People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1895-10-25
ANSWER TO BOYKIN.
HON. j. Il. HOGAN OF THE
COUNTY OF LINCOLN
TELLS The PLAIN TRUTH
And Puts the Letter Of the Au-
gusta FraudOcrat Under
Foot.

knowing that the Augusta Demo
Gratis have sought to justify, or at least.
Dalliate the open and fragrant frauds
committed in Eichmond and Hancock
counties at the recent special congress
sional election in the Tenth district, by
the assertion that equal frauds were
committed in Lincoln and other Popu-
lists counties. We sought an interview
with Hon. j. R. Hogan, of Lincoln,
whose word goes without question
wherever he is known.
'Mr. Hogan, tell us something about
the charge of currhption made against
the Populists in your county by Mr..
Boyl1in Wright in his letter TO the At
lanta Constitution some three weeks
ago?''
Mr.. Hogan-"C Changing fraud against
the Populists is a repetition of the old
fable of the wolf accusing the lamb
which was below him of muddying the
stream. How could the Populists COM
init fraud, if they had the will too do so,
when the Democrats had control of the
registration machinery"
''Mr. Wright, in his letter, says that
his Legal Advisory Board, in their great
desire to give the Populists no just
grounds of complaint, rendered decis-
ion which enabled Lincoln county to
pole six hundred fraudulent votes.
How about it ?"
1.-THE fewlDemocrats of Lincoln county
like their brethren in Richmond, en-
ployed board of legal advisors, which
consisted of my friend Joe Strother, of
Lincoln, and Representative Fogarty,
OF Augusta. These gentlemen with
more zeal than legal wisdom, Matched
the following plot to disfranchise sew
eral hundred Populist voters: They all
rised the Democratic registrars shat all
names PLACED on the inve stigation list
ard not examined should not be allow
ed to vote, and also that such districts
as were not reached by the time of
closing the books should be entirely
disfranchised. The registrars went to
work in this manner. They took up
certain district, and whenever they
came to name which they thought
that should be or could be thrown out
they placed the name on list for future
investigation. 1t was plainly their
purpose to do this work so slowly, that
the time should expire before all the
districts could be examined For in
stance, my own district, which con-
tanned but three registered Democrats
and one hundred and fifty Populists
was not reached at all, and according
to the plans of Messrs. Strother and
Fogarty would have BIER completely
disfranchised thus losing the Popu-
lists one hundred and fifty votes while
the Democrats lost but three. Now
when Mr.. Fogarty returned to Augusta,
he was informed that he had made
terrible blunder, that under the law,
every man swho had not been legally
summoned to appear before the regis
trars and given hearing to show his
rights to remain on the voters list,
would be entitled to vote. Hence, Mr..
Fogarty came back to Lincolnton in
hot haste, bringing two men with him,
whom he said were expert clerks, and
volunteered their assistance to the reg
istrars to help finish up their work.
Mr.. Fogarty and his clerks were noti-
fed that their services were not needed
in Lincoln county and they returned
to Augusta. Boyizin Wright knew
when he wrote that letter that his
charge of fraud in Lincoln was false.
He was sore because Strother and Fo-
garty's scheme to unlawfully disfran-
chise several hundred Lincoln county
Populists had proved such dismal fail
IRE and they had been 'hoisted with
their own petard. WhenFogarty return
ed to Lincoln and notified Joe Strother
and the Democratic registrars that Joe
Cumming and the other Augusta law
yers had declared the scheme to dis
franchise the Lincoln Populists was too
plain violation of law for even par
tisan Democratic judge to tolerate,
the registrars walked up and went to
work like fighting fire and sent out sew
eral hundred summons to different par
ties whose names had been previously
placed on the investigating list. The
right of all those who were summond
to vote was investigated and about so
names were stricken, nearly half of
whom were Democrats. All that talk
about.a row with Mr.. Fogarty and his
clerks and the use.of shot guns is false.
There is no county in Georgia more
law-abidipg than Lincoln. Suppose a
committee of Lincoln Populists had
gone to Augusta and offered to take