The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-01-18
A Detailed Statement of the, Florida
- 's..''' Canvass.
WASHINGTON, Jan. z, 1877

! WAsH1NeroN, Jan. z, 1877.
Here is the story of the Florida Cam
vassing Board, from the Democratic side.
It is q plain story, easily understood !;
| and it is thought here that, before the
Republicans claim Florida for Mr..
Hayes, they ought to show this tale to be
false. lii::': -sf go GefE
Florida has thirty nine counties.
When the Returning Board met they be.
gan by an attempt to ascertain how the
vote stood on the face Of the returns.
But they met at once with difficulty, in
Baker county, from which two returns
came up, one of which gave the State to
Hayes, the other to Tiden. Under the
Florida law the County Canvassers are
required to meet at the Office Of the COun.
| ty Clerk, within six days after the elec-
tion, to canvass the vote and compile the
official returns. The Board of Canvassers
are the County Clerk, the County Judge,
| and justice of the peace or Sheriff. In
the case of Baker county the Judge Ia
Republican, refused to meet the clerk,
and, after waiting for him, the clerk
called in a justice Of the peace and pro-
ceeded publicly to canvass the official
precinct returns and sent the result thus
made by two of the three persons desig-
mated by law to the Secretary. of State.
This return gave the State to Tilden by
103 majority. The County Judge. who
had refused to meet the other two at the
same time called in a person who had
been appointed Justice of the Peace after
the election had been held, and these two
canvassed, not the official returns, but
duplicates that covered only two of the
four precincts, and sent their returns to
the Secretary nof State, which gave the
State to Hayes :iby AZ. The Returning
Board decided, as. was proper, that the
clerks return was the correct, one, and
this was therefore allowed and counted.
Next comes Clay county Here the,
county canyassers; also Republicans, left
out one precinct, on. the ground that it.
did not appear that the inspectors took
the oath prescribed by law. But they
made statement with their returns,
showing that this precinct gave "a Dem
ocratic majority, and the Returning
Board held that the objection was not
good, and, therefore, counted the pre-
cinct. }sff;!..ii '.'l.:. i's.' -
But, having gone so far, the Board be.
gan to throw out votes. In Monroe
county they threw out a Democratic pre-:
cinct on the ground that the canvass
there was not completed on the night of
the election, as the law demands. The
inspectors completed the count at cne
O'Clock, but one of their number, Ee-
publican, fell i'll, and moved to defer the
declaration of the return until the lext
morning. There was no pretence of
fraud. e-
|, In Hamilton county the Board Auag
out Jasper precinct, on the ground that
during the election two of the inspectors,
both Republicans, deserted the polls.
One of these deserting inspectors-a Re-
publican, be it remembered-himself
made the affidavit Of the irregularity on
which the Board flung out the vote.
There was no attempt to impeach the
rectitude of the vote.
In Jackson county the Board threw ont
votes on the ground that the ballot boxes
were placed so high that the colored
voters could not see into them. But all
the election officers were Republicans
and the boxes were all alike.
In Mantee county the whole vote was
flung out on the ground that there was no
County Clerk to attend 10 the registsa.
tion and other duties. The circumstan.
ces were these: The Clerk of the county
was a Republican, appointed by Gov.
Stearns; he resigned shortly before the
election. The inhabitants appealed to
him to resume his duties, but he refused.
They asked the Governor to appoint an
other, but the new appointee refused to
qualify. Hence no new registration of
voters could be made, and the law re-
quires that every voter shall previously
aud in the SAME year have been register
ed. After consultation it was deterlniri-
ed to open the polls and to accept the
votes of all who had registered before the
previous election, each voter appending
an affidavit that he had so registered.
The commissioners, inspectors and Coun-
ty Judge did their duty. The county is
strongly Democratic and the Democrats
claim that they lost between 200 and 300
votes by the encouragement of their vo.
ters and the impossibility to register new
voters. However that may be, the Re-.
turning Board flung out the whole coun-
ty.
BY these operations the State was count
ed not only for Hayes'but also for Stearns,
the Republican Governor. candidate for
reelection. But Drew, the Democratic
candidate for Governor, appealed 7 to the
Supreme Court; and the Court, on the
evidence before it, and which is above
briefly recited and was not disputed, or.
dered the Returning Board to recanvass
the whole State, mentioning particularly
four counties. The Board complied lite.
rally with The order of the Court; but
when they came to Baker county they
accepted the returns which before they
had rejected as false, and they flung out
the whole of Clay, to which on the FIRST
count they had made no objection and
where no fraud was charged. Thus they
gave the State on the second count to
Drew and the Democratic State officers,
but still maintained it for Hayes.
This is the Democratic side of the sto-
nv. obtained from moderate and we'll
informed source. 1t must be remember
ed that in all the counties which were
flung out the election officers were Re.
publicaus, and that the wrong or infor-
mality asserted was caused by them that
the Board first counted III both Stearns
and Hayes, and on recount were able
to count in Hayes only by arbitrarily
d;.o;,,c ant ,,ntoo IN which IN thoir first
count and when they could not calculate
50 closely, they made no objection. It
ia clearly necessary that the republicans
who possessed all the election..machinery,
shall show that this story of the Florida.
election is false. They cannot afford to
have Mr.. Hayes counted in BY such frauds
~ are above recounted.
| SENSIBLE, ADv1cE.-The following
sensible advice was given by the late
Prof. Maury to his son, then at school: