The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1880-02-27
How a Southern Republican was Cheat.
ed Out of His Seat.

The story OF Jere HARRISON, a colored
member of the Forty-fourth Congress,
and who was a candidate on the Re
publican ticket at the last election in
the Alabama district now represented
(O by the Confederate Brigadier Shell
ley, who was never elected to his seat,
is one of the most forcible illustrations
yet furnished of the infamous manner
in which Republicans have been cheat
ed out of their rights in the solid
South. His memorial to Congress is
the strongest document that has yet
been submitted, and the accompanying
proofs of outrage are 80 overwhelming
that the Confederate Brigadier should
be instantly expelled from the House.
Mr.. HARRISON shows in this memorial
that when the returns were counted a
large lumber of votes were thrown out,
SO that the record stood: HARRISON
(Rep.),. 6,540; Shelley DEM, S,115;
and Henry Orr, 314. Tho false
character Of the record is shown
on its face, since the registra-
ton of the district shows the whole
number of white voters to be $500 and
of colored $4,000. Out of how many
votes HARRISON was cheated it is impos.
sible to say without knowing the ex-
tent to which Republican voters were
bulldozed out of the right of suffrage,
tut it is evident that if there had been
a fair election he would have received
q majority of several thousand. This,
however, is of little consequence, for
Shelley appears with a majority 1876
larger than the entire registered white
vote, which of itself is an absurdity, and
shows that he was elected to the seat he
now occupies by theft and swindling.
The infamy did not stop with fraudu.
lent counting and destruction of votes.
SHELLEY used money in a corrupt man
ner. After HARRISON, indignant at the
infamous manner in which he had been
treated, filed O notice of contest, no
Justice of the Peace would take the
sffidavits of his witnesses. When the
Judge of the First Judicial Circuit at
last consented to act in that capacity,
Shelley had thrown Haralson's wit
nesses into Jail, and procured an indict-
ment against HARRISON himself upon a
trumped-up charge. At last, when the
bulldozers found that he was de-
termined to pursue his rights, they
waited upon him with arms in their
hands and ordered him to leave the
State under penalty of instant death,
whereupon he went to Washington. He
has been cheated ont of his election.
He has been driven from his home by
force. He has been deprived of all
lawful means of establishing his right
to his seat, and, as the freedmen have
been deprived of their civil and politi-
cal rights, it is impossible for him to
get their dispositions. There was no
resource left for him except to memo
rialize Congress to order an investiga-
ton of all the circumstances OF this in
fanny, in order that he might have the
opportunity to prove his right to the
seat, and, had it not been for the sense
of fairness that characterized the
rulings of the Speaker, the memorial
itself would have been suppressed, in
stead of taking the usual form OF refer
ence to the Committee on Elections.
1t is, perhaps, too much to hope
that the committee will do justice to
Mr.. HARRISON in the premises; that
even if an investigation is made it
will be anything more than a farce;
or even that, if the investigation
should show that Shelley had stolen
his seai and was never elected to it, o
Democratic House would compel
him to restore it to its rightful
owner; but the infamy remains on rec
ord all the same. It is only one
in the long list of Southern outrages
for which q future reckoning will
come. It is only one more argument
that will arouse the Northern people
next fall to the necessity Of revenging
such infamy at the polls.-Chtcago
Tribune.