The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1882-09-30

"Please explain in regard to the
Eliza Pinkston CASE and its connec-
ton with the Electoral Commission
and what part General Garfield took in
1T. L was informed by friend that a
friend of his from that same county
was visiting him, and told him that
the brutalities were inflicted during a
drunken brawl among the negroes and
not by intimidation. 1 would like to
have your opinion Of it, The story
of Eliza Pinkston recalls one of the
worst and most clever campaign lies that
was ever manufactured, for to say that
it thrilled the North from Maine to
Minnesota is but to give faint idea of
the sensation it created and the storm
of horror and Indignation against the
Democrats of Louisiana that was arous-
ed by it. Yet it was false in every
particular, lie out of whole cloth, so
confessed and gloried in few months
later, when it had served its purpose.
While the Louisiana Returning Board
was in session, a negro woman named
Eliza Piukston was brought in on a
lounge. She testified that gang of
white men, Democrats, whom she
named, had visited the cabin where she
lived with her husband, murdered him
and their infant child, committed the
most revolving outrages upon her, and
then stabbed her in dozen places.
The cause of the outrage she said was
because she and her husband had vi
sited Republican meetings. She was
then carried out. There was no exam
ination of her story. which was tele-
graphed far and wide. After the vote
of the State had been stolen for Hayes
and this case of intimidation had been
used to justify the theft, an attempt
was made to punish the murderers, but
she testified before the magistrate that
| the story had been taught to her by
| two prominent Louisiana politicians,
Brewster and Dingrave, who had paid
her $500 to repeat it before the board !;
| that Dingrave haG swindied her out Of
$3.50 which she gave him to keep for
! her that she had been coached care
fully in her story at New Orleans that
the day she appeared before the board
she had walked long distances, but she
was told she must pretend to be very
i'll; that her husband had not been
killed by white men but by negroes,
and that her husband never had any
thing to do with politics. This affidavit
was corroborated by many witnesses.
The men implicated proved they were
not in the neighborhood at the time.
The doctor who attended her the morn
ing after the outrage swore that she de-
clared it was gang of negroes who had
killed her husband, and that she never
had changed her story until she ap-
peared before the board. Her family
| and friends testified the same thing.
After Eliza made this affidavit she was
visited by Republican politicians and
threatened with Imprisonment and all
sorts of punishmentif she did not stand
by the story, but the evidence of the
fraud became Overwhelming, and they
finally acknowledged it. Among those
who visited her and coached her, &C.
cording to her story, was Senator Sher-
man, and this portion of her story was
| listened to, and after the board adj
journed, he heard Mr.. Sherman laugh
ing very loudly over her testimony and
heard him say to Congressman Go
! vernon Bigler take the story in Mr..
Garfield was not brought into the i'm
position, but it is not probable that
there were any of the leading Rcpub-
licans who were not aware that the
whole story was falsehood which she
had been paid $500 to tell.