The Louisiana Democrat

The Returning Board.
The best and redeeming signs of
the times begin plainly to be developed in the North and West, as regards the true status of the infamous
wretches, who have so long misruled
us in poor Louisiana. We are reminded of this fact, in reading the
speech of G. W. Julian, of Indiana,
delivered on the 8th of the present
month at the grand monster gathering of the people. We have only
space for what he said about our
sweet scented institution, the Returning Board, and here give it to
our readers, that they may see that
we have some indorsers of our opinion in the great West:
"And who are the men constituting
this autocratic, if not omnipotent institution of the Republican party of Louisiana; concocted in the worst days of
carpet-bag government, and for the
most nefarious purposes? Two of them
are white men and two colored. They
are the same men who sat upon the
Board in 1874, and after the election
in that year took the majority of votes
away from one side and gave it to the
other by "unjust, arbitrary and illegal
action" as admitted by a Republican
Congressional Committee of which one
William A. Wheeler was a member.
They are all members of the Republican party, and one of them holds a
Custom-house office under the spoils
hunting system of the present Administration. J. Madison Wells, the
President of the Board, who was elected Governor of Louisiana under the
reconstruction policy of President
Johnson, was summarily ejected from
that office in 1867 by General Sheridan
for violating an act of the Legislature
respecting the repair of levees, and
seeking to prostitute the funds of the
State to partisan purposes. General
Sheridan branded him as a "political
trickster and a dishonored man" and
charged him with "subterfuge and political chicanery." He declared that
"his conduct had been as sinuous as
the mark left in the dust by the movement of a snake" and that he had "not
one friend who is an honest man."
After a stay in New Orleans of over
three weeks, and mingling freely with
the people when not engaged in watching the action of the Returning Board.
I have no hesitation in indorsing the
statement of General Sheridan as true.
Governor Wells is not only a journeyman and expert in rascality, through
long years of training and experience
but he is a scoundrel aboriginally; and
in saying this I believe I simply give
expression to the general sentiment of
the State, Anderson, the other white
man on the Board, is not quite so vicious. The element of humanity is
not so fatally left out of his composition. He is not so cold-blooded. If
placed in command of a pirate ship he
might falter in some emergency which
his more intrepid and Satanic companion on the Board would enjoy as a luxury. But he is not wanting the qualities which have made the Returning
Board famous, for he is a thoroughly
accomplished knave and swindler. "He
counts well, and is, in a word, the fit
companion and associate in office of
the President of the body.
Cassanave, one of the colored members of the Board, is an undertaker by
occupation, and was a slave holder before the war. He is a man of limited
education and intelligence, and not at
all qualified by capacity or training
for the position he occupies. He is a
very strong partisan, but is regarded as
a kindly, well-disposed sort of man,
whose worst misfortune is that the thoroughly unprincipled men on the Board
use him as their tool. This must be
regarded as certain, in the absence of
any proof that he has ever opposed the
confessed illegality and fraud of his
associates. Kenner, the other colored
man, and junior member of the Board,
is a very small, light mulatto, quick
and sprightly in his movements, but
altogether unfitted by talents, education or experience, for so responsible
a position. He is a gambler and grog
seller, a very low fellow, and a few
years ago was kicked out of a saloon
in New Orleans for stealing the money
of his employer."