The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1876-11-30

| competed.
The rebel papers keep mounting about
the popular vote. They know very well
that If the colored men in the South had
been permitted to vote. Hayes would
have had large majority of the popular
vote
Weeks before the Presidential election,
the Democrats all admitted that the Re-
publican majority in South Carolina was
not less than from $4,000 to 10000, yet
they declared that they intended to car
ry the State for Tilden, and they came
within few hundred of doing So The
following, written by correspondent of
1 the New York Times, throws some light
upon the mode of carrying the State for
reform"
Notwithstanding the provision that no
man shall be deprived of any political
privilege enjoyed by any other man on
account of race. color, or previous con-
dition of servitude," by some tacit under
standing on the part of the managers of
election, two polling places were estab-
lished in the village OF Edgefeld, one at
the Court house, called No /, for the
whites; another at Macedonia Church,
on the edge of the village, professedly
TOR the colored. The former no colored
man attempted to approach until late in
the day. Then, it being found that, in
consequence of the tactics employed at
the church, but q small portion of the
colored population would be able to vote
there. an attempt was made to vote at
No. /. United States Marshal Beatty
succeeded in getting six or eight to the
box, but beyond that number all efforts
were in vain. Every approach to the
| Courthouse was cut off by horsemen.
who formed a Gordon across every path,
while crowds of white men packed the
steps and portico of the Courthouse
building, preventing the approach OF any
one suspected of Republicanism. Up to
nearly 10 clock, the hundreds of col
ored voters, waiting to deposit Republi-
can ballots at poll No. 2, which they had
been made to believe was exclusively
their own. were prevented from even
getting near the box by the crowds OF
white men already in the building and
voting there.
Amid all the strife and danger of the
unequal contest in which they were com.
PEELED to engage, not gun or pistol was
| to be seen in the hands or on the persons
of the outraged but inoffensive blacks.
| III there was a weapon among that surg
ing mass, it was most skillfully and con-
sderately concealed. A few, it is true.
had sticks, but beyond that they were as
defenseless as the children of a New
York public school. They never gave
expression to a threat, and even dessted,
when requested SO to do, from indulging
in cheer for the candidates OF their
choice.
All the previous night the place was in
possession OF a mob of white men, dane
ing in the Courthouse, and yelling every
where. From daylight until 10 o'clock
the black mems polling place, so-called,
was surrounded by at least three hundred
mounted men, some on horses, some on
mules, some with Confederate uniforms
trimmed with yellow, all with red shirts.
and obeying the commands of General
Gary, who, pistol in hand, yelled his or
deIs to open or close ranks, advance or
retreat. as he would have done had he
been leading a rebel regiment against
the men OF the North in 1861. In addi-
tion to the mounted men there were a
large number dismounted, but all armed,
having the same purpose, and obeying
the same orders as the mounted force.
At 9.45 clock, United States Deputy
II
United States infantry under the com
mand of Captain kellogg, who detailed a
squad of four and aiterward eight men,
under Lieutenant Hoyt, to open the way
to the poll. This squad pierced the
ranks of the "redshirts' who had packed
their horses SO closely together that the
only approach to the windows, back of
which was the ballot-box, was under the
bellies of their beasts. An alley. howev.
er, was made by the gallant officer, at
imminent risk OF his life and the lives of
his men. Over the heads Of the little |
band ,innumerable pistols were held
n lot Man of that drunken, foul. mouthed |
crew but had his pistol in hand with his
finger on the trigger. Thus eight brave
men, representing the United States,
opened and kept open a narrow pathway
along which the poor but undaunted ne |
gro had the dangerous privilege of run
ming the gauntlet.
Every black or brown man that es.
sayed to reach the box through this |
threatening and furious crowd was greet |
ed with opprobrious epithets, such as |
only South Carolinians can utter, and /
which they intensified by interiecting |
every variety of rebel yell. If one un. |
guarded word had fallen from the lips of /
a colored man, a scene of carnage would /
have followed frightful to think Of Be /
fore the soldiers came on the ground, /
several colored men had been beaten |
with bludgeons and the butts Of pistols.
Their forbearance, however, was beyond
all praise. On reaching the box, the un-
fortunate voter found a white man named
Shepard standing guard over it, who.
with his sinister eyes, endeavored to look
the poor negro into such state of ter
ror that he began to ask himself wheth
er the poor privilege of acting for few
short moments the part of an American
citizen was worth the risk he ran. The
gauntlet being safely run, the colored
voter was then put through" long,
frivolous catechism-so minute that at
the close the polls several hundred of
the colored Republicans had tailed even
to come In sight of the ballot-box. This
was the Mississippi plan" carried to a
degree OF perfection not excelled even
by Vicksburg itself.
In the afternoon, the whites having
done all the voting and repeating at Poll
No. l which was regarded as necessary to
accomplish their ends, it was suggested I
that the crowd of anxious colored men at 5
No. should go there to vote. Some es- q
sayed SO to do, but every avenue was SO {
carefully guarded that unless they had C
crept between the legs of the horses they =
would have found no way of approach c
In other portions of the district similar d