in form as required by
section 26 of this act, _on affidavit of three or more citizens_, of any
riot, tumult, acts of violence, intimidation, armed disturbance,
bribery, or corrupt influences, which prevented, or tended to prevent, a
fair, free, and peaceable vote of all qualified electors entitled to
vote at such poll or voting-place."

Whether the statute itself has its warrant in the Constitution is a
question not necessary now to be considered. For my part, I cannot see
the authority for taking out of the ballot-boxes the ballots of lawful
voters and throwing them away because other voters did not vote,
whatever may have been the cause of their not voting, whether they were
frightened, foolish, or perverse. I cannot for the life of me perceive
that the State can be held to have elected persons whom it did not in
fact elect, because it is conjectured, or even made probable, that if
voters who kept away from the polls had in fact attended and voted, they
would have made a majority for these persons.

Without going into that question, however, and assuming for the sake of
the argument that the statute had all the authority of the most clearly
valid statute that was ever passed, it is certain that the only ground
upon which a vote could have been thrown out, for intimidation or other
corrupt influence, was the statement of a supervisor of registration or
commissioner of election, founded upon the affidavits of three citizens.
When, however, the vote of Louisiana was before the Electoral
Commission, the following offer was made by counsel:

"We offer to prove that _the statements and affidavits_ purporting
to have been made and forwarded to said Returning Board in
pursuance of the provisions of section 26, of the election law of
1872, alleging riot, tumult, intimidation, and violence, at or near
certain polls, and in certain parishes, _were_ falsely fabricated
and _forged_ by certain disreputable persons _under the direction_,
and with the knowledge, _of said Returning Board_, and that said
Returning Board, knowing said statements and affidavits to be false
and forged, and that none of the said statements or affidavits were
made in the manner or form or within the time required by law, did
knowingly, willfully, and fraudulently, fail and refuse to canvass
or compile more than 10,000 votes lawfully cast, as is shown by the
statements of votes of the Commi