Arizona republican., 1899-07-12
FARCE AND A FRAUD
FdCtS Brought Out in a Con.
 qreSSiOnal Contest.
Regarding inc Race Riots at WiIm- ington and Elsewhere in North Carolina Previous 10 inc Elec. lions Last Fd |.

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 last fall is told with a great deal of detail in the evidence which has been I taken in the contest Of Oliver H. | Cookery for the seat in congress
 which is claimed by John D. Bellamy. 1 Dockery was the republican candidate | in the Wilmington district, and was defeated on the face of the returns, | by a majority of 5,S53 votes for Bel lamy. In his notice of contest MT
 Ddckery says that he does not claim
 he was elected by the ballots actually
 cast for him, but that the conditions
 existing in the district rendered the
 election "a farce, mockery and a fraud
 These conditions, according to MT. | Dockery. were due to the organiza- tions known as the Red Shirts and
 White Government Unicns,' and the
 members of which said that they in i tended to carry the election at ali
 hazards, and by whatever means be
 came necessary for the accomplish
 ment of their purpose. "In pursuance
 of this plan," says MT Dockery,
 ''they armed themselves with pistols,
 rifles and other deadly weapons, and interrupted and dispersed political gatherings, and whipped and even killed citizens who dared to stand
 upon their rights These practices
 Mir. Dockery claims, deprived him of thousands of votes. He charges that
 in each county of the district there
 was irregulariay, fraud, violence and intimidation, to such an extent as to
 nullify the election. These charges
 MT. Bellamy denies and says that
 in each county precinct four of tho six judges of election were partisan
 supporters of MT. Dockery. He es-
 pecial.y denies that the Red Shirts
 and White Government Unions"
 whipped and killed citizens, CT that
 they were a threat to constitutional
 government. There was no such or
 ganizatiln known as Red Shirts in any county" says MT. Bellamy, but certain individuals, constituting Q small number. in three precincts out Of nearly 200 precincts, wore a uniform consisting of red shirt but it had no illegal object or purpose, but was simply the uniform for legal pUliti- | cal club EPISODE AT ELLERBE SPRINGS. |
 The evidence Of all the hardware | dealers in Wilmington was taken to | show that during last October and | November there were an unusually | large number of shotguns, rifles and | pistols sold in that city, the purchas- CTS being generally white men. Sev- eral witnesses also testified to the 1 language used by ol A. M. WaddelI, | house, when he threatened to fill Cape Fear river with the carcasses of negro dead, while other witnesses in Monroe county rehearsed Senator TiIIman's speech, in which he said that red shirts and Winchester rifles were bet ter than the baliot-box. Some of the red shirt stories are quite interesting. For instance, Claudius Cookery, a sCn Of the republican candidate, told how the Red Shirts prevented the republi- cans from holding meeting at Ell erbe Springs. He said:
 we arrived at Ellerbe Springs about 12 o'clock, think. On our way to the Springs Red Shirts mounted on  sulting language ana firing pistcts in all directions. As we neared the Springs, squads of Red Shirts were coming in on all roads that came into ours leading to the Springs, whooping and hoIlering and firing off pistols in all directions, it seemed to us. As we passed through the fair grounds, a village a mic this side of the Springs, erowds cf Red Shirts-I do not 1now how many-passed us, calling Us I-d niggers, and saying that they would attend tc, us. When we reached l he Springs we met crowd coming rom the ether directions, yelling and firing their pistols, all mounted on horses and numbering at least fifty or | hundred. As we drove into the ' grove, where the speaking was to be, his crowd came in right behind us. | When they saw my father and myself T Irving in, both crowds, rushing to- sether and practically surrounded us, f 'egan yelling and hurling their insults It us and firing their pistols over our i reads fer at least five minutes with t ut stopping g
 MT. Cookery also described the sur t 'cunding of the polls on election day l y the Red Shirts, who prevented any T -otes being cast unless they were ?