The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-05-31
Mackey VS.. O'Conner.


ton cases have been reported from the
committee of the lowers House of Con-
gress, and in which they will be taken
up Is very nearly the order of merit.
Lynch has been admitted; Mackey comes
next. Lynch was elected in the largest
black district in Mississippi and count
cd out; Mackey was. elected in the
largest black district of South Carolina
and counted out. Lynch suffered from
the pretense that his ballots had ''dis-
tinguishing marks or devices e..
printers rules-on them; Mackey was
cheated out of his certificate by the tis-
sue-ballot plan of South Carolina In
some respects Mackey's case is more of
an offense and an outrage upon q free
ballot than Lynch's was.
OConner, the contestee in this case,
died April &c, 1881, i've months after
the election. Samuel Dibble was NOM
inally elected to succeed him at Especial
election held by order of the Governor,
May %. Maekey and his friends wisely
thought that it would prejudice mis-
case to participate in the special cleo
ton, and refrained from doing so. Dib-
BILE received 7,30S votes, whereas his
Democratic predecessor, O'Conner,
claimed that he received in 1880 Ia, 500
votes. Dibble was admitted to Con-
gress, and now holds the seat. He al
legged. first, that the contest abated on
the death of O'Conner; second, that
the testimony taken before that event
had been tampered with and the record
falsifed. The committee promptly
overruled both points 1t was conclu-
sively shown by the affidavits of nearly
all the witnesses that they were correct
lyreported, and the stenographer swore
TO the accuracy of the transcript from
his notes. Dibble was able to bring no
proof to the contrary. Fortunately, the
record had been completed before the
death OF OConner, and it could not be
said that he had not full opportunity
to rebut the allegations OF the con-
testant.
The frauds committed against Mackey
in this district, which includes the City
of Charleston and several rural counties,
were of the most unblushing character.
At large precinct in Charleston Coun-
ty, where Mackey had more than 1000
votes and OConner less than so, and
the vote was counted and canvassed by
the Judges of Election, the box was
opened at night and the result exactly
reversed by the county canvassers. The
statement, which is amply supported by
evidence, Is as 1OllOWS.
That at Haut Gap voting precinct, In the
the contest mt and at the close Of the election
the said votes were duly counted and can
vassed; and that the ballots cast at the elec.
ton, together with statement of the result
and the poll-list az the close Of the canvass by
the managers. were put In the box, the box
delivered To J. II. Wilson, one or the managers
to be delivered by him to the county canvass
ers; that the said manager brought the box
with the seal unbroken. and delivered IL to the
county canvassers: that. at me time OF Its
said delivery 70 the county canvassers 1t con.
70 its delivery to the county canvassers,
the said box was violated. and, when
that the ballots had been changed and Other
ballots fraudulently placed therein. and when
so counted by the county eanysssers DS they an q
votes for Mr.. Mackey.
All the tricks which form a part OF
the South Carolina plan were resorted
| to in this election. The ballot-boxes
were put on raised platforms so high
| that the Supervisors of Elections could
| not see the tickets put into them; the
| Republicans voted open tickets, and
! their votes were counted by the Super
visors; the Democrats voted closed tick
| cts, and many of them contained the
| little jokers so famous in South Caro-
l lima politics. 1t was established by the
| testimony of scores of witnesses that
| when the boxes were opened Democrat
| ic tickets were found in them in bun
dies closely folded together, containing
| four, six, ten or twenty tickets each,
| often so tightly folded that they were
| stuck together and had to be separated
before they could be counted. The next
| process was the South Carolina plan OF
| drawing out. The law requires that
the excess of tickets shall be disposed oi
by taking from the box number equal
1 to the excess. This number is thrown
| ont by a blindfolded person with all the
forms of impartiality, but, as the paper
l and texture of the tickets of the two
| parties are very different, few Democrat
| ic tickets are drawn out. At many
| polls, moreover, the Democratic tickets
/ found in the boxes were in excess OF
the whole vote cast, which conclu-
| sively shows that the ballot-box stuff
ing was done by Democrats. They
could afford to have the excess drawn
\ off, even II it were honestly done, as il
never is. At Hope engine-house poll in
| the city of Charleston, there was an ex-
cess of I ,071 ballots in the box. The
| whole number of votes cast was 1,21S;
the number of Democratic ballots found
| was 1888; excess of Democratic ballots
| over the whole legal vote, 465. The
honest vote of this poll was sos for
| OConnor and 597 for Mackey. The
Democratic Judges, however, drew out
the excess and took from the box 591
honest votes cast for Mackey. They
also took out 479 of the fraudulent votes
cast for O'Conner to save appearances.
The result, as announced. was: OCon-
ner, 200, instead of COS; Mackey, 5,
instead of 597. O'Conner's true major
ity at this poll was IL votes, and even
this was tainted by fraud. But the
managers, after drawing out all but five
of Mackey's votes. made out a majority
for O'Conner of / ,195, or more than 10(
times what he was entitled to. In ref
erence 10 the condition of the ballots ir
the box at this poll the United State:
Supervisor who witnessed the count
testified as follows:
Q.-In counting the ballots were any ticket
found folded together A.-Numbers OF tick
| cts were found folded together.
Q.-Describe in what condition these ticket
ages, apparently, as II they had been com
| pressed together.
sir.
Q.-How many packages of Democratic tick
cts were found folded in that mann manner9 S. A.
ages and separated them. They put thet
| hands in the box and endeavored to separati
| them in the box, but did not succeed, as ta'
| tickets were so tightly pressed together thel
would not separate except by being pullet
| apart
Odd you keep any memorandum OF tn
number Of Democratic tickets found In tina
wayl Al did for a time.
! Q.-Refer to that memorandum and see how
many there were. A.-First, there was a pack
age with four in Il, and there was one viii
eight, and one with nine, one with ton, another
with ten, one with six, one with nve, one will
twelve, one with ten. one with two, one with
seven, one with i've, one with eight, one with
nine, one with fourteen, and one with six
4 After that got tired and kept no account o.
the others which came out afterwards oh
tected to their being counted. but the man
ayers decided against me. They said the,
looked upon them as being in book form.
Q. Did those tickets look as II they had beel
voted separately A.-By no means. Th'
four ruled against me all the time. 1 wa,
fr,E I'M