Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-07-06

,
but In Maine where the State government
came near being stolen by them after
they had fairly lost It. We refer to the
contested case Of Lee against Richardson
In the hrst congressional district of South
Carolina. concerning which q report has
Just been made by the subcommittee TO
the committee on elections Of the House.
Lee was negro. and the republican can
didate Richardson was the democratic
candidate. Richardson was counted in
to seat In Congress by fraudulent ma
jority of S46s votes. The committee find
after investigation that Lee received a
majority Of 2s4 of the votes actually cast
To begin with, the colored majority oil
voters in this district was 6055. It is a
thing incredible that enough of this col
ored majority would not have voted for
Leo, the colored candidate. to elect him
had the election been fair. How was this
undoubted republican majority Of 5000
changed into a democratic majority Of
S000a The following facts taken from the
report will tell.
In Georgetown county the democratic coun-
~ and State csnvassers threw out eight of the
nine precints and returned only the ninth as
302 for Richardson and 6l7 for Lee. The
precincts were thrown out ostensibly upon
several technical grounds, but really because
Lees majority could BE- suppressed in no
other way. For example, in Santes there
was IN honest election. ~ shown BY the
records, hut Lee had 476 out of 499 votes.
and, therefore, the box was thrown out. be-
cause the boz was sent to the Counting Board
without . written certificate authorizing them
to deliver II. In another precinct the box
was stuffed with democratic tissue ballots.
Having discovered their presence, the DEM
ocratic managers restored them to the box
and drew out enough honest republican votes
to make up for the excess. Afterward the
whole boz was excluded. In other precints
IN this county the came methods were used.
In one Of them thirty-one tissue ballots for
Richardson were found folded in an honest
ballot. The frauds committed were in the
interest Of the democrats, but they served as
pretexts for throwing out boxes, or the boxes
were rejected on the technical ground already
mentioned, although the managers were gem
orally all democrats. At Browns Ferry 296
votes were cast, about two-thirds of them for
Lee, and COG were found In the box. All the
managers were democrats, and they at first
proposed to count the tissue ballots. which
were found in the boxes in packages. The
managers then proposed to burn the box, but
II was preserved and rejected by the county
canvsssers. The boz was sent to this city,
and 10 in the custody of the committee on
elections. The report gives Lee Q majority
of 23l0 in this county,
The Sumpter county canvassers gave Rich.
ards0n I'll majority, but the report gives
Lee 1877 majority. At one precinct the
stairway leading to the box was crowded BY
white men who prevented colored republicans
from going up. Knives were used upon
those who tried to reach the boz, and they
were told ''this was no damned republican
poll" In another precinct Mr.. Richardson
admits that Lee received 400 votes. while
be received only nine, but the canvassers
ignored the whole vote. In Maysville 22l
fraudulent ballots were discovered, in bun
dies 90 large that they could not have been
put in through the hole in the lid. They
were al democratic ballots. and the managers
vsre all democrats, but to reduce this fraud.
ulent surplus l&7 honest republican votes
were taken out. At Concord Precinct there
was singular condition of things. No one
dbputes the fact that not one republican
voted there. Republicans refused to vote
because they believed that the box had been
stuffed. When the box was opened Al fraud
ulent democratic ballots we're found This
showed that the fraud had been planned be.
foschand by the democrats. At Rafting
Creek Precinct there were three democratic
mAnagers. One broke his arm and the other
ten appointed . colored republican in his
place. There was . fair election, and Lee