Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1883-11-27
by Telegraph to the Despatch. !

[By Telegraph TO the Despatch.l
DANvILLE, VA, November 21.-The
committee of forty appointed at meeting
of the citizens on the 10th instant to inquire
into all the facts and publish full and true
statement of the causes and circumstances
| leading to the riot here on the Sd instant,
and also statement of the conduct of the
people from that date to the close of the
day of the election, concluded its labors this
evening. Thirty-seven witnesses were ex-
amined, the last testimony taken covering
about eighty pages, to be hereafter publish
ed. The report is signed by Major W. T.
| Sutherlin, chairman, and the balance of
the forty. The committee reports, almost
word for word, as follows:
That on the 18th instant the committee
organized and appointed a proper sub-com-
mittee, and by the publication in the Daily
Register requested all persons having infor-
nation of the matters to be investigated to
appear before the subcommittee, at the Of
flee of a notary public, and testify as to such
matters; that said subcommittee attend
regularly at said office from the morning of
the 18th till the evening of the 21st, during
which time thirty-seven witnesses were
duly sworn and deposed before said COM
mittee. The witnesses so deposing were,
for the most part, known to the committee
personally, and represented all classes and
vocations among our citizens including two
policemen present at the riot, who were ex-
ertlng themselves to quell the same. All
these witnesses Whose names are signed to
their depositions) are known to the citizens
of Danville, and will be recognized as intel
ligent and thoroughly reliable. After q
careful and impartial consideration of the
evidence taken, your committee submits
the following statement of facts developed
thereby:
First. That by their success in the cleo
ton of large majority of their party NOM
inees to town offices in the May election of
1882, and the subsequent appointment by
the Council so elected of negro policemen,
as well as by the conduct of officials so
elected, there were engendered in the minds
of the negroes of Danville the belief that as
against white men they would receive the
support and protection of the municipal
government; in consequence of which belief
they became rude, insolent, and intolerant
to the white citizens, aud bad temper and
;l-feeling between the races thus generated
continued to Increase, and was of late great
ly aggrava ed by the heated political canvass
preceding the last election, and that in the
midst of the intense excitement of the last
days ofthe canvass William E. Sims, Goa
liIion candidate for the Senate from Pitt
sylvania county and Danville, made in front
of the courthouse of the town, on the night
of the I'd of November, a most incendiary
and violent speech to more than 500 negroes.
in which he denounced many of the most
respectable and prominent white citizens
of the town as 'liars, scoundrels, and cow
ards' because oftheir exposure of the evils of
negro rule in Danville.
) cond. That on the morning following
the night of Sims's speech the excitement of
the blacks and whites alike was violent and
acrimonious, and among the negroes there
was an evident expectation of conflict; that
about midday two negroes insnlted white
man on the public streets and engaged him
in fight, which was ended by the white
man going away; that at least two hours
later in the day, and while large portion
of the men of Danville were assembled at
the Opera House in public meeting, the
same white man, when in buggy and on
his way out of town, was again loudly and
repeated y called on ana insulted hy one of
the negroes with whom he had been previ-
ously fighting during the day. and he there
upon Gin spite of his previ0usiy-expressed
determination not to engage in further diff
Guilty, because of the then public excite
ment), having called two friends to insure
fair play, and assuring them he would use
no weapon, engaged in a fisticuff upon the
street with negro; that during this fight
large number of negroes gathered around,
but were kept from interfering by the two
friends Of the white man until a policeman
arrived, when the combatants were separat-
ed, and each was taken away from the
street; that short time thereafter the ne
| groes assem- bled in large numbers around
the two friends OF the white man and some
ten or fifteen other whites who had gather
ed about them, and with loud ordinations
and great violence of manner asserted their
determination to have their rights, and
their belief that conflict between them
selves and the whites was inevitable, and
had as well come then as at any other day.
as well as their readiness for it at that time:
that these negroes, numbering not less than
two hundred in open defiance of the au-
thOrity of policemen, who repeatedly COM
manded them to disperse, and in disregard
of he persuasions of white men who uni
ted with the policemen in their efforts to
diSperse Them continued to press upon the
few white men in front of them, and to ex-
hibit kre-arms and proclaim themselves
ready for conflict, until the policemen retir-
ed to the rear of the whites, whereupon fir
! ing commenced ON both sides, and after
some forty or fifty shots the negroes dis
persed; that about seven negroes were
wounded four of whom died, and two white
men seriou- ly. but not moltally; that the |
white man most seriously wounded was
certainly shot by a negro, and the other
white man most probably; that more ne
groes were seen with pistols in their hands |
during the firing than there were white men
present at the commencement, and that the
meeting of white citizers assembled at the
adi vi r. IL
most part did not reach the street until af
ter all the firing was over; that very soon
after the firing the Sergeant appeared upon
the streets and, with the aid of prominent
white citizens, restored peace and good Or
der which were not afterwards violated ex-
cept by the wounding of a white man on du-
ty that night as a special policeman by a
shot fired from behind the house of negro
mau.
Third. That from within one-half an
hour after the commencement of the riot the
town was completely under the control of
the Sergeant and his police force, and that
no further disturbance Of the peace and
good order, except the shooting of the
special policeman as stated above, occurred,
and that such peace and good order con-
tinued to prevail up to and including the |
day of election that on Sunday prominent |
and circulated, and also on day preced- |
ing the election, circulars signed by them
selves and by the superintendent of both
political parties, guaranteeing to each and
every citizen, without regard to color or
party, the free right Of voting; that no vio-
lence, threats, nor intimidation whatever
was shown towards negro, Coalition voters,
bus, on the contrary, such voters were re-
peatedly assured by citizens, policemen,
and the military officers sent to Danville |
by the Governor of the State, that they
would be protected in their right to vote as
they chose; that election-day was quiet and
without any disturbance or difficulty at any
precinct or elsewhere n the town, and the |
election honestly conducted, and free and
fair in all respects; and that the negroes as
body RETAINED from voting under the ad-
vice and command of their larty-leaders,
while others voted the Coalition ticket with