Politics of Alabama

“To the Members of the General Assembly of Alabama, and the People of Alabama:

“As I have so far been denied the official rights conferred upon me by a sovereign people, I deem it my duty to address this open letter to the members of the Legislature and people of Alabama, and respectfully ask for an impartial hearing. ‘Let justice be done, though the heavens fall.’ On the 1st of December, 1892, a conscienceless and corrupt oligarchy overturned the republican form of government in Alabama, and installed as the de facto governor, a man who was not elected to the office. I feel that I am airing no mere private or personal grievance in thus protesting against and denouncing this great crime against law, order and civil liberty. I would be an unfaithful steward and unworthy of the sacred trust confided to me by the people of Alabama at the polls in August last, if I remained silent under the circumstances. Two years ago the Democratic party, in convention assembled, refused to nominate for governor the acknowledged choice of a majority of the party. For the sake of harmony, I bided my time for another two years, believing that the people would then rise in their majesty and throw off the tyrannous yoke of party bosses. On the 8th of June last, the Democratic party again assembled in state convention, to nominate candidates for governor and other state officers, and for a second time, the rights and wishes of the people were over-ridden by fraud and the unfair use of party machinery in the election of delegates thereto. My friends did everything in their power to bring about a fair and honorable settlement of all differences existing between the two factions of the Democratic party in the state. All overtures in this direction were treated with scorn and derision by the so-called ‘organized’ Democracy, and we were forced to organize our own state convention, which was composed exclusively of life-long Democrats. This convention nominated a full state ticket and appealed to the justice-loving hearts of the true, sovereign people of Alabama, for their verdict on the first Monday in August. The issues between the two factions of the party were fully presented by both sides of the controversy, in the most memorable campaign ever known in the political history of the state. On the first Monday in August, the people spoke at the ballot-box in thunder tones and declared that the ticket headed by myself for governor, received a majority of over 45,000 of the votes cast, fully 25,000 of that majority being white voters. By frauds and manipulations on the part of election managers and county returning-boards in many counties of the state, this true majority of 45,000 for myself for governor, was changed into a fictitious majority of about 11,000 for Thomas G. Jones. This state of facts was admitted to be true for weeks after the election by prominent supporters of Governor Jones throughout the state, who did not hesitate to say that the Legislature, when it convened, would provide for a prompt and impartial investigation of the frauds alleged to have been committed, and would declare who was rightfully entitled to the office of governor. Governor Jones himself is on record as having used the following language on the subject, in an interview with Mr. Chappel Cory, editor of the Birmingham Age-Herald, on August 21, 1892:

“‘If I am not fairly elected I do not want the office. I intend to renew my recommendation, made in February, 1891, to the ensuing General Assembly, to pass laws to provide for contests before the General Assembly, for governor and the other state offices. There can be no doubt that such a law will be passed. You may say further that if the limited session allowed by the constitution will not give sufficient time to hear and decide such contests as may be brought, that I will not hesitate to convene the General Assembly in extraordinary session for the purpose. I have neither reason nor motive to use the power of the office of governor to hinder or embarrass investigation; but, were it otherwise, consecration to this great trust would leave me no room for doubt as to the pathway of duty and honor, when the happiness and contentment of the people lay in the balance against partisan success or personal triumph.’ Commenting on this interview with Governor Jones, the Age-Herald said editorially: ‘There is now no reason why every honest man should not adjourn the discussion of the gubernatorial issue until the meeting of the General Assembly. Certainly no honest-minded Democrat, however bitterly he may have fought for Captain Kolb, can find an excuse for keeping alive the fires of factional strife. The statement by Governor Jones, which we publish this morning, leaves nothing more to be said until the trial shall come up according to the law and the constitution. No settlement of a contest is possible except by the General Assembly, and the Governor says in plain terms it shall be settled and rightly settled. He goes so far as to say that if the constitutional limit of fifty days shall not give time for the determination of all contests, he will convene the General Assembly in extraordinary session for that purpose.’ Thus, it is plainly apparent, that Governor Jones and his friends are pledged to provide for and abide by a legislative investigation and adjudication of the contest. Can Governor Jones and his friends afford not to keep their pledges? Will Governor Jones follow ‘the pathway of duty and honor,’ or will he sacrifice both upon the altar of ‘partisan success and personal triumph?’ On the occasion of his inauguration as the de facto Governor of Alabama, December 1, 1892, in making an urgent appeal to the Legislature to largely increase the present rate of taxation, Governor Jones declared that ‘the Democratic party can dare to do right.’ If he deemed it the duty of a Democratic legislature to increase the burdens of an already taxridden people, surely he can afford to recommend to this same Legislature the necessity of investigating alleged election frauds, which impugn the integrity of his title to the office of governor, and especially, when these frauds are not denied by his supporters or the press friendly to him. In other words, will Governor Jones ‘dare to do right,’ in this grave matter, affecting, as it does, the rights of the majority of the sovereign people of this commonwealth and the perpetuity of a republican form of government in Alabama. Will the Legislature, now assembled on Capitol Hill, knowing as they do, that all honest and fair-minded men among their constituents demand an investigation, ‘dare to do right,’ and enact a law which will insure that justice shall be done and a stigma removed, which will otherwise be a stain upon Alabama’s fair escutcheon forever? I believe the Legislature will rise above paltry partisan feeling, and that after becoming convinced of the wishes of their people during the Christmas recess, will return to the Capitol and effect a just and speedy settlement of this vital question. It has been charged that I have deserted the Democratic party. I repudiate the base calumny with the scorn of conscious innocence. The Democratic party has always been and always will be the party of the people, and the so-called ‘organized’ Democratic party of Alabama has simply deserted and outraged the people. I am now, as I have ever been, true and faithful to the principles of Jeffersonian Democracy. I believe in and shall ever contend for ‘a government of the people, for the people and by the people.’ There are men high in the councils of the so-called ‘organized’ Democracy, who while admitting my election, declare that because I supported the electoral ticket nominated by the Lakeview convention, I should be denied even an opportunity to contest before the Legislature for the office to which I have been elected; and some go so far as to say that, had I not given such support, I would have been legally seated in the gubernatorial chair of Alabama, on the 1st of December, 1892. No sensible, or honest person will contend that my support of the Lakeview electoral ticket can affect the merits of my cause of contest or change the facts of the previous August election. For that support, I have no apologies to make; for I followed the dictates of right and conscience. And besides, I could not consistently support the electoral ticket nominated by the convention of party bosses at the State-house, because such support would have been on my part an indirect indorsement of the frauds which I honestly believe were committed against me by these same party bosses and their henchmen, in the August election. For taking the position I did, it is proclaimed by my enemies that I am ‘politically dead in Alabama.’ In reply to this, I would say that, when they undertake to lay me away in my political coffin, they will find that no amount of abuse and vilification will prevent my speedy and triumphant resurrection through the sovereign might of an outraged people. The political bosses are hereby notified that in the future, as in the past, I will ever be found battling for true Jeffersonian Democracy and the rights of the masses. In the meantime, thanks to a merciful Providence, being in fine health and feeling confident of the continued sympathy and support of my fellow citizens, I propose to fight now and fight ever until the banner of right and reform is planted on the dismantled fortress of fraud and usurpation.

“For the information of the members of the General Assembly, I desire to give some of the facts in detail, showing the truth of the charge that the state ticket headed by myself for governor was fraudulently counted out, in August last. My information in regard to these frauds is of the most authentic character, and I will be able to sustain, by convincing proof, every charge alleged. These election frauds, to which I call attention, will be startling intelligence to the people in the ‘white’ counties of the state, who at present have no adequate conception of their extent and enormity. Let us first examine Governor Jones’ own home county of Montgomery. Every well-informed person in Montgomery county knows and admits that the majority of 6,250 returned for Governor Jones, was a sham and a fraud. The same old methods were resorted to, that have been practised for years. The boast, openly made before the election, that our ticket would be ‘counted out,’ was carried out to the letter. It is a known fact and publicly stated, that not over 4,000 votes, all told, were actually cast in the August election in Montgomery county, and that an honest count of this vote would give me not less than 1,500 majority. The return of 3,561 votes, claimed to have been cast in the two beats of the city of Montgomery, every honest citizen knows to be untrue. I charge that there were not 1,000 votes actually cast in the two city beats, and all over that number counted were uncast ballots. The same is true as to the returns from nearly, if not all, the ‘black’ beats of the county. Tickets for the Jones faction were substituted for those cast for the Kolb faction, and a large number of uncast ballots were counted for Governor Jones and his faction that were never voted at all. Uncast ballots were placed in the ballot-boxes and counted for Governor Jones purporting to have been cast by men, both white and colored, long since dead, and others by men who have not lived in the county for years. The poll lists on file in the office of the judge of probate, were either destroyed or stolen, to prevent copies being furnished, which would show these facts to exist. The vote of Montgomery county alone, honestly counted and returned as the votes were cast, would show a difference in my favor of not less than 7,700 votes. In other words, I carried the county by about 1,500 majority, instead of Governor Jones by over 6,200 as the fraudulent returns show. The same state of facts exists as to Lowndes county—over 1,600 majority was returned for Governor Jones when, in fact, I carried the county by over 2,000 majority. In many of the ‘black’ beats hundreds of ballots cast for the Kolb faction were changed for those of the Jones faction, and hundreds more of uncast ballots placed in the ballot-boxes and counted for Governor Jones, that were never voted at all by anyone. The names of hundreds of dead men appear on the poll lists and ballots put in for them and counted for Governor Jones. When a copy of the poll lists was demanded of the judge of probate, which I charge would show these facts to exist, we were informed that said copy would be furnished the next day; but lo, and behold! when next day came, we were told that the poll lists had been stolen the night before. I charge that the vote of Lowndes, honestly counted as cast, would give me over 2,000 majority, instead of over 1,600 majority for Governor Jones, as returned, which would make a difference in my favor of over 3,600 votes. The same facts exist as to Wilcox county. I charge that not over 3,000 votes were actually cast in this county in the August election, and if honestly counted I would have received a majority of not less than 500. Yet by fraud and ballot-box stuffing and holding back the returns for over a week after the election, a majority of over 4,300 was given to Governor Jones. An honest count in this county would show 4,500 votes in my favor. But it was reserved to Dallas county to outdo all others, in the way of ballot-box stuffing and fraudulent returns, by which a majority of over 6,100 was figured out for Governor Jones. An honest count of the vote as actually cast would give me over 3,000 majority, making a difference of over 9,000 votes in my favor, from this county alone. In Selma beat the returns show that 2,642 votes were cast, and a majority of over 2,300 returned for Governor Jones. The facts are, that not exceeding 1,400 votes were actually cast in Selma beat, and fully 600 of those cast were for the Kolb ticket. The census gave Selma beat a population of only 7,600, all told, and yet, they return 2,642 of this population as having voted. One voter out of five is above the average of most populations, but Selma has found a way to manufacture nearly three voters out of every five of her people. In some of the ‘black’ beats of the county, only thirty to forty votes were actually cast, by both white and colored voters, and yet the returns give from 400 to 700 majority from these beats, to Governor Jones. I charge that not as many votes were cast in the county of Dallas for both Jones and Kolb as the majority claimed for Governor Jones. The truth is, that Governor Jones did not actually receive over 1,300 votes, all told, in the county, and yet he is fraudulently given over 6,100 majority. In Perry county the same frauds and ballot-box stuffing were resorted to, and hundreds of dead men made to vote for Thomas Goode Jones. With an honest count of the vote of Perry as actually cast, I would have received a majority of over 500 votes, instead of a majority of over 1,800 for Governor Jones, as returned, which would make a difference of over 2,300 votes in my favor. In Hale county, all will remember, that the first report received from that county after the election, gave me the county by over 1,600 majority, but the political bosses here urged them to hold back the returns and ‘doctor’ them; that the ‘organized’ ticket was in great danger and the ‘black belt’ was expected to do her duty. Hale was equal to the emergency, and in a few days revised her returns and figured out over 1,200 majority for Governor Jones. I charge that the vote of Hale, if honestly counted, as actually cast, would give me a majority of over 2,500, which would be a difference of over 3,700 in my favor. The same irregularities occurred in Greene county, where a true majority of over 500 for me was changed into a fictitious majority of 500 for Governor Jones, showing a difference of over 1,000 in my favor. In Sumpter county my majority was fully 500 more than was returned for me, and about the same in Pickens; and in Marengo county, an honest count of the vote as cast would have given me the county by a safe majority, instead of 1,000 majority for Governor Jones as returned.

“In Macon county, by fraud and manipulations, a true majority of about 2,000 for me was reduced to a little over 700. In Bullock county, by frauds, manipulations and partisan abuses by county returning-boards, a majority of over 1,800 was given Governor Jones when, in fact, if he was entitled to any majority at all, it should have been less than 200. In Autauga county an honest count of the vote actually cast, would have given me the county by at least 500 majority, but by ballot-box stuffing and fraudulently counting-out votes cast for the Kolb ticket and substituting Jones tickets instead, a small majority was falsely returned for Governor Jones. In all these ‘black belt’ counties a majority of the judges of probate, sheriffs and clerks, whose duty it was to appoint the inspectors of elections, were friends of Governor Jones, and in most of the counties, the rights of the Kolb faction were utterly ignored, and no friend of mine permitted to act as manager or clerk at any of the beats. Only at a few ‘white’ beats, in any of these counties, were we allowed any representation. My political enemies were not satisfied with this great wrong done me in the ‘black belt’ counties but invaded some of the ‘white’ counties, and by fraud and manipulation in the beats, or by partisan action on the part of county returning-boards, on the Saturday following the election, robbed me of over 10,000 votes to which I was justly entitled. In Conecuh county I received a majority of 1,235 votes, and yet, by throwing out boxes and robbing others, this majority was all wiped out, and a false majority of 270 given to Governor Jones. In Pike county I received a majority of 910 votes and the returns from eleven beats, giving me large majorities, were thrown out or destroyed by the county returning-board, and a majority of 55 given to Governor Jones. The contests in both of these counties (Conecuh and Pike) have been virtually decided in my favor by Judge Hubbard, in his decision in the contest cases for judge of probate in each county. His opinion, as rendered, being in favor of Dr. R. A. Lee, of Conecuh, and T. H. Brown, of Pike, both of whom were candidates for probate judge on the Kolb ticket. In like manner, as in Conecuh and Pike, I was robbed of over 1,000 votes in Butler, over 1,000 in Elmore, over 600 in Coosa, over 700 in St. Clair, over 700 in Shelby, over 100 in Chilton, over 1,000 in Talladega, over 500 in Walker, over 1,000 in Morgan and over 1,000 in Madison. I have given plain and unvarnished facts, as I believe them to exist, and positively assert that a fair and impartial investigation will prove every statement made, to be true. It may be asked why the evidence is not here adduced to prove these allegations. If adduced here, these same parties would say that it was all ex parte and that it would be controverted and destroyed, if both sides should be heard. Besides, they know that the details necessary to be recounted as to each beat in so many counties, would make a summary too voluminous to be incorporated in an address. All I ask is that a full, fair and impartial investigation shall be had and that a true judgment may be rendered. If Governor Jones and his friends are not afraid of truth, equity and justice, why do they refuse? If the effect would only be to remove a cloud from his title to the office, would he not gladly embrace such an opportunity? ‘But there’s the rub.’ They well know that an investigation would disclose frauds and manipulations which could not be defended, and would prove his claim to the office of governor wholly unfounded upon right. That is why they dare not permit an investigation. That is why some of them talk so glibly what they would not dare to utter over their own signatures. That is why the Legislature has treated this matter with silence, while patriotic representatives of the people have urged and insisted upon action, so that justice might be done, and right triumph. Every honest man knows that Governor Jones has no shadow of claim to the office of governor. The people, by their votes in August, relegated him to private life for the next two years, and yet he is sitting up at the Capitol upon a lot of stuffed ballot-boxes from the ‘black belt,’ and claiming his election. Some of his best friends have publicly declared that he could not afford to hold the office in the face of such fraudulent returns, and if he persisted in doing so, he would go down to posterity more despised than Rutherford B. Hayes. I am only contending for what is right. As a native-born citizen of Alabama, and one who has always endeavored to serve my people and state to the best of my ability, both in time of war and in time of peace, I feel that I have a right to demand that justice be done. Thousands of true men all over this great commonwealth honored me with their support in the August election, and in their name I demand of the Legislature, a prompt and impartial investigation of this matter. These people represent a majority of the white voting population and demand a respectful hearing. I beg you, members of the Legislature, not to mistake the temper of these people. Remember that a large majority of them have been life-long Democrats. While they don’t believe in, and never will submit to the domination of a few party bosses, yet they do believe in the time-honored principles of pure Jeffersonian Democracy. They have been the true, the tried and unflinching Democrats, who have heretofore fought the battles and won the victories of the party in Alabama. True to its noble cause, true to every great principle, and true to every demand of patriotism upon them, they have been in the fore-front of every contest when victory was won, and the firm and immovable, the true and faithful guardians of its cause, in every defeat we have ever sustained. Many of these people were gallant soldiers in the late war, and since 1865 have been battling for the Democratic party in Alabama. Many of them have reared sons, in whose breasts they early planted the principles of true Democracy, and taught them that it was the party of the people. They believe that Democracy means that the people shall rule, and that white people should govern Alabama. They now feel that a few political bosses are undertaking to overthrow a republican form of government in this state. I warn you to stop and reflect. Don’t trifle with these people longer. Let justice be done, and sweet Peace will again spread her white wings over our beloved state.

“R. F. KOLB.

“Montgomery, Ala., Dec. 15, 1892.”

“Now the fact is that the Populists will fight the Democratic party in 1894 on the issue of the last August election, and their cry will be so many variations of the contest matter. The plain facts of this matter had as well be understood first as last. If Captain Kolb and the other gentlemen who ran on his ticket had supported Cleveland and held good their claims to being Democrats, a contest law would have been enacted. Public sentiment would have compelled it, and the dispute over the election would have been legally settled, and in all probability Governor Jones would have been governor just as he is now. But when Captain Kolb and his fellow candidates on his state ticket, went bodily over to Mr. Harrison and conspired with Chris Magee, public sentiment revolted. From that moment all possibility of a contest law vanished. The organized Democracy would not hear to yielding an inch of ground, and all the influence of Governor Jones himself could not have availed to procure a contest law from the Legislature. That is a plain statement of fact. That is the shape it will assume in 1894. In the meanwhile, if we begin the campaign already, how are we going to have any rest?”

“Study of L. F. Whitten,
Pastor M. E. Church, South.
Jasper, Ala., Aug. 1, 1892.

“My dear Brother Manning:

“As soon as I have the time, I hasten to tender to you my sincere sympathies for the barbarous and uncivilized treatment you received at Florence a few days since. The correspondent of the Age-Herald, who lives at Florence, saw ‘an amusing sight last night to see the boasted disciple of Kolbism, J. C. Manning, run from a volley of rotten eggs thrown by fifty enraged men.’ He could have seen in this ‘amusing sight,’ the return of the Spanish Inquisition and diabolic intolerance of barbarism, had he been able to look ahead. This was outrageous and inhuman treatment for which I assure you I am full of regrets. I am ashamed that it has happened in Alabama or the South. This spirit shown you, and the abuse heaped upon you, if not denounced and punished speedily, will culminate in the hottest persecution of an honest minority; which will prohibit free speech and destroy the right to oppose the majority, although that majority be led by the devil himself. If that spirit is not rebuked in our state and the righteous indignation of our people does not stamp it out swiftly, then the darkest days of the Rebellion will be bright as compared to those to follow. This spirit will invade the pulpit and go into the sanctum of the editor, and sermons will have to be pleasant, pacific and agreeable, and editors must agree with those in authority, or else the minister will be driven out of town, and the editor will be rotten-egged or swung up by the thumbs! If that comes to pass, then give me a monarchical government. I should greatly prefer to appeal to Cæsar, than to an enraged mob of ‘fifty or more citizens’ (?) fired up with red liquor, and thirsting for the blood of the man who differs from them,—a set of brainless, heartless sapheads. I heard a gentleman who saw it, denounce it as the most villainous thing he ever saw in a land of freedom. He does not belong to your party,—neither do I,—but he was for you. You keep on, if you die at your post. Mobs to-day, mausoleums to-morrow. The party that resorts to such tactics may ride the top of the wave to-day, but the good time is coming when that rotten and rum-soaked method will be buried out of sight under an avalanche of ballots of brave men, who scorn the rotten-egg method of answering brainy arguments, which ‘Bourbons’ have not sense enough to meet in any other way. For my part, I do not believe in intolerance. The day has passed to allow it. God holds the reins of government. Life, liberty and free speech are our own inalienable rights. To destroy these, as the mobs would do, is to muzzle the press, kill the stump-speaker, and hang the preacher who does not court popular applause, and who defies public sentiment that is wrong.

“Cordially yours for the Right,
L. F. Whitten.”

“P. S. I said I do not belong to your party. I am a political Prohibitionist, and pray for the day to dawn when the sober and sensible and honest manhood of our country may get together and rule it.

“L. F. W.”

“Greenville, Ala., April 3, 1893.

“J. C. Manning:

“Dear Sir,—You ask me to write to you some of my experiences during the campaign last year with our friends, the organized Democracy. Knowing their methods so well, their ‘wild and woolly’ ways did not surprise me. I had some experiences with them in 1884, when I was an independent candidate for Congress in this district, against Herbert. At Ross Hill, Covington county, I was set upon by their tools, who had been organized before to kill me. It was a miracle that the plan failed. As it was, I had an arm broken, a shoulder dislocated and was left for dead on the ground. I had just closed a speech in which I had exposed the unfaithfulness of their Congressman (the nominee), which I had been doing for the past two weeks and he had heard of it. He is now the Secretary of the Navy! I had challenged him to a joint discussion and he had declined. He was a Confederate soldier and so was I. I had lost a leg and he had lost the use of an arm, but nothing of this kind could stand in the way of his ambition. I never had any doubt but that he and his henchmen instigated this cowardly assault upon me. Last year, most of my speeches were made in the ‘white counties’ where our friends are largely in the majority. I went to Union Springs, in Bullock county,—a ‘black county’—to engage the Hon. W. C. Oates in a joint debate. He declined and I made no attempt to speak. As I was leaving on the train from the depot that night, I was honored with a shower of eggs coming through the car window at which I was sitting. They passed within a few inches of my nose and breaking on the other side of the car, fell on the good clothes of an enthusiastic Democrat. Of course he was mad, while I was in the best possible humor. I did the laughing and he did the swearing. It took place as the train moved off, so that there was no chance to investigate who the parties were. They were under the cover of darkness, and doubtless will there remain.”

“Most respectfully,
J. M. Whitehead.”

“The law should be captioned, ‘A Bill to be entitled an Act to Perpetuate the Frauds which have heretofore been practiced in Alabama.’ It is very ingenious in its draft, very adroit in its omissions and very mischievous in its operations. The principal idea in the bill is that it absolutely puts the control of elections in this state into the control of the inspectors of elections, by making everything about voting so hedged about by secrecy that it is impossible to ever get the evidence of any fraud that may be committed, and by making them the absolute directors and controllers of those who may not be able to read and write. The principal omission of the bill is that it does not provide for the appointment of inspectors from each party or faction, or rather fails to make provision for the enforcement of the existing section in the code which provides for it, effective and certain to be enforced. All the frauds in the elections are due to that defect. The probate judge, clerk and sheriff do not pretend to enforce the law fairly. Appeal to the courts to secure enforcement is a farce, as appeal from the decision of the court delays the application of the remedy, if the supreme court should order it, until after the election shall be past. Each party or faction should be guaranteed, under a heavy penalty upon these officers, fair and just representation in the management, by having at least one inspector and one clerk—those, too, whose names shall be suggested; for to appoint one ignorant, careless or indifferent inspector, to watch two inspectors and two clerks, is folly. The average ballot-box stuffer can count out every time, when that is done. One man is needed to watch the one who reads the ballot, and another to watch the clerks. Without these two, the ‘slick’ artist can count out every time. This omission in the bill makes it safer than the present law, for a voter can now keep a list, and those of his party can give their names and voluntarily tell him for whom they voted, and thereby afford evidence available in a contest. This bill purposely does away with this right by putting all the power in the hands of the inspectors and keeping everybody fifty feet away from any evidence whatever. The law is almost wholly devoted to how voting shall be done. Nobody is concerned about that. Everybody wants to know how the counting will be done, or how the stuffing will be prevented. That power is kept securely in the hands of the inspectors, and the inspectors’ appointment is equally as firmly kept in the hands of the judge of probate, clerk and sheriff. That may seem a very adroit way of perpetuating fraud, but it is neither smart, shrewd nor fair.

“The law provides for booths or stalls—one for each fifty voters as shown by the preceding election. One voter at a time gets a ticket from an inspector, goes into the booth and is allowed five minutes to prepare his ticket. If he cannot read or use his hands to make a cross mark opposite each name of the candidate for whom he desires to vote, the inspector appoints one of the partisans of his party—not the voter’s—to fix the ticket. He will fix it, too. Nobody can see or hear what transpires between the voter and this appointed manipulator. No penalty is provided for deceiving or wrongly marking the ticket. All the frauds about that feature are protected. When it is marked, the voter casts it. Why not number it, so that it can be identified in case of contest or dispute? That would prevent fraud, and is not wanted. No one is allowed within fifty feet of the voting place nor the booths. There is great particularity about the way the ticket shall be prepared, and none shall be voted unless they shall have the initials of the inspector who hands them out, on the ticket. Any other ticket, if voted, shall not be counted. There is another chance for fraud. Suppose the inspector refuses to mark his initials on the tickets, there is no penalty and each one can refuse and defeat the election.

“The law requires the registration of voters to be completed the first twelve days in June, before the August and November elections. Before registering for each election, the voter must present his poll-tax receipt. When he registers he gets a registration certificate. When he votes he must present this registration certificate and leave it with the inspector. The way is not plain how it will get back to him, when he delivers it in August and desires to vote in November, but it is supposed that he will have a slim or good chance at that, as he shall be in accord or opposition to the officer who ought to return it. If the registrar fails to act after he shall be appointed, there is no way for the voters of the beat to register that year; the probate judge and registrar can manage that little trick so as to disfranchise all the opposition beats with heavy majorities. The probate judge can appoint another, but there is no penalty for not serving nor for the appointment of an incompetent registrar. That feature is well fixed. The bill provides penalties for everything to protect secrecy, but nothing to protect the honesty of the count. It seems to proceed on the assumption that the principal thing about an election is secrecy, and that the honest expression of the will of the voters is not to be protected. The inspectors will fix that for the party to which they belong and the probate judge will see that no other party or faction has any chance or prospect. As a remedy for the troubles now complained of in the state, the bill is wholly at variance from everything needed. It simply puts in the power of the probate judge, clerk and sheriff of a county the power to control every election.”

“Hatch., Nov. 8, 1892.

“Mr. J. V. Smith, Seale, Ala.:

“We are going to be ‘snowed under’ here to-day. Our only hope is to be able to throw out the box. Write me by this P. M. mail the most complete plan to do it. Would too many ballots in the box do it? or which is best?”

“Yours, L. 3—3.—”

“When the thirty-nine ‘white’ counties shall commence to count, if they should regard that as the last resort, the figures in a state election would be as startling as amusing. Think of Dallas rolling up 10,000 majority one way, and Etowah rolling up 12,000 for the opposing ticket. Then let Montgomery roll up her 7,000 and see how they would compare with Coosa’s 7,000 or Cleburne’s 5,000. Then let Wilcox come serenely forward with her usual 6,000 and DeKalb call her hand with 7,000. Lowndes, too, could bob up serenely with her 6,000 and Dale could ‘see her’ with as blossoming a rose of innocence in a game she does not understand and show up 6,000. The ‘white’ counties have been holding aloof, until the tricksters worked them in November, but they have found out a thing or two, and if counting must be done they will startle the natives with the unblushing character of what could be done. The ‘black belt’ had best not force this competition. When Dallas kills 5000 ‘white’ votes in a ‘white’ county, by fraudulently counting that number of negro votes in order to succeed, should the whites play for even, it will not be difficult to divine what will be the result. The Herald does not advocate this sort of tactics nor does anyone in the ‘white’ counties, but there is a great deal of silent thinking about it. No one wants to do it; but if self-preservation shall demand it to thwart the aggressions of the ‘black belt,’ just watch and see how the innocent and guileless man can ‘swear to conduct this election for the best interests of the white people’ and down the ‘black belt.’”