The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-09-14
EXPOSED.
The Fraud in Mercer County
Laid Open.
A fostering SORE PROBED.
Conclusive Evidence Before the
Contest Committee
AS TO SCORES or ILLEGAL VOTES.
Every Vote Thrown Out in Mercer
County Was on Convincing Testi.
mOny-Sample Cases Of Corrupt
WOrk-Mr. Morris Pecu-
liar Career i'm the
Committee.

WOrk-Mr. MOTIFS Pecu-
liar Career i'm the
Committee.
| Special Correspondence of the Register.
TERRA ALTA, w. Va, Sept. e.
The Gubernatorial Contest Commit
tee is nearing the end of it's labors.
and it becomes more and more evil
dent that the frauds conceived and
perpetrated by Republican leaders
in the Southern section of the State
will be thoroughly uncovered. The
evidence before the committee is
sufficient to convince any man who
is capable of conviction that there
was systematic effort to vote non
residents in Mercer and Mcdowell
counties; and in view of the repeat
ed and scurrilous attacks made on
the majority Of the committee, as
well as the partisan statements made
by member of the minority, it is
nothing but fair to review the testi-
mony in the Mercer county cases.
These have been passed upon and
are the object of the most virulent
assault from the disappointed dema-
gogues, who have seen their plans
foiled by the action of the commit
tee. The representative of the Reg
lister has had an opportunity to ex-
anime the testimony in these cases,
and paid particular attention to the
votes, which the committee threw
out.
THE SITUATION IN MERCER AND NJ DOW
ELL COUNTIES.
Outside of the individual cases,
the proofs of fraud in the large col
ored vote polled in Mercer and Nc
dowell counties is so strong that he
who runs may read. No elaboration
is needed to produce conviction; a
simple statement of the conditions
under which the election was held,
and the facts as set forth in the tes-
timony, should be sufficient. Up to
within a very recent period neither
Mercer nor Mcdowell county had
more than very scattering colored
population. The inhabitants were
hardy, simple farmers, and there
was little demand for day labor of
any kind
With the coming of the Norfolk q
Western railroad and the inception
of new enterprises in the last few
years, and notably within few
months preceding the election of
1888, great demand for laborers
was created, and colored men from
North Carolina and Virginia flocked
in by the scores and hundreds
Tazewell, Giles and Bland counties,
in Virginia, furnished the most of
these men. They had spent their
lives in the mines and on the rail
roads, and came into Mercer and
Mcdowell to seek similar work.
Four large coal and coke companies,
which located in that section very
recently, gave employment to the
majority of them. Others found
work on the extension of the rail
road into Mcdowell county, but out.
side of the mines and railroads, the
testimony of hundred witnesses
show that there was practically
NO NEGRO POPULATION
in either of these counties, and no
employment for them if there had
been. The mines in Tazewell .oun-
ty. Virginia, also employed large
number of men. These we're situated
only a short distance from the West
Virginia mines, and men changed
from one to the other readily. The
town of Pocahontas, in Virginia,
where nine-tenths of the colored
mine laborers lived, is within three
miles of the Mercer county mines,
and the negroes working in Mercer
county still kept their homes in Vir-
ginia. and went from one State to
the other daily. Others were single
men, who worked first at one mine,
then at another, and as the evidence
proves, would be employed in three
or four different collieries in Virginia
and West Virginia, within the same
number of months. Dozens of cases
are sworn to before the committee,
wherein men are on the pay roll of
West Virginia colliery for one
month, and on the pay roll of a Vir
ginia or North Carolina colliery the
succeeding month. Other colored
miners continued steadily in West
Virginia for longer periods, but made
no effort to establish citizenship,
and still claimed their residences
and were registered in Virginia.
Under such conditions it is easy
to see how the door was thrown open
to fraud. The mine operators in
that section of Mercer county are
Republicans to man. Either with
or without their connivance great
numbers of their employees went to
the polls, swore in their votes if nee
essary, and deposited straight Re
publican tickets. At least five hun
dred such votes were cast in Mercer
county alone, and where in 1886
there was a heavy Democratic ma
jority, there was a slight Republican
majority in 1888.
THE PROOFS OF THE FRAUD.
There is one convincing fact to
show that these people never be-
came legal voters in this State, and
never were so considered. Over five
hundred votes were cast by colored
men employed in the mines in Mer-
Ger county, and yet, of these five
hundred, the names of only fifty nine
are found on the assessors books
for 1888. The assessment Of other
citizens of the county was accurate
and thorough. 1t is inconceivable
that county officer who was ac-
quainted with his duty should over
look AL voters out of five hundred,
if those voters were citizens of the
State and they were subject to taxa
ton.
A CONFESSION OF GUILT.
There is still another fact before
the committee, which amounts to a
confession of fraud. When the sur
prising returns were received from
Mercer and Mcdowell counties,
Democratic organs and leaders at
once charged that it was the result
Of corrupt work. Judge Fleming
announced his intention to contest,
1. l.. Il - fa,.t