The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1889-01-30


which it was claimed that the defendants
obstructed voting by asking irrelevant
questions and illegal challenging.
Two or three other Witnesses were in
troduced, who corrObOraied the state
ments made by Thompson, and with
whose testimony closed the evidence in
trOduced By the plaintiff.
Mr. II NJ Smith, Jr., one OF the ac-
cused. was put on the stand. lie tesii-
fed that he had been out in Jackson
ward and had acted in the capacity Of
Democratic challenger on several cleo
lions previous 20 the last. Continuing,
he stated that it is a well-recOgnized
fact bv the Democratic party Of Rich
mond that there are a very few Demo
Gratis in Jackson ward, and, in fact, there
are no Democrats out there who VIII
assist the party in this work, and
there are usually number OF
/ gentlemen who volunteer 10 60
out there and act as challengers at every
election" In explanation, he further
stated that IT is a right difficult matter
/ for us to canvass these Jackson ward
precincts, as the negroes are very sus-
picious, and the canyasser who succeeds
on the first day will find the next day
/ that il il known all over the ward that
+ he is trying to get a list of the voters,
and they won't answer single question
/ The other precincts being well organ
/ lied, went ont 10 the nrst precinct
+ jackson ward and when ! got there l
saw great deal of pushing and
showing in the colored line, and the
challenger could hardly hold his book,
which contained list Of The disfranch-
ised voters He said that he would state
that no voter was challenged unless
there was some conflict in the name Of
the person or the number Of his resi-
dence.
lie said that it had been stated that we
had the disqualified lists of counties not
adjoining this and delayed voting by
looking over all of them This is false.
as the onlv lists which we had were
those of the Police Court and Hastings
Court Of the City OF Richmond, and the
+ lists of cOlored voters at precincts border
ing on the city. The reason for the lat
ter is clearly shown when ! state that
prominent Republican of Henrico county
made the boast openly that they had col
onized three hundred negroes in this city,
aad that il would have been impossible
for him to have caused the unnecessary
delay in looking over the disfranchised
lists. as is claimed by the plaintiff, Tor
there was q Republican looking over each
Of his shoulders
in the cross examination he was
asked if he did not see Mr. Belyin pull
man from the polls TO prevent him from
voting. He stated that he did not see
Mr. Belyin put his hand on single Re
publican during the whole day.
Mr. Hughes asked Mr. Smith why
when there were about ], 900 votes regis
tered al this precinct only 43l votes
were cast To which he replied that If
il had been the intent of the challengers
TO reduce the vote az much as they could
within the bounds of the law, that they
could have reduced it to 1870 votes, rs
there are from 1000 TO $500 names Of
colored men in this city who are on
the disfranchsed lists Of the different
courts.
He substantially denied all the state
ments made against him, in which il WAS
charged that he caused delay by asking
/ irrelevant questions and challenging
legal voters
Mr. Smith was on the witness stand
about an hour and half, after which
MR.. BELyIN
was sworn and INTERCEPTED. He stated
that he arrived at the polls about b
O'Clock in the morning and remained
there all day, until about
o'clock in the afternoon; that after
great deal of trouble and with the assist
ance Of the United States marshals, Mr.
Duncan succeeded in getting the negroes
into line As soon as ! began 10 chal-
lenge, there was a general murmur and
a rush, and was pushed and showed
about thirty or forty feet mp Leigh street
from my position al the window, and il
was some fifteen or twenty minutes be-
fore the marshals could get into line
again and stop the noise which occurred
about half-past :.
In reply 10 a question prOpOunded By
counsel. Mr. Belyin said that he did not
take hold of any Republican voter dur
iug the whole day. Al one time col
Ored man came up and offered his vote
Stokes, the cOlOred Judge. not being able
TO find his name, either Mr.. Maddill or
Mr. Allan started 10 pull him out of the
line, but ! insisted on his voting
Finally his name was found and he was
voted
Mr. Allan then got very much ex-
cited and stated that Duncan was causing
all the trouble, and was doing more 10
stop the election than all the Democrats
on the grounds, and that there was
some talk among the Republican leaders
OF trying 20 get this man Duncan away 7
4 cOlOred man named Scott came up 10 /
vote and Mr. Duncan and Mr.. Stokes /
stated that they could not find his name /
upon the books Mr. Allan asked what /.
letter they were looking in and Mr. I
Duncan replied, In the c." Mr.. Allan T.
then said You old fool; suppose you .
look in the letter
Mr. Meredith asked If there was any .
question about that statement, 10 which .
Mr. Belyin replied that there was none .
in the world
Mr. Meredith asked if there was any
grounds for the statement made by the .
witness for the plaintiff that be and Mr .
Harvey Smith publicly boosted over the
number Of votes which they had excluded,
TO which he replied that he was tanned up
up h@dllHt tAN NlANWM ~ Aut UfElOt1
nearly all day, and that he seldom ever
got near to MIR Smith, and that he made
no such statement
Mr.. Duncan threatened him with ar
rest all day, and later in the day he did
have him arrested and the only reason
he assigned was contempt, and after the
polls were closed and the votes were be-
ing counted he stated that he would
make ii all right in the morning. The
commissioners disputed my right to chal-
lenge, and l had appealed TO the judge
of election, who ruled in my favor. This
was the substance of Mr. Belyin's testi-
mony, in which he denied the specific
charges brought against him,
MIR. r. J. COTTRELL,
judge at this precinct, was sworn and
testified: Ii was alleged that Mr. Cot.
trell told David Hill on the day Of cleo
ton that the Republicans would not get p,
In more than 400 vofpa al this prpefuot