The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1901-10-03


For Instance: There is no pretense
made by Mr.. Fowler and his counsel
that fraud or irrgulaIity occurred
in but two precincts of Craven
county, but If only those precincts
are thrown out, and the remainder
of the returns for the county are adj
mltted, Mr.. Thomas will still have
a majority; 20, TO establish Mr.. Fowl
er's claim, because of the alleged
frauds in the two precincts, the vote
of the whole county should be
eliminated 1t Is urged. Upon such
fiimsy pretext does the ex-Congress
man attempt to sustain his preten-
sions to the seat now filled by Mr..
Thomas.
The Post then proceeds to say that
ex-senator Butler and Gov. Russell,
the counsel for Mr.. Fowler, in their
brief deal In wild charges and ac-
cusations against the conduct Of
Democratic election Off >ials etc.
Now we challenge the Post to
point out single statement made
in the brief that il not sustained by
the printed testimony. In fact, the
brief gives only slight insight into
the thievery, rascality and lawless-
ness of the last campaign in that
district.
The only point which the Post
attempts to make against the brief
Is that it asks for the throwing out
of a whole county, instead the
throwing out only of the two town.
ships in which the rascality and
thievery were most pronounced. In
fact, the Post practically admits that
these two townships should be
thrown outfor the frauds proven,
but it objects to the throwing out of
the whole county on account of these
two rotten townships. If the editor
of the Post had read the brief he
whould have found a complete an
swer to this alleged objection. We
let the following extract from the
brief speak for itself:
at is insisted by the contestant
that the vote from the entire cOun-
ty of Craven, upon the fraud which
has been disclosed by the evidence,
should be excluded. 1t appears that,
for the purpose ofconsummating the
fraudulent schemes, 1900 Republi-
can voters were placed in two pre-
cincts, LOO in one, and 500 in the
other, and that in these two pre-
cincts registrars were imported who
had no acquaintance with the vot.
ing population and who made un-
reasonable demands upon the pOpu-
lation for Identification before they
were permitted to register. 1t ap
pears from the testimony that il
there had been fair registration as
matter of fact it was physical
impossibility for the voters who had
been fraudulently and arbitrarily
placed in Berne precinct to have
voted during one election day. II
appears from the evidence that the
majority which was obtained by
Mr.. Thomas in this county is not
made up of the increased vote cast
for him, but that it was obtained by
the suppression through these fraud.
ulent means of at least 1900 Re
publican votes, as appears from the
vote cast in the said county at the
election held in the preceding cleo
ton and nearly 1900 when the
comparison is made with the cleo
tion held in 1896.
cit also appears that of this mum
Der so suppressed, at least 1000 were
suppressed in the precincts of Berne
and Thurman. 1t is therefore in
sisted that if nothing else appears
and no other precinct of this county
were attacked, that the conduct Of
the election in these two precincts
the methods employed and the vote.
suppressed have had such an effec
upon the result throughout the en-
tire C unity that justice can only b,
done and the confirmation of these
frauds prevented by the rejection OF
the whole county. 1t can be seer
that if methods such as these ar,
permitted TO be employed, and tn,
only penalty which can be VISITED
upon the guilty is the exclusion O.
the particular precinct in which tn,
fraud was perpetrated, that fraud
instead of imposing a penalty, be
comes a means of comforting benefits
To illustrate, If one political part,
which has the election machiner,
in Its hands, but which is in larg,
minority In county like the coun
ty of Craven, desired to suppress tn,
popular will and to convert an ad
verse majority into friendly one
1t would have nothing to do but t,
place all the voters or large major
ity of them, as was done in tn,
county Of Craven, in few votin,
precincts, induce fraud to be prac
ticed openly, and, when the party
that had suffered from the FRAUD
sought redress, to contend that tn,
remedy was to exclude the whole O
those precincts and count simply
the rest OF the county. Such in
justice cannot be tolerated by body
which enforces the law both in it,
letter and its spirit. Even if thu
committee exclude the vote in thu
county Of Craven, it has done thu
~ h.,A Ill