Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1878-11-14
THE SOUTH CAROLINA FARCE

1
Evidence accumulates that the
election in South Carolina last week
was a miserable farce. Exon
gresham Mackey, who was a can
didate for Congress in the Charles
ton district, has written a letter in
which he describes the methods re
sorted to secure a solid delegation
from that State, an extract from
which we find in the New York
Times as follows:
1.-THE most Outrageous cases Of ballot-
box stuffing occurred at the two polls
In Ward Three of Charleston. At the
Palmetto Engine-house, Poll No 1, of
the Democratic managers, w. l. Dag
gett, foreman of the NetO and Courier
job printing office, stuffed 500 false
tickets in the box after the poll was
closed. The managers, finding that
there were 3, 500 ballots in the box, de-
clined to throw out any, but
counted them all and returned the
vote of that poll as 461 for
Mackey and 3,1OS for O'Connor. At
the other poll in this ward, the same
act was performed, and its managers
returned l2l for Mackey, and $3.50 for
O'COnnOT, so that Que ward out of the
eight in the city was made to give a
msjOTity of 4 392 votes for O'COnnOr.
The utter i'm possibility of voting 3 $50
persons at one pol in the space of II
hours needs hardly be argued. As
the managers swOre each voter sep
arately, and in many cases consumed
three to four minutes questioning
some voters, it is safe To say that the
average time consumed in voting each
man was one minute, which would
allow 720 votes TO be p"lled, provided
there was a continuous stream of
voters during the II hours the polls
were opened. Yet at this poll the
managers made a return under oath
that 3 $40 persons voted in the space
OF - hours. By this method Charles
ton City is made to give
O'COnnOr a majority of 1927, or
majority larger than the entire Demo
cratic vote Of the city. Throughout
this county and the District the boxes
were stuffed in the same way-not
only in Charleston, but in Clarendon.
Not satisfied with stuffing the ballot
boxes, the Democrats, finding it i'm
possible TO stuff the balIot-box at the
Washington Engine-hOuse, in Ward
six, because of the vigilance of the
Unite q States Supervisor, put out the
lights and stole the box and destroyed
it. because 1 had q majority of about
500 there. On Edisto leland, where
1000 Republican voters reside, and
where the Democrats have only about
40 or so votes, the Democratic Conn
., Il,
thus actually disfranchising those
voters"
A Columbia special to the Times
details the following additional de-
tails of the great swindle:
The frauds perpetrated in this e
stagger belief. In all the counties
where there was opposition, the Demo-
Gratis voted a diminutive tissue ballot, |
inclosed generally in a larger one.
They were voted in patches. / have
heard two men confess to voting, re-
spectively, IS and 20 OF them. In |
some boxes there were four times as |
many votes as there were voters in the |
precinct. IL others the excess OF votes
over voters was withdrawn by blinL-
folded man, W no almost invariably took |
county the Republicans voted more /
solidIy than in 1876, when the major
ity was over ! 500 Republican. This
time 1t is 2, 800 Democratic, (mOre than
the number of Democratic voters.
was resOrted 10 as pastime,
and was carried beyond all bounds of
necessity. Every body is laughing
about it, and. no attempt 10 deny or
conceal the fraud is made, except in
the newspapers. The tissue-paper
tickets are general throughout Repub-
lican counties, showing that the
scheme emanated from headquarters.
Supervisors and Deputy Marshals
were kept away from the count. This
sort OF fraud beats murder, violence,
DR. intimidation"
No wonder the Democratic ma
ority is in the neighborhood Of one
hundred thousand.