The weekly clarion., 1872-02-22

!. men and fifteen or twenty colored men.
Upon this point we have also the testimony
of III. F. Wheeler. who swears that he was
at the time OF the election. and had been for
! three years. the Superintendent OF the a. &
c. r. R.; that on Monday previous TO the
ELECTION he had received a telegram from
Col. Central at Montgomery, Alabama, the
Receiver for the State of Alabama for said
railroad. to open the road TO Chattanooga; !;
be was the manager of tine road and had the
| right to order any Of its employees TO any
point he might see fit and upon their fall
ure to obey his orders they would have been
promptly discharged; that in obedience to
his orders he himself left Meridian Monday
| night previous TO the election with fifteen
| white men, including himself, all of whom
were voters in I.auderdale county and Dem
0crdts !, one of whom was the son-in-law of
Duncan Kelly. who insisted upon remaining
till next day that he might vote for his
father-in-law; but Notwithstanding that
they all left and none voted shat on Sunday
evening previous u the election he ordered
| Mr.. Mitchell, at keenowa Station, to pro-
ceed to the wreck in Alabama and remove
/ it; that Mr.. Mitchell was acting under his
| orders when he carried his construction
train" and hands from Lauderdale county
on Monday Into the State of Alabama.
| submit, Mr.. Speaker, that it is wholly
| unnecessary to adduce further proof upon
this point. Admitting that the construction
train was carried out of Lauderdalc county
for the purpose of changing the result of the
CASCtiou' IL liOl DEOStu w OHC,
still the result of the election cannot be eff
fected, for the reason that the only witness
for contestants on that point says. of his
own knowledge, he knew certainly of only
seven or eight cOlored men upon that train
to be Republicans, whilst there were upon
! the same train five or six Democratic white
men. and upon Wheeler's, which left about
the same time, under orders eminating from
the same source, fifteen Democrats. one OF
whom was the son-in-law of one of the DEM
/ OcrariP candidates If nv Gnqh IN
the Democrats expected TO carry the election.
| then all have TO say is. that they were
| exceedingly poor political tinanciers, to
carry off twenty Democrats in order to- get
/ seven or eight Republicans out of the way.
Sir, the idea is prepOsterous and ridicu-
lously absurd. l am satisfied that this
House will agree with me that this
charge of carrying-decOying one hundred
the purpose of preventing their voting, will
fall lifeless TO the ground, with its p-edeces-
sors, for the want of shadow of proof to
| sustain il. / will therefore pass on TO the
next charge, which is: THAT you and your
party prevented one hundred and fifty
''persons from registering and voting. by
''purposely deceiving them as to the proper
''time in which it could be DONE" The
only proof, or anything that pretendS to be
proof upon that point, is very small por-
ton of the testimony of one Judge Robert
Leachman, TO whom | will pay my respects
before | close this argument, but will here
assert that there Is no more proof 10 sustain
| this charge than there is to sustain any of
the preceding ones, but | will drop IL for
the present and take it up again in another
| portion of my argument when l come to
Judge Leachman's evidence proper.
The next and only remaining charge is
That Willie the return of the votes polled
sat the box or precinct presided over and
certified to by the Registrars of Lauder
dale county. purpOrted to be the vote of
S'the one box at Meridian, as certified to by
the Registrars. to the Secretary of State.
The truth is the vote was consolidated
with the illegal votes cast at the precinct
''Or box presided over by Jno. f. Holt, j.
| "W. Wedgworth and - Daily, as inspect
''ors." That, sir, is the last of these idle
charges. And so far as the proof shows,
this House cannot know whether there was
one box or one hundred boxes in the city of
| Mel idian. Not a word was uttered by a
single solitary witness, upon that point.
There is no proof concerning it; no evidence
touching it. It stands like all the others
without one solitary shadow of proof to
| sustain it.
That, sir, is the case of L. J. MoInnis VS..
Duncan Kelly. It is an exception TO the
general rule, ''that every case has two
i sides" for iJ has but one. 1t must be so
considered, and / am sure will be so treated
| by this House l deem it wholly unneces-
sary to occupy the House upon it. and will
therefore pass on to the case of William G..
Grace VS.. a. III. Smith, and will answer, as
conclusively, each and every charge against
him, as | have those against Mr.. Kelley.
The first is, as in the other case, the general
charge of fraud and intimidation, and de-
ceit and misrepresentation, which are em-
bodied in the subsequent charges, which is
first: THAT you, in your speeches at Meri-
dian and elsewhere in Lauderdale county,
lin the opening of the campaign and during
''the progress of the same, told the people,
sin substance, that the election of the Dem
''ocratic ticket must be secured at the cleo
''tion then ensueing, even if it cost the
! shedding of blood, and that the only way
Ito stop violence and Ku-Kluxism was the
success of the Democratic ticket, and other
"violent language then and there used to
'Ethe terror and dismay of voters" / sub
nit, sir, that is saving but little for the
manhood aud nerve of Meridian to say that
her chivalrous sons became 50 terror-strick-
en- by the bloody speech OF my old friend,
DR.. Smith, that they could not sufficiently
recover from the Intimidation produced by
it, within three long months, to exercise
the right of suffrage, as freemen have the
right to do! The Doctor must be as terrible
as army with banners; that he. in an
mpromptu speech. in the court house. in
the great city of Meridian, could produce
such scare chat her people could nOb mus
ter the courage 10 shake it off in the space
of three months. He is a giant who, till
awakened by the noble, patriotic empulses
of the canvass, was asleep.
But, sir. there are but two witnesses for
| the contestants WHO testify 10 having nedTU
that bloody speech of the Doctors. One Is
the witness Belk, who gave us the hearsay
OF three disappointed colored Republicans,
concerning that nnaecountable, strange and
| fraudulent excursion trip to Alabama.
Belk knows but little about the Doctors
speech. His memory, unfortunately. fails
him concerning every other part except the
bloody" part; but he says he didn't hear
all of it-neither the beginning nor
the end of it hence his testi-
| 81
cred by this House. To Gull
a speech, is like garbling the Bible. In that
way it is said ''yOu may prove there is no
God" The other witness of contestants
fupon that point Is one }. n. McCullum,
who in this matter has shown himself to be
an exceedingly cautious man. He took the
precaution 70 write down, then and there,
the "bloody" part of the Doctors speech.
| We may thank this witness for its preser-
vation. But Notwithstanding its utterance
made such an impression upon his mind, yet
he SAYS that no one was scared no one
| "intimidatedH-hence all his precantion and
labor proved fruitless, no one was sin
timidated" on account of 1t. AS no one was
"intimidated' at the time of it's utterlnce,
three months prior TO the election, surely
they could not have been seriously effected
by it on the day of the election! Take the
whole evidence of these two witnesses as
true, without one word in rebuttal, and it
amounts TO nothing But we have the tes-
timony of Messrs- Redwood, Harry, Hous-
ton. Randall, Tuck and Ramsey, gentlemen
of honor and unimpeaehable veracity. who
swear that the speech of DIR. Smith was
made upon being called to the chair upon
the organization of a Democratic Club: that
he gave utterance 10 no such language as
charged against him by Belk and McCullum
that he did say lit was the duty of every
citizen to use all fair and honorable means to
defeat the Radical party thar must relieve
ourselves Of the oRer0Hs taxation hedped Mp0H
u.s. They further more testify that he Is
modest, sober, prudent. christian gentle
man, who never counsels rashness.
30 fnueh Mr. Sneaker for fhQ gshlooflv