The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1868-07-07
From the Milwaukee News.1
How Elections are Carried in the
SOutEl-.An Authentic Statement.

SOutH..Au Autuent1C StdteEment.
We received call yesterday from a
gentleman direct from Arkansas, who
went to that State in January, 1867, as
Northern Radical Republican, and who
was appointed to of6ciate there under
the reconstruction laws as chairman of
the board of registry in the county where
he lived. His opportunities for informal
tion were therefore unsurpassed, and he
makes to US this plain statement Of &cts
within his personal knowledge.
The elections he'd there were an utter
farce throughout. In making the regis
try the registers were expected to reject
white men at atoption, and to enrol every
negro who pres ented himself. After the
first registry the lists were revised, and
as many names stricken off as it was
thought necessary to secure Radical
success in the State or for individual
candidates. There were three registers
on every board, all of whom subsequent
ly acted as judges at the election, and all
of them, who desired to become so, were
candidates for office. The election judges
travelled about the country taking the
votes, and were occupied seven days in
the business No man could vote whose
ballot the judges thcughtproperto to reject.
Our informant states it to be known to
himself, and to be notorious fact, that
where the success of the Radical candi-
dates was doubtful, through other frauds
of the character mentioned, negroes were
imported from another jurisdiction in
sufficient numbers to supply the def
cheney. While the negro vote was thus
doubled in many cases, the total number
of white votes disfranchised in the State
were tens tof thousands. In electing
themselves or other Radical candidates
to Office, the registers were amenable to
no authority that would recognize the
fact of fraud. In brief, the work OF car
ryiDg the election, regardless of the will
of the voters, was deemed by the regis
ters part of their official duty. and a
proof of loyalty to Congress and the
military authorities present, and any 9TH
ther course would have subjected the reg
istry officers to suspicion and proscrip-
ton. In the division of the Offices, can,
didates were elected to the Legislature
who never saw the e;unties whence they
were chosen, except as members Of the
registry board, who will never return to
the counties they represent, and who do
not knowa white man among their con-
stituents. As for the negroes, the mass
of them took no actual part in the cleo
tions but to deposit the votes furnished
them by their white Radical leaders.
Our informant is a graduate of Geneva
College, gentleman of recognized prob
ity and intelligence, and was always a
Republican until driven from the party
BY sheer disgust at the mockery he was
compelled to witness as one Of its agents
in the reconstruction scheme. His name
will be furnished to any one who is GU
rious on that point. He tells us that he
was offered the position of a State Senator
and that he would have divided the
spoils with others, who seem to relish
the proceedings, and do not hesitate to
partake of the fruits of the moekery and
freud; but he preferred to live and die an
honest man to the acceptance Of honers
and emoluments which he can but regard
as the price of absolute crime against
God and man. He naturally wonders
at the stupidity of those Northern Re-
publicans who SCENT to believe that these
proceedings have any other object than
the government of the South, and the
nation also, by a regularly organized
system Of fraud and force. If it is the
intent Of Northern Republicans to assist
in degrading republican institutions and
obliterating popular rights, their ambi.
ton ought to be satisfied; bat otherwise
they are woefully blind to passing events
and the Generalization Of the institutions
under which they live.