The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-02-05
ELECTION OUTRAGES.
Recommendations of the Senate Committee
Concerning the Texas Cases.

Recommendations of the Senate Committee
Concerning the Texas Cases.
WASHINGTON, Feb. Ex-senator Evarts,
from the committee on privileges and cleo
tions made a report, to-day. of the results
of the investigation into the alleged cleo
tion outrages in Washington county, Texas
The first conclusion the committee reaches
is that the averments of the petitioners
as to their situation in their homes in
Texas, and the occasion of their being COM
PEELED to flee fir om them are, in substance
and effect, sustained by the evidence. AS
to the suppression of the vote at the Chapel
Hill districts, the committee thinks it is
chargeable to the leaders of the opposition
ticket, and others in that interest, the
motive being to discourage and suppress
the Republican vote there, and to the
colored Republican voters being unwilling
to expose themselves to the fate which was
visited upon the colored judges of election
at Chapel Hill in 1884.
At the Flewellyn polls, Devices Bolton,
who headed raiding party that entered
the polling precinct in disguise for the pur-
pose of destroying the ballot-box, was shot
and killed. The report says:
All in the room fed at once in dismay and the
all night, the lamp burning brightly. Toward
morning, presiding Judge Robinson persuaded
an aged colored man, his neighbor, Alfred Jones,
him to the scene Of the homicide, on the plea
that he was afraid to go alone. This man had no
knowledge OF the bloody occurrence until In
formed OF it by Robinson, but their visit to the
dead body, which had been untouched, the In
spection of the corpus deficit, and observation
of the scene of the transaction cost him his life
a ig riSa fto
Of his fall
to make out Bolton an unarmed, undisguised, i,i-
nOcent and peaceful visitor to the polling places
and slain by unprOvoked violence of the cOlored
upon no conceivable incentive but to make away
with his testimony.
As to the murder of the two JOneses and
Fielder, by mob, who took them out of Jail
at Brenham and hanged them, the COM
mittee says, after reviewing the testimony:
These murders were each committed upon the
motive and in the interest of the policy and pur-
pose that had c0untenanced and caused the raids
fee of these worthy and biameess lives Was sscL, de
manded, for the suppression of their evidence,
which would have demonstrated the death of
Bolton as Detailing him in the act of a precOn-
certed attack upon the bal0t-b0x at Flewellyn's
TO defeat the election Of the Republican ticket.
The committee cannot find any escape from this
conclusion upon the whole body and weight of
the testimony. The evidence before the commit
tee showed that no attempts were made by the
authorities of the county OF Washington or OF the
State of Texas to bring to Indictment, trial or
punishment any of the actors in the several
'.raids' on the ballot-boxes at the election of
1886. No such attempt had been made in re-
and the shooting Of the colored judges of
election at Chapel Hill, in the election Of 1884.
The wrath of this community was all excited,
and was all visited upon the white and colored
Republicans who had striven at the polls TO as
sert the will Of the majority to decide, by their
votes and the canvass of them, the pending cleo
ton.
In conclusion, the committee says:
This actual case presents, not unfairly, the
features that illustrate tho political disorders
population Is at all nearly divided between white
and eolored citizens. These disorders do not
alone disturb and threaten the good fame and
security of the neighborhoods where they occur,
OF the States within whose borders these
disastrous mischiefs pass unchecked, un-
redressed, and uncondemned They tend TO
weaken and set back the sincere desire
of the country at large to obliterate
all distinctions as between geographical or poti-
cal divisions in the prevalence of Justice, peace,
good will and equality OF right In discussing and
solving all the problems which affect the welfare
OF this great people. No greater element for the
formation of q sound public opinion can be sug-
gested than that a wider and wider spread should
be given to q knowledge of and an interest in
the real nature of this and similar proceedings
wherever they may occur. Brought into the
light where 'aithousand inteIlige may burn
upon IL" the truth viii surely force these evils
and dangers anywhere in this country, and their