The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-06-14
. The Flerida Election Frauds.

lT1Elne St0ry OF the bourbon election
frauds imthe First Florida District con-
tains a,double wrong. a. The outrage. of
an unfair election was first committed,
and then the second outrage was com
mitted of depriving the candidate who
was fairly elected from establishing his
right to. his lssat!by legal proofs before
the House Committee on Elections. The
contestant for, the. seat is Mr., Wither-
spoon. a, colored man, horn, q slave. a
Presiding Elder of the, Methodist
Church. q member for ten successive
years of the Florida, Legislature, and a
man OF good character and ability, In
his case it is stated that the House COM
mittee, viii recommend thatIa special
committee be sent to Florida to inyesti-
gate, the, frauds and. the conspiracy of
! the Bourbons to prevent him from, oon-
testing the right of his competitor, Da-
wilson, to q seat. - v.vy u .>I,;,7 (
Mr. Witherspoon's statement is an
extremely interesting one, as showing
the different styles of. Bourbon frauds
In his own county there is q registered
Republican majority of l, 800 votes.
The. County, Commissioners, All Bour-
bons, met and in four days time struck
on the names of i, ,623 qualified voters,
of whom but thirty were Democrats
These electors were notified, and under
the. law they. appeared with, two wit
nesses,, to get themselves reinstated.
| The Bourbon Commissioners construed
the. law as requiring white witnesses,
and out of those stricken off only fifty
names were restored. As one example
of the audacity of the Bourbon Commits
sioners, : Mr.. Witherspoon relates the
following incident; - ,,..iai -. r.,it
The, Chairman Of the, jefferson County
ths, United States District Court for, violation
Struck @ Re on WIS that of BafinseFs @ coachian, %% n
who has been IN his employ fifteen years. The
s he Se IS 81 s
how many years he had lived in the precanct
the Commissioners. denied his applieation, al
knew that for sfteen Years the man had been
| in his. own employ. ~, ! yGw o1ut5C [c.SE 4
las Throughout. the. entire district over
| five thousand names of properly-quali-
], tied Republicans We're. thus arbitrarily
and without cause struck from the lists
Large numbers of them appeared at the
polls aud offered to swear in, their votes
according to law, but; it. was of no avail.
The inspectors declared that the regis
try was ., the only: evidence, and they
| would not take any otheri thus no votes
Il NClO cWOth lkAlLCl lCAAAON A<kAhCc
| from the lists in this manner and then
refusing to allow the electors to swear
their votes in, they capped the climax
of outrage by the use of the tissue paper
| ballots, large numbers of which were
| frapduiently deposited in the boxes, the
4 yotein some instances far exceeding the
number of names upon the registry
| lsr BY Tsuch,. q combination of loutrages
Mr.. Witherspoon was deprived of, the
certificate of election, which was given
] to his competitor, Davidson, The, Bour-
bon cpnspirators then went to work to
| prevent Mr.. Witherspoon from present
1 ing the proper. legal pools of his claim
j to the seat before the Elections Commit
] tee of the House, An the Justices and
Notaries are appointed by the Governor,
and can. be removed by him. After 8
/ long search he found, one Justice who
/ was willing TO fake the dispositions ,oi
| his witnesses, but the hearing had hard
j " commenced before the, Governor got
wind of, it and removed the Justice. ; A
4 County Judge afterward declared it to
I be an outrage, and agreed to take
the depositions, but the Bourbons
I Immediately brought such . pressure to
bear upon him that he abandoned it.
| Unable to find any one else. Mr.. Wither-
4 spoons witnesses returned home with.
out testifying.- After great diff Guilty he
,sncceeded in obtaining the consent of 9
lawyer in. Tallahassee to take charge Of
1.-THE case; He gave him all the papers
he had and paid him in advance. and
1 went to Washington, While there he
heard nothing from his. lawyer, except
that his competitor had been in close
consultation with him. The result, in
1 short, was that his lawyer did nothing
4 for him, and not only would not give up
the papers, but has paid no attention tc
an order from the Elections Comfnittee
1 to produce them. ~.
7 @ 1t appears from. this story, which has
Impressed not only. the Republican but
the Democratic members Of the Commit.
ftee with its truth, that the, Florida Bour.
I bofis, from the Governor down 10 the
| Justices, and attorneys even, have been
engaged In an infamous conspiracy to
fcheat him ont of the Seat WHICH clearly
belongs to him. Under such circuln-
stances, the least that the HoHse can dc
Is to order an Investigation, and order il
promptly. If it We're possible to obtain
any ything like strict jnstice, Mr.. Wither-
spoon would mot only be granted his
\, seat bnt every one connected. with the
| conspiracy to. swindle him out of il
would do the State service inside the
walls. of q apenitentiaiy, but this wogld
/ be q triumph of justice that would as
1tound even the most cheerful optinriSt
in these days ,of. outrage. fraud and COR
rnption, - ChicGgl Iri6itile. s. Il i.-,f