commissioners deputy marshals and soldiers, and all of these with one voice said that the election was peaceable and free. In deed, it is literally impossible that any intimidation or violence could have been practiced. No sensible person ever gave credit to it for a momeng. Notwithstanding such mental anxiety about the result, va rious reasone combined to make the election of Louisiana probably the most quiet and undisturbed in the. Union. THE 0HARACTER OF MTS MEMBERS. The person.nel of the board jasti fled the faith of the carpet baggers and their allies.- If the evidence concerning its members be rightly reported by the investigating com mittee, they were marked out by the history of their previous lives, noted and signed to do any deed ot shame which might be required at their hands. Wells was a custom house offices at New Orleans, and one of the worst of that bad lot; a defaulter to the State of loig standilg, without charactor for integrity or varacity, and for thirty years regarded as un-. worthy te be trusted. A nderson's character for honesty was equally bad; he had earned it in par't by aid ing, while he was a Senator, to put up a fraudulent job upon the State, and taking the iniqnitous proceeds to himself. Of the two mnullattoes, one was indicted for larceny, and, after admitting hia'guilt, was allowed to escape punishmient, and proamptly taken into the board. The other was too ignoront to know his duty, but his testimony showed stuch indiffer ance to the obligation of an oath:that he was deemed as safe for the carpet baggers as either of his colleagues. T1hoy comprehended the situation, saw the difficulty of the work before them, and resolved to make it pay in something bettor than mere promises of "recognition," however "generous and ample." Wellb,, who was their spokesman in private as in public, wrote in strict confidence to a carpet. bag Senator then at Washingten a letter whick, being condensed into plain English, means thie: "There's millions in it. See our friends and act promptly. Buy us immediately or we will sell out to the other side. Talk freely to the gentleman who presents this; he knows the moves." To the bearer of the letter he ex phiied that it was very hard work to count in the Republican candidate - the Democratic majority wvas too large to handle-he wanted to servo his party, but he would not take this job without comipensation; i;e must have "$200,000 apiece for himself and Anderson, and a smaller sum for the niggers." Oni this basis he authorized his amibassador at Wash ington to negotiate with the Repubs lican managers. At the same time he was offering himself at N ew Or. leans to the Democra's, at first for a half a million, but atteward proposed that he would leave in enough votes to elect Mr. Nicholls (Democratic candidate tor Gouvernor) if $200,000 ah wore first inend in hin ha~ THEIR VIOLAIONs Ot THE STATtft. ThQ action 'of te raturning officers this. wbole business was unSup ported by legal authority. The Le, gislature of. the State did not, because it could not, give them.power to die. tranohise qualified electors. They lacked, therefore, the general jurie diction which they assumed. But that is not all; they proceeded in the very teeth even of the void statute which they professed to follow. That statute pretends to give them no such authority as they exercised over any return to which a protest or sfatement or charge of intimidation ls not at tached when it is sent in by the Su. pervisor of Registration or Commis sioner of Election, and the charge so attached to the return must be sup ported by the affidavits of three citi.. Zens of tho propor.parish. Wanting this, the board was abso.. lutely without the pretense of power to touch the return from any parish or polling place, except for the pur poses ot compiling it and adding it as true to the others. By the olec. tion law of Louisiana the board has no more authority to examine or de cide a quastion of intimidation which is not raised by the election officers than a private individual would have to steal it from the records and burn it. So stands the law. The fact is established by conclusive evidence that from every one of the Demo cratic parishes the returns came up without any ebarge, statement, or protest. In ali those cases they were therefore without color of jurisdic tion. FORGING AFFIDATUS AND RETURNS. But the conspirators could not af.. ford to be balked of their game by the failure of the local officers to make a false charge of intimidation. Those votes must b>d excluded per fas ant n0fas, and the returning board must do it; that was what the board was made for. The returning offi core went upon the principle aut in veniam at facum. They made the protests which they could not find; affidavits which no creature in the parishes was base enough to back with his oat ha were fabricated in the custom house, and used by the board with a full knowledge that they were more counterfeits. The exclusion of returns on the groun.d of intimidation was ini every case dis honest, for in none was there a par.. ticle of evidence to justity it. When nothing else would serve the purpose they did not scruple to resort to plain forgery. Of the return fromt Vernon parish every figure on the whole broad sheet was altered wvith elabo.. rate pamns under the speOcial direc tion of Wells. Perjury and subor nation of perjury entered largely into the business. There is hardly any species of the crimen falsi for which the law line a punishment that did not become an elementary part of the great fraud which was commit%a ted when the defonted electors and State oflicera of Louisiana were fa. sely certified as chosen by tho peo pIe. THEI CRECATION OF? TUIC CoMMIssioN. But how was the object of the conk spiracy to be accomplished? The Liouse of Representatives was .De muocratic, and without its consent, ex pressed or implied in some formi or another, the Senate could not give effect to a false count. The first in ettion was to claim that the Presi (dent of the Senate had power to de termine absolutely and arbitrarily what electoral votes should be count od and what not. This was the great rallying lioint unti[ Mr. (onkling Look it up, and, in ai spee~ch of sur passing ability, utterly doWli.shed and reduced it to invisible atomsi. It becamo settled, therefore, that the two houses must count the votes, and this clearly implied the powera to in, q uire and determine what were votes. ft could not be denied that the voic of the IoUse of Representatives was' at least as potential as that of the' Senator.; and i was not saped that the House would suffer a rmnd so glaring as this to be thrust down' the throat of the country "agatnst t1e stomach of its sens." But if the two' bodies would deciare ihdoonshtert re. sults of the count, and proclaim the election of different Presidents, a state of things might come which would subject our institutions tq a strain severe enough to endaDger them greatly. It was in these diffi' cult circumstances that a mixed c1m.s mission of fifteen was proposed, con sisting of the five Senators, five Re'. presentatives, and five Judges of the Supreme Court. The mode of ap pointing them made it certain that' fourteen would be equally dividedi between the parties; and as the fifth Judge would be named by the con Bent of his brethren on both sides, he naight be expected to stand between them, like a daystan, with hand, as heavy on one head as the other.-. The Demoerats consented to tMh id the belief that no seven Repub licans could be taken- from the court or Congress who woul'd swear &i f'r., cide the truth and then uphold a known fraud; if mistaken in that opinion of their adversaries' hones(. they felt sure, at all events, that the umpire would be a fair-minded man. They were bitterly disappointed; the: commission went eight to seven for the great fraud and all its branches; for fraud in the detail and in the- ag gregate; for every Item of fraud that was necessary to make the sum total big enongh-eight to seven all the time. IT REFUMEs TO Do iTn 9Tr. We must look at the state of the case as it went before the commis sion. Tilden an,d Hendricks had 184 electoral votes 61osr and free of all dispute, one less than a majurity of the whole number. They also had in Louisiana eight and th Florida four, appointed by the people, bidt falsely certified to IHayes and Wheel' or by the Governors. JIn Oregon they had one certified by the Gov ernor, but' against whom a popular majority had beena east for an Inoligi ble candidate. T~o elect Bayes it was necessary that cacti aad every oar. of these thirteen votes should be taked~ from Tildeu and given to Hayes. As this required ma,ny diastinc$ rulings based upon contradictory grounds, the path of the comrmissi9n was noe only steep but crooked. The groat and important duty cast upon the commission by a special law and by a special oath of each member was to decide, in the case of contested votes from a8State, "whethur er any and what votes from such 8tate are the votes prrovided for by the constitution of the United States, and how many and what persons were duly asppointed electors in such State." It is not denied that the solo power of appointing electors for the States of ILouisiana and Florida is ini the people, It was then and still is an admitted fact that the people had exercised the power of appointment in the prescribed and proper way; they did duly make an appointment af electors, and their act was duly recorded, and so made a perpe'tual memory. This thing was not "done in a corner;" it was "seen and known of all men." That each of the two States named had duly appoinated rilden electors at a regular electioni :alled for that purpose on the 7th of N'ovember, in pursuance of law, was a part of their history as muchi as the tact that they were States of the Union. All the members of the comn mision knew it as well as they knebir the geographical position ot Tal1la bassee or New Orleans. It needd no proof; but if specific evidence had been required, there was the record, from which the truth glared upon [SEE FOUTH PAGiI-j