The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1876-12-21
The Florida Fraud.
The following address was issued
from Florida ON the 9Th.

from Florida on the 9th:
To the Hen. Samuel ]. Randall,
Washington, House Of Representa-
tives. The undersigned, who came
hither to be present at a fair count
of the votes cast by the people of
Florida, have had the grief to be
witnesses of the counting in Of
Hayes Electors, who were rejected
at the polls, We have witnessed
the progress and the consumma-
ton of a deliberate preconcerted
scheme of fraud. This scheme was
FIRST eontrived for execution at the
ballot-boxes throughout the State.
Having there fallen short of sue
cess, it was then continued and
promoted by several county can
vassing boards, and was yesterday
supplemented and finished by the
Radical majority of the State Board
of CanYassers at Tallahassee. It
is manifest to every intelligent man
here, first, that upon the face Of the
returns the Tilden Electors had g
majority of all the votes cast; sec
ond the Tilden Electors had this ma
jOrity over and above the Radical
count, after it had been swollen by
many hundred illegal votes through
local frauds and false returns; third,
that the majority declared for the
Hayes Electors is a fictitious, false
and fraudulent majority, which the
two Radical State Canvassers man
ufactured by throwing out whole
Democratic precincts and counties,
in open disregard Of facts and with
fragrant violation of the law. They
did not even keep to the shewder
path blazed out for them by their
legal advisers from the North. All
along their debrious track the
marks Of premeditation, the foot
prints of a shameless purpose are
unconcealed. The Democratic
Electors, receiving their certificates
of the true result from the Attorney
General, a member Of the Board of
Canvassers, met to-day and cast
their votes for Tilden and Hen
bricks. The Radical electors, forti-
fed with the false certificates of
Gov. Stearns, met to day and cast
their votes for Hayes and Wheeler
1t is for Congress to judge and de-
termine whether this assault upon
the rights and liberties of freemen,
thus far prosecuted under cover of
the arms and the authority of the
Federal Administration, shall be
crowned at the Capitol with success.
Familiar with the history of carpet
bag corruption and mismanagement,
we yet needed a visit TO Florida to
convince us of the distress that
their rule has caused. It has sub
verted her social order; it has
plunged her people to the point of
impoverishment; it has abolished
the usual contests of political par
ties and arrested the progress OF
her two races in elf-government.
In truth, the late struggle at the
polls was not between Democrats
and Republicans. It was between
a hapless race misguided by a few
knavish adventures, and even con-
NiCOCA 1SAOiSy WIZ CtAAA I4NA4oGAf 60
Republicans, and a gentle, long
suffering people, whose patience
has permitted their oppressors to
live. The Republican party, as we
well know at the North, has no ex-
istence in Florida, unless, indeed, it
shall confess a fellowship with those
abusing her, and living by seeking
profit through their crime. Geo.
W. Biddle, Pennsylvania; Joseph
E. Brown. Georgia; Leverett Salten-
staH, Massachusetts; David w. Sci
lers, Pennsylvania; Malcom Hay,
Pennsylvania; Jas. r. Read, Penn
sylvania; Samuel E. Thompson,
Pennsylvania; Geo. W. Guthrie,
Pennsylvania; NJ. B. Young, Geor-
gia; Perry II. Smith, Illinois; c.
Gibson, Missouri; Manton Marble,
New York.