Abbeville press. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1860-1869, 1869-02-12
BY W. A. LEE AND HUGH WILSON.

! SS9o''iJ hlcitSufeS> Du
: accepted them as finality on tt,
subject OF reconstruction until change
by the peaceable instrumontalitics {
the ballot box or tho courts, and wa
IN favor Of our people uniting in a
effort, in accordance with their rcauire
ments, to restore our State to its statu
in the Union at the earliest practicabl
moment. And I now regard the pun
poses of their enactment as fully &C
complishcd, so far as the State o
South Carolina is concerned, and tha
the Constitution and laws of the State
framed and enacted under the au
thority given by them, arc the Consti
tuition and laws, until altered O,
amended according to the forms O
law; and such have been my publicl,
expressed opinions everywhere.
| r. x
5. l deny that the charges contained
in specifications Nos. 81 to 10, incIu-
slve, of the protest, having reference
to the election in the county of Able
viii, Or any of them, as therein stated
and charged, arc true. It is not true
that thirty-four hundred, or any
smaller number Of colorcd voters in
said county, who would have voted for
contestant, were kept from the polls
by "threats, fraud, intimidation and
acts of violence of your (my) friends,
made and done by and with your (my)
consent and knowledge" as is falsely
charged in the 21st specification of the
protest. But if acts Of violence were
committed in said county of Abbcville,
they were committed by some reclz-
less and lawlcss individual or individu-
ais, Of their own malice and on their
own responsibility, against the per-
sons Of other individuals, for which
neither the party who sustained me in
my election nor the great mass Of the
people of Abbevillc county are in any
way. responsible. And I deny that
the said thirty-four hundred voters. or
any Of them, were kept from the polls
by intimidation, or that there was any
reasonable excuse or sufficient cause
for such intimidation if it existed. as
was demonstrated by the result of the
election at the several precincts on
election day. And 1 am further in
formed, believe and charge that the
voters who absented themselves from
he polls Oh election day did so either
of their own accord or under the |
effect Of influences addressed TO- their
understandings, such as are resortcd |
to in popular political elections every
where, and deny the suffciency of
he evidence upon which it is affirmed
hat the said voters; or any of them,
would have voted for my competitor,
he contestant, if they had gone to
he polls. It is not true, rs am in
ormed, believe and charge, that fif-
cen hundred persons, non-rcsidents, OF
my number approximating fifteen
came into the county of Alb
'eville on election day, mounted and
srmed with deadly weapons, in the
ense in which it is charged in specif-
ations 22 and % Of the protest. It
admitted that number of citizens,
9th white and colored, legal voters of
idgcield county, one of the counties
f the Sd Congressional District, in
'hich no election was held, came to I
he election precincts in Abbeville
ounty, most convenient to them, and {
laimed the right to vote for member '
f Congress-, and that they were :
ermitted by the managers at some Of i
he precincts to cast their votes, under {
he impression that they wcre legally ,
ntitled, under the Constitution and !
lws, to vote for Representative in t
congress in any county of the Con-
ressional District, as had always ,
erctofore been permitted by law in I
outh Carolina, Gas heretofore chargcd) 6
'hich impression it is insisted was q
orrect. The exact number of said {
ersons do not know and cannot '
ate; probably one OF two hundred, 1t
or do I know whether they voted t
r myself or my competitor, the con- t
'stant. Some Of these persons came, n
am informed and believe, singly t
in pairs, mounted on their mules p
horses, as persons ordinarily &c to g
ection grounds, and a portion of \
lem, both white and colored, doubt 2
ss had arms about their persons, as I
too frequently the case in these 8
mes. 1 am informed, believe and {
large that they are the only persons, t
who came into the n
o1nty Of Abbeville on election day, b
~ they came for the laudable pur- a
,.oe of voting for person to repre- f
et themjn Congress. the privilege a
4 loing soin their own county having O
'sa denied them by the5partizans ofE d
But it is not true, as Fam ! c