Ellsworth American., 1876-11-30
Laurens and Edgefield Counties.
WHY THEY wERu LIFT OUT.

VIII W olt
Washington or.iBoston Advertiserl
There has been considerable speculation
a. TO what induced the Returning Board il
South Carolina to single out the countie.
of Edgcfeld aud Laurens aud refuse tc
connt the votes in these. when charges o.
I Democratic frauds la other counties wer,
rs strongly made aud fully supported
! This Is fully explained In an official letter
which reached here last night. aud would
seem to justify the Returning Board In act
I ing as they did. In each county In the
State three canvassers % elections were
appointed prior ~ the election, two Re-
publicans aud one Democrat. In Edge
field ard Iaurens counties both ol which
are strongly Republican. the Democratic
rife clubs assembled on the night of the
election aud threatened To Kill that Repub.
lican canvsssers, aud became so bold snd
demohstrative that one Republican eau
yas>er was forced to fly To save his life.
This left one Republican and one Demo
crat Ia ranvass the vote. aud when thi,
was begun the Republican was told that
il he did not act strictly in accordance
with such orders as would be given him. he
canvass proceeded the Republicans saw
that large numbers of Republican tickets
were being taken from the ballot boxes
and Democratic ones substituted lie re-
.s..l 4 tsHt
he would suffer death In this way the
canvass was made, and the Democratic
canyasser made up returns Ia send to
Columbia. changing an actual Republican
majority of ? 900 in Edgefield county to
over 5000 Democratic. The Republican
canvasser refused 10 sign the certificate.
and wa. told that unless lac did 80 hi> hfe
would be the penalty. Finding that these
Democratic reformers were determined TO
execute their threats. hy added hi> sigma
iure Ia the certificate. He was then per
United 10 depart. and A. soon n he was
ont OF danger he prepared protest 10 the
Returning BoarI against the votes of his
county being counted. aud notifying them
that he had signed the certificate under
duress. aud that gro's frauds had been
perpetrated, which he proceeded to detail.
This document was placed in safe hand
and delivered TO the Returning Board In
Columbia.
These scenes, similar almost even tn the
smallest details. occurred in the counties
OF Eigefeld aud Laureus. showing con-
clu,ively that the matter was prearrangcd
by tine Hampton rifle clubs. When the
Returning Board came TO count the votes
of these two counties the protests from the
two Republican canyassers who had signed
the certificates under compulsiou were
read. and the Beard was unanimously of
the opinion that, as one OF the two sigma
lures on each certificate had been attached
under dure.s. it WAS no certificate under
least two of the three canva>scr, TO be an-
nexed. For this reason the Board decided
that they could not count the returns from
either county. the law not having been
complied with aud accordingly they were
set aside for the Legislature to investigate
and settle. The Board maintains that they
could donothing clse.and that the supreme
Court itself will not count the votes from
these counties IN view OF all the facts. aud
in the absence of the proper certificate.
and il the face of the protest BY one cam
y.s.er iu each county