The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-09-10
DoUBTERS. READ.

Notwithstanding the proofs that have
been made from time to time in many
parts of Virginia our elections have ceased
to be elections, and have become nothing
but what set of corrupt election officers
determined to make them, there are still
many V1rginians who refuse to believe
that this fact. We propose to furnish
these with some proofs now that ought
to open the eyes of the most obstinate
man.
AT the last Congressional election
(November, 1S9Q r. Il. Thorp was the
Republican candidate and w. r. McKen-
ney was the Democratic candidate in the
Fourth Congressional district of this
State. The district is well-known to be
overwhelmingly Republican, having
Republican majority in it ranging from
5,0uO to 5000. Nevertheless, Mt this cleo
tion, although j. Haskins Hobson ran as
the Popuiist candidate and got his vote
chiefly, if not entirely, from quandam
Dem ocrats, and received 1,116 votes, Nc
Kenny was returned elected by a plural
ity of S64 votes. Thorp contested his
election upon the ground that the cleo.
ton officers had corruptly suppressed
his vote and increased McKenney's His
notice of contest specified the places
where the corrupt acts had been perform
ed, and in what they consisted. He took
the dispositions of many witnesses, and
he completely proved the case that he
had charged. McKenney contented him.
self with simple denial of the acts
charged, and he did not take the testi-
mony Of II single witness to refute the
charges that Thorp made, or to disprove
the evidence of the witnesses produced
by him. 1t is conceded on all hands that
the case was heard by an impartial cleo
tions committee of Congress that investi-
gated all the cases submitted to it with
entire impartiality. There were on this
committee two representatiI es from Vir
ginia, one, Gen. James y. Walker, Il Re-
publican, and the other, William a.
Jones, Democrat. The committee
unanimously found, however, that Thorp
had been cheated out of his election and
that he had proved the charges as made
by him. The report of the committee
was written by General Walker, and Mr..
Jones, compelled to acQuiesce in the I'M
seating of Mr. McKenney and the seating
of Mr.. Thorp. could say nothing what
ever in justification of what the election
officers had done.
We shall, this morning, quote the fol-
lowing from the report of the elections
committee, and thus, from day to day,
we shall quote from the record proof of
| what the officers Of election did, so rs to
| show that there was no election at all in
| that district. The extract is rs follows:
cit is unnecessary to cite law or au-
| thorities further than has already been
| done to show the right of the contestant
to seat in the Fifty fourth Congress-
1.-The refusal of the electoral boards in
the several counties and cities in this dis
trict to appoint Republican judges at
precincts where it was possible to do so;
alienation of the names of the candi-
dates upon the tickets, printing them in
unusual type, and in type of different
sizes and styles; the appointment of
Democratic otiice-holders as judges, con-
stables and clerks at many precincts; the
| appointment of illiterate, Incompetence
| Republican judges at other precincts;
the refusal of the special constables to
| assist illiterate voters as the law required
them to do; the illegal and arbitrary nc
ton of the judges and officers of election
in driving Republican tally-keepers from
the vicinity of the polls with threats OF
| violence and imprisonment; refusing to
permit Republican to be present at the
counting of the votes, and placing the
name of an illiterate and obscure negro
upon the tickets as q pretended candidate
for Congress, furnish conclusive evidence
of conspiracy on the part of the cleo
ton officers to defraud the voters, which
discharge the integrity of their act and
taintS the returns so as to render them
wholly unreliable, and involves upon TIE
contestee the duty of proving what was
the true state of the polls, which, as WE
have seen, he has not attemptd to do. y
Richmond Times.