Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1869-04-29
For the Fayetteville Observer.
Suffrage in Lincoln
County.

=
1866, '66 and '67 passed by the Ten
nessee Legislature, as tits claimed,
under the ninth clause Of the a.
mendment to the State Constitu-
ton, of February, 1865, itis respect
lively provided that all those soho
voted IN the Presidential election of
1864, or in the election for 'Rati-
Jfcation or Rejection in February,
1866, or voted in the election held
on the 5th of March, of the same
year, for Governor and members
of the Legislature" "Are hereby
declared to be qualified voters" -
By the first franchise law, that of
1865, the County Court Clerk of
each county, was authorized and
required to register the persons OF
their respective counties qualified
to vote under that law, and to give
to each person so registered, a GER
tifcate authorizing him to exer-
else the right of suffrage. By the
act of 1866, all the work of the
Clerks of the County Courts were
cancelled and declared void and
the Governor was required within
sixty DAYS from the passage of the
act to appoint a Commissioner of
Registration for each county,
whose duty it should be to regis
ter the voters of their several coun-
ties, requiring such Registrar to
issue certificates to all those that
voted in the said November, Feb
ruary and March elections, upon
production of the poll-books of the
election at which said voter voted,
or a certified copy under oath of
such poll-books, in case the voter
may have removed to another
county; or upon the affidavit of
two enfranchised citizens, known
to the Commissioner to have been
unconditional Union men through
out the rebellion, in case said poll
books may be lost" Under the
act of 1866, Governor Brownlow
appointed E. 2. REYNOLDS, late a
Captain in the Federal army, Com
missioner of Registration for this,
Lincoln county, to whom the Clerk
of the County Court delivered the
poll-books, upon which he was to
register the voters OF the county.
Commissioner Reynolds registered
a few of the voters. He returned
the poll books to the Clerks Office,
went to Nashville and resigned
Governor Brownlow next appoint
ed H. N. T. Ship, also late a Cap
tain in the Federal army, Com
missioner of Registration for this
county. When he called for the
poll-books of the election of Febru-
airy and March 1866, it was ascer-
tanned that the poll-books, the ev-
idence to establish the right of the
citizens to be registered and exer-
else the right of suffrage, had been
stolen from the Clerks Office,
crime without a parallel in the his
tory Of free governments. Capt.
Ship, consequently, could register
but few.
In 1867, preparatory to the cleo
ton in August of that year, Gov
ernor Brownlow removed Captain
Ship from the office of Registrar
and issued his proclamation setting
aside and declaring the registration
Of both Reynolds and Shipp null
and void. Gov. Browniow, then
John Carey, who was
the Radical rownlow candidate
to represent this county in the
popular branch Of the Legislature
at the ensuing election in August,
who was thus constituted sole judge
of who should and who should not
vote, and which he did, in utter
disregard and open violation of the
,learest provisions of the law un-
der which he was appointed and
toeXecute. Unregistered
some five hundred white and seven
hundred colored men more or less.
He held the office up to the day
IF the election, and under his own
registration aud appointment of
judges and clerks OF election, he
was elected. Gov. Brownlow, pre-
,eding the March election of 1868, |
a carpet-bagger named
Bloom, Registrar for this county,
who shortly after that election, in
with his two brothers,
eft here between the setting and
Using of the sun. Our excellent
Governor next appointed one An
1y Russell Registrar for this coun-
y, who did register goodly num-
Ter of voters, but not as many by
Iaueral hundred &c ara lnnallu an