The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-31
In Five States More than 1000 Votes We're
Not POlled at All. or if Put in the Bal
lOt-BOxes We're Not Counted.
An Alabama Democrat Sent to Congress
by DISTINGUISHING 10000 Voters.
Mr. Randall Reaches Nashville on His South
ern Tour, and Addresses a Large
Audience at the Opera House.
SOUTHERN ELECTION oUrRAGEs.

How Six Hundred Thousand Voters Are Dis
franchised-A sample Case in Alabama.
5cial to the indianapolis journal.
WASHINGTON, Dec 30.-Speaking of election
lrages in the South, and some of the noted
cc.ltests in the House of Representatives Gen
eral Browne, of Indiana, said to Journal cor
respondent tonight:
THAT Southern Democrats do not intend the
vote of the colored man to be counted in any
election where it will influence the result is an
undisguised fact The average politician does
not hesitate to proclaim this purpose and to back
it up with the logic of antebellum days, that the
negro is ignorant, without property, and inferior
to the lordly Saxon. The disfranchsement of the
negro in the South is complete and is the re-
suit of deliberate purpose. The result
of the recent election demonstrates this. The
census of 1880 gives the five Southern States of
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and
South Carolina a voting population of !, ,242, 472
Ofthese 623 392 were white and 619, 039 were col
ored. At the late presidential election Cleve-
land Blaine and all other presidential candidates
received total vote Of 623, 1877 in these States
or 205 votes less than the white vote. Only one
half of the vote of the South was polled, or, if
polled, counted. Is it not surprising
that there should be so great a
shrinkage at an election when the
parties made such extraordinary effort to poll
the last votel Here is a loss of about 600. 900
votes in five States. Who failed to votel 1t was
not the white voter. Whose vote was not count
edl Again, it was not that of the white man. Now,
Contrast this vote of these Southern States
with that of FIVE Northern States containing,
Take Kansas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New Jer-
sey and Connecticut The census of 1880 gives
these States 1897 COZ voters At the late cleo
tion they cast 12Ol, 3O3 votes, loss of only &C.,
300, against $4,000 in the five Southern
States named
Again, the average vote, rs cast to repre-
sentative district in the South, is "a 500; in the
North, "a, 500, or 10000 more Why is the full
vote South not cast2 The Oxford Miss Falcon,
in recent issue says that the Southern people
hsg 'otermined to stand together and have con
troll of the Offices of the government, although
they are forced to sacrifice some of the constitu-
tional rights of their former slaves in the at
tempt 1t then proceeds
1.-The Southern people, and, in fact none of
the Anglo Saxon race viii submit to be domi-
neered over by any other Ice of people, and the
NOrJnefn people cannot reailZe the truth OF this
tact, because their oppositions are between
whites and whites, and not between whites and
blacks. We know that there have been numer-
Gus election frauds in the South, and that the
colofed mans vote has not been fairly counted,
but we do not think he has yet reared himself to
position where his voice should have equal
weight with ours
This utterance,' continued Gen. Browne, lis
from the home organ of Senator Lamar, and is
approved by the whole Southern Democracy. 1t
sounds the note OF warning The constitutional
right of the colored voter is to be deliberately
sacrificed. Many are the devices by which his
vote is now utterly disregarded. AS the mob of
armed men, the murderous assault with shot
gun election day, has not yet become popular
with the body of the law-abiding Northern
people, these methods have been measurably
abandoned and more peaceful, but no less
effective ones substituted. The tissue ballot,
stuffed ballot boxes, and shameless frauds by
election boards have taken the place of force.
These do the work quite as surely, and are less
offensive to the sensitive.
A SAMPLE CASE.
''The contested election case of Craig against
Shelley from the Fourth congressional district
of Alabama, now pending is one in which
the colored mans vote was not only not
fairly counted but not counted at ALL
The record discloses a shameless disregard of
right and law This district is composed Of the
counties of Dallas, Hale, Lowndes, Perry and
Wilcox, and is Republican on fair count by
10 900 majority. The returning boards declared
that at the November election OF 1882 Shelley,
Democrat, was elected over Craig, his Repub-
lican competitor, by plurality of 2, 724. To Sc
t1a hoa nd
wholly the vote of some sixty townships for rea-
sons so technical as to be ridiculous. The ac-
tion of these guardians of free election and q
fair count eyinces a willingness to sacrifice
some of the constitutional rights of
their former slaves rather than that
the white Democrat should be 'domineered over
by the election of Republican Congress- The
report of the committee on elections in this case
shows that in Dallas county fifteen townships
were thrown out, and in these Shelley received
eighty four votes and Craig 2507 votes In
Lowndes there were nine precincts cast over
board, giving Shelley 27l and Craig zoos votes
and ten townships were rejected in Wilcox, Civ
ing Shelley 2Sl and Craig 2, 099 In the other coun
ties were like results. To count Shelby in it
was only necessary to reject 10000 or
more Republican votes and the cleo
ton boards were equal to the emergency In
rejecting polls from the count they very wisely
Disseminated in favor of the Democratic eandi-
date. These voters were dsfranchised as found
by the committee, upon such frivolous pretexts
these; Because the poll lists were not signed;
because the polls were not opened until after |
o'clock; because there was no formal statement |
of the poll in the box; because the names of the
inspectors seemed all to have been written in the
same hand writing; because the returns were