Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1868-07-17
Mississippi Election.


that State. How this was done may be
inferred by the following letter from
Holly Springs, Miss, to the Chicago
Tribune:
Although the election is over and
the excitement in measure subsidized
the rebels are still thirsting for blood
Only yesterday man arrived here on
foot from near Water Valley, small
town in Talahusha county, about fifty
miles distant. He was driven from hi:
home by the Ku.Klux Khan for having
voted the radical ticket. He is an old
man, who, having worked all his life foi
his master, is driven from his home fol
being a Union man. Having labored
hard this summer, he had fine crop
growing, which he will probably lose,
At the same place two mon We're whip
ped, one of whom will probably die from
injuries received. Their only crime was
loyalty to the Government.
Mr.. Phillips, school teacher and pas
tor of u church at Oxford, Lafayette
county, was here yesterday. His life is
threatened because he wrote a letter to
the jackson Pilot, exposing the outrages
committed by the rebels in that county.
He. says that when the election began,
the freedmen, were told if they
could not vote the democratic tick
ct they must not vote with the radicals
for by so doing they would make them
selves, enemies of their former friends,
their masters. Succeeding in intimidat-
ing them so far that they were afraid to
vote the radical ticket, they next tell
them they must vote the democratic tick
ct or they would be considered enemies
anyhow. Meantime dozen or so were
arrested under the frivolous excuse of
their not giving their names exactly as
registered, and the colored men were so
frightened that they voted the democrat
&c ticket in a body. After having thus
voted, many of them complained that
they did so against their will but the
rebel democracy quietly informed them
that such talk would not be allowed.
send you the above well authenti-
Gated facts in regard to outrages in La
fayette county, as an indication of the
conduct of the rebels all over the State.
In many places there were not 50 much
violence and intimidation used in many
others a great deal more Down on the
Yazoo they shot negro, cut his throat,
and, tying his hands behind him, threw
him into the river.
The commissioner of election in every
county were insulted in every possible
manner, without being subjected to open
violence, and if they dared reply, pis-
tolls and knives were in sight in a min
ute
Truly it has been reign of terror all
over the State. People of the North
will scarcely realize the extent and fend-
ish character of rebel violence"
The Memphis Post gives similar &c
count of the means adopted blythe rcb-
els to defeat the Constitution. 1t says:
" There has not been for long time,
if ever, greater swindle in the way of
an election than that just closed in Mis-
sissippi. As we prophcsied in the Post
at the outset, in most counties in the
State it has endangered all that is pleas
ant in life to any man, and even life it
self, to stand up aud publicly vote for
the free constitution. Planters have fol-
loved their hands to the polls and over
awed them with thseats of discharge, ex-
pulsion from the community and all man
ner of violence if they did not vote the
rebel ticket. The press has watched the
polls, threatening to spot and publish
the names of every white or colored man
who dared to exercise the rights and in
dependence of freeman. Long lists of
these brave men have been published
and thus held up to the exccration of a
rebel community and made targets for
the shots of the Ku-Klux ruffians. Scores
have been driven from north Mississippi.
and been compelled to leave everything
behind to save their lives. Many from
Desoto county have called upon us who
have thus fled for safety, but not until
repeatedly threatened with death by
some of the most respectable people in
that county. We suppress their names
Tor the present, that these oppressed citi-
Lens may snatch their families out of
reach of these gentlemen assassins. The
rebels have hesitated at no manner of
fraud or intimidation. The Constitu-
5lonal Convention appointed commit
Tee of five to watch the progress of the
election, see whether fair play was Sc
cured, and announce the result. This
committee has been receiving afiidavits
II fraud from nearly every rebel strono.