The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-10-22
Negro Voting at Xenia, Ohio.
"kIis Mother was Mulntto and his
Father a Dark Rrown Man,

= ASoSA
The secret society of the negroes of Ohio
determined that their members should
vote at the recent election, and all o.
them were drilled in the answers they
should give in case of challenge. The
Statesman says: -". : '
'Last year from 1000 to 1900 negro
votes were pOlled in this Congressional
District to elect Shellabarger. Xenia
was the place where this business was
largely carried on, so as to swell the
Radical majority in Greene county to
23OO, while this year it has fallen Oft to
l7O0, as importation of Freedmen's
Bureau mulatoes was more limited.
Many were incredulOus that such an
open outrage could be perpetrated b.
Judges acting under the sanction of an
oath. Colonel Barber, for many years a
citizen of Xenia, long a member of the
Republican State Central Committee,
and the Lincoln elector in this district
in 1860, determined to satisfy himself
by personal observation whether these
charges were true, and accordingly
stopped at Xenia on the day of election
coming to Columbus to vote on the
eleven o'clock train, after having been
absent from the State over five months.
The polls at that place were surround
ed with negroes, most of whom voted
without question, as a challenge was
useless, the Judges taking as conclusive
the drilled answer of the negro, tfat
"bis mother was a mulatto and his
r. q A.lr
against the evidenceof their own
senses, and that of every one else
present, that he was as black
as pitch. Indeed. some of the negroes
were conscientious about swearing
through even this farce, and had to be
repeatedly coaxed up to the polls, after
holding back for time.
Before eight o'clock in the morning
at least two hundred of this sort of votes
had been polled, while Democrats had
to keep shady about challenging, or run
the risk of beii & mobbed. Col. B. was
quietly observing these eXtrao: dinary
scenes, when the not .rious L. S, Nichols,
who has no standing, ev with decent
men of his own party, came up and ell
deavOred to excite a controversy, by
abusing Col. b. as johnson man. All
discussion with him was declined, and
two Of the most respectable Republicans
of the town, personal friends, took Col.
b. aside and requested him to leave OF
there would be trouble, which they
could not control. Just then Hugh
McQuestion, the Recorder Of the county
rushed up in threatening manner,
..Frha Il lao
addressing the Colonel, "leave on the
next train;" to which the reply was
made that he would go when he got
ready, as he must reach Columbus in
time to vote. Col. b. remained some
time afterwards at the polls, and then
left with some Republican friends, who
told him that the crowd was much eX-
cited, because they thought he was
watching their proceedings. \ DcaUti-
ful comment on the doctrine of freedom
and free speech heretofore preached by
these Radicals. To sum up, it is proba-
bile at least five hundred negro votes
have been polled illegally Xenia, sew
ell hundred at Cleveland, five hundred
at 0bcrlin, and over one thousand in
other parts of the State. If the Legis-
laturc on a contest should throw ont the
choie vote of these precincts, it would
only be following the precedent set by
Congress in the Voorhees, case. At all
events, the Radicals must be made to
understand that this lille: al voting of
negroes will no longer be tolerated, even
if it be necessary to detail a police force
from other counties to prevent it ut
such polls as Xenia. Ohio has decided
by over $4,000 majority against negro
suffrage, and the Legislature must pro-
vide that the verdict be practically eff
fective, otherwise our Congressional
and Presidential elections next year
will be controlled by imported Freed
med's Bureau and Kentucky darkics,
paid for by shoddy money to vote down
white men.