The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-11-02
Nicholas Chronicle

Nicholas Chronicle
| Ever since November, 1888, tn,
Republicans of this State have beef
bitterly and maliciously accusing
the Democracy of trying, by fraudu
lent methods, to cheat them out o
the Governor and three members o.
Congress. The Republican press
venal and mercenary to the bacl
bone, have iterated and reiterated
this baseless and inex cusable Sian
der, and held up to public view al
martyrs Golf and his henchman Nc
Ginnis. Men and women have sen
up wall over the fate of the herr
Of the"broad shield" while from tn,
recesses of the sinner circle" dow
in Kanawha, to the grimy regions o
the Mercer and Mcdowell mines, /,
sympathetic sigh for Mac has sweep
over the Third Congressional Dis
trict. To be sure it looked like de
faint audacity in Fleming and AL
derson to disturb the patriotic equan
unity Of the coal mining negroes OIL
doubt even for a moment the trans
cendant honor of any Republican
voter, white or black.
10 will interest the public to know
how the. "fair count and free vote
theory of the Republicans worked
in part of this district. 1t will be
remembered that Fleming challenged
1000 votes given to Golf and that Of
these over 700 were cast in the Third
district. AS the cases of Fleming
and Anderson are similar, as far as
the voting went, we present from the
printed record of the case of McGin-
mis- against Anderson few items Of
evidence to which we call public at
tention.
H. B. Barber, deputy clerk of the
Mercer county court, testified that
the pollbooks on file in his Office,
showed that the vote for Congress
man in Mercer county in 1886 was
1864 In 1888 the vote was 2,777.
an increase of 1928 in two years,
This increase was in Rock district,
in which the Mercer county mines
are located. A great many negroes
were indicted for illegal voting the
result of which was that in the cleo
ton in May, 1889, the vote decreased
to 1908, Rock district gave the in
crease and in it occurred the de-
crease.
S. M. Williamson, bookkeeper and
paymaster for Henry Fairfax, rail
road contractor on the Norfolk and
Western railroad, in the counties of
Mercer and Mcdowell, was sworn
and said that hands were employed
in Virginia. The cost of transpor-
tation was paid for those hands and
a book was kept in which all their
names were recorded. The book
shows that so of those negroes
brought by Fairfax to West Virgin
ia, within the year preceding the
election held on the 9th day of No
vember, 1888, voted for McGinnis.
w. H. H. Witten, Assessor of
Mercer county, swore that he listed
for capitation tax, in Rock district,
said county. white 564, colored 81.
In the mining regions he spent two
weeks and was careful and diligent
in the discharge of his duty, and
was informed by the great majority
of the negroes that they paid taxes,
voted and had their homes in Vir-
ginia. At the November election in
1888, the number of votes cast in
Rock district was 1,l45; in other
words, 500 persons more voted in
Rock District than were on the As
SCISSORS books, and all these were ne
groes. In 1885 the Democratic vote
in this district was 314, increased TO
407 in 1888. In 1886 the Republi-
can vote in the same district was
165, increased to 1876 in 1888, the
Democratic gain "a, the Republi-
can gain 572.
Thirtyseven negroes, regist, red
in Tazewell county, Virginia, as vot-
ers, voted at Simmons creek pre-
cinct and Mill creek precinct, in
Rock district, Mercer county. Thir-
ty-four negroes on the pay rolls in
Pocahontas, Virginia, voted at the
same precincts.
James B. Cyphers, Deputy Asses
sor of Mcdowell county, assessed the
mining section in Elkhorn district,
swore that So negroes, who voted at
Peery's Bottom, were not on the
Assessors books. At Mayberry
precinct, same county, 70 negroes
voted whose names were not on the
Assessors books. Mr.. Cyphers was
very exact and administered an oath
to all the negroes he could find, but
two excepted. His evidence is clear
and strong. In the above two pre-
cincts 134 negroes voted who had
no residence in this State and whose
names were not listed by the Asses
sor in 1888. Thus it may be seen
that in the mining districts, in Mer-
Ger AMI Mcdowell counties, 654 ne
groes who swore they lived and vot-
ed in Virginia cast their votes for
McGinnis.
Mr.. j. H. Bramwell, for whom the
town of Bramwell is called, is one of
the head men in the mining region
and very aggressive Republican.
He is like all influential men of his
party, man of advanced ideas and
scrupulously careful of that brittle
commodity Republican honor. He
possesses the vicious principle, how
ever, that anything tending to give
triumph to his party let it be ever SO
offensive and foul, is exceedingly
fair On the day of election, al
though his home is in Roanoke, Vir-
ginia, he tried to vote in Mcdowell,
and being refused to do so there, he
HE'D over to Mercer and voted Nc
Dowell county ticket. These items,
taken from the records, are true.
We earnestly invite the attention of
the people Of West Virginia to a
close reading of them. We ask our
contemporaries, all over the State,
in behalf the party, to present this
evidence to their readers and so put
a stop to Misrepresentation and
falsehood. In the history of politi-
cal fraud and depravity, nothing can
be found so low and debased as what
we have reciteo. May the day soon
dawn on us that will usher in the
decency and manhood of the earlier
dave IF TIM ron,rbl;o