The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1876-03-02
Contested Election in Virginia.

CflcC III tHe clccS'On OF OGaGe SENATOR. 1luS is
but one specimen. Others of more aggravated
monstrousness have been perpetrated iii Rich
mond, Petersburg and Norfolk, by similar
methods. Surely there must be day of re-
tribution for the unstriped and unbranded
criminals who thus defy the laws of the coun-
try and the rights Of citizenship.
The Republican says:
Zone of the rarest specimens Of refined and
successful political villainy that has ever come
under our observation is contained in fate pub
licotion. made under the auspices Of the Senate
ron,n,;ttee on Privileges and Elections of the
U;ran;a I,eoislature, entitled Contested Eec-
t;ons in the Senate of Virginia, Case of Brady
VIZ Gayle. Session 1916 This document,
embracing over 300 pages, would, if in the hands
~ fair-minded men of the North and West,
constitute campaign document for the APP
nroachine election that would make the DEM
oeracy stand aghast at the record OF the ini-
ouities of that party in the South.
dv Renuhican. and J. II. Gayle, Democrat,
wero candidates at the election held in Novcm-
her for the Senate OF Virginia from the 'Elev-
enth Senatorial District, composed OF the city
~ Portsmouth and the county OF Norfolk, in
IN tha state Of Virginia. The scat was award
ed to Gayle bv the Democratic judges OF election
in the face of such frauds as only modern De-
mocracy is capable of. In the sworn ana at
tested statement of Brady, as made before the
committre of the Senate. we find, for example,
in Tho First ward of Portsmouth (and this is
only a fair sample of the others that when the
polis closed 52l names were found on the poll
hooks. but upon counting the ballots l,O24
were ascertained to be in the box. Upon a re-
count. made at the suggestion OF a democrat
Judge after $50 ballots had been drawn our, it
was found that 6S4 ballots renamed III the oox,
a gain of 100 ballots on the llrsC count. 1here
we 9 therefore drawn out Of the ballot box 6l3
ballots in order to make the number conform
TO the number of mares OF electors on the poll
books. The said judges, in drawing out the
ballots from the balct-box, in order to make
the number therein equal TO the number OF
names on the poll-boolls, so drew them as to
leave in the box only ballots Tor Brady and
51l for Gayle, the ballots being of such distin-
guishable size and texture OF paper as to enable
one, by feeling them, to distinguish for whom
the ballots had been cast. OF the 511 ballots
counted for Gale only IS were Of the style and
character of those which had been offered by
and received from the electors as their ballots;
the residue 455 were false ballots and fraudu-
lently put in the box, and none of them were
at said election offered by any clector as and
for his ballot, or so received by the Judges of
election. These false ballots, copies OF which
We have SCcI1s Cttll U0 USSU 0CSCiioCu " say
that they are of the size of "sugar-kiss verse, =
not being in conformity with law in size, nor
were they folded as the law requires.
The manner in which these fraudulent bal
lots were introduced into the box was by en-
closing from ten to twenty OF them in an or
binary ballot. used on the occasion as vehicle
for the villainy, said ballot being III size 81 by
q inches. And yet these judges, with a
knowledge of this attempt to deprive the peo-
pie of their vested rights, counted them, after
having drawn the lega! ballots from the box
Nor YVES this outrage confined to the ward in
question, still worse state of things existing
in Ward No. 2, which may be readily shown by
aggregating the frauds in both wards. 1t APP
pears by this sworn and attcstcd statement
that the number of names on the poll-books of
the two wards was l.l55. The aggregate num-
Der OF ballots found in the balot-box was 2, 35l,
being an excess of number Of names on said
poll-books Of 1856; that of all the ballots coun-
ted at said wards-to wit l, l5o-there was
only l61 genuine ballots, or such as had been
offered by voters or received by the judges OF
election as their ballots, the residue of said gem
uine ballots-to wit about l, 043-having been
drawn out in drawing out the excess ballots
that of / ,O6l ballots counted for Gayle, only
IS were genuine ballots, the residue, 976, being
of a class that were not voted, and which we
have described as the sunfolded, sugar-kiss
vcrses.n
LII view of the foregoing statement of facts,
well might Madam Roland, had she lived to
see unreconstructed Virginia. exclain, ooh.
Liberty ! what crimes are committed i'll thy
name - These are only some of the diabolical
methods devised by Virginia Democracy to Till
the Legislature of the State with their my rmi--
dons and to illegally occupy the seats OF Viz
ginia in Congress with men who possess no le-
gal right to them whateyer-a notable instance
OF the latter existing In the case OF Goode, who
occupies, but docs not fill, the scat from the
district in which these gross frauds were COM
mitted. If the Democracy, who constitute tie
majority of that body, can afford to wink at
this method of adding to their numerical
strength, even by keeping Col. Plattt out of
the seat to which he is entitled until the tail
end of the session, it will not work him half the
harm it will the authors of such conduct in the
ensuing fall election. With regard to the case
Gayle, Notwithstanding the committee who
have his case in hand have held at least two
meetings, nothing has been done, and what is
worse. nothing is likely to be done by a party
who are so utterly regardless If the rights OF
Republicans as the Virginia Democracy have
shown themselves to be in the past. SO far
from unseatng Gayle, he vas honored by be-
ing placed upon that delectabe Legislative
Committee that visited this city last week, os-
tcnsibly in the interest Of Immigration to Viz
guia-truly fit representative to myle or
whee6le Northern men into State where their
rights are so sllamefully violated, and where he
would have no rights which a Virginia Demo-
crat would feel himself under the slightest OBJ
legations to respect.
A natural sequence OF the daboism to which
we hsve adverted can only result i'll not only
rctardiug emigration to that State,but i'll being
positively prohibtory in its character, and can
only be changed by the cultivation OF all en-
iyhtened public sentiment among fair-minded
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