The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-03-30

l. IAiA
papers was before the county. Nothing
new was TO be discovered.
The House of Representatives, how
ever. appointed a select committee of
flVei to investigate political affairs In
the state of Alabama" as soon as news
reached it that carpetbagger Miller
had been elected from the senate and
that the legislature had taken steps to
fasten upon the soldiers and the me-
groes the deeds of outlawry in Sumter
county
The committee was composed Of three
republicans. Joseph G. Cannon of I'LL
lnofs, later known as Speaker Cannon,
John Coburn of Indiana. ana charles
Albright OF Pennsylvania, and two
democrats, Buckner of Missouri and
lLuttrel of California. While the Ala
oapa legislature was in session. 1874
10 the committee visited Opelika.
Montgomery Eufaula and Mobile. They
made report OF more than 1900 pages.
small type
! The committee proved that the issue
| raised by the campaign of 1874 was the
supremacy of the white race They
proved against their purpose that the
policy insisted on By Walter T.. Bragg.
chairman. and of the other members of
the democratic executive committee in
direct management of the Campaign was
avoidance of personal conflicts; and tur.
| mol and strife of all kinds in public
discussion. On the other hand tha,,
proved that Charles Hays. Senator spen-
! Ger and Others under their leadership
had applied for detachments of troops
not to suppress disorder or uuell dis
turbance but to intimidate white voters
| and TO encourage negro voters The
proof was too much for the purpose. The
majority members, that Is the republic
ans, cited in their report a resolution
| of a Lee county democratic meeting as
follows: Resolved That all persons
whether white or black who are the
| least in sympathy with the so-called civil
! rights bill, or who shall In anywise lend
aid to those who indorse or countenance
| said bill shall be regarded by the white
men of Lee as the political and social
enemies of the white race This among
/ other resolutions of the same meeting
was signed by James Il Dowdell Hodge
Armstrong, Kimball and Bedell. Dowdell
was among the foremost political lead
ers of the state. The Opelilla Times of
August 22, in the heat of the campaign.
was quoted as having declared that the
| equal rights" for which the carpetha o.
| gers and scalawags clamored as due
| the negro, was an unsophisticated lie
/ Two days later the same paper called
| bfl I'LL 1fitnuS OI Wllite SuDfen1HEX, White
and black alike, to withdraw the patron
age of trade from radical merchants and
! tradespeople Every man who sustains
a scalawag individually wrote the ed
1 itor, contributes 10 the building up OF
| radicalism. The way to kill the party
is to put upon short allowance its in.
| divdual members. The sea Is open-the
| sky is beautiful, the victory is oursi" A
few days later the enthusiasm of the
| cd sf4....r Il -
! good and prominent of Alabama are for
the white mans party. Outcasts, libelers
liars. handcuffers and traitor> to blood
are for the negro party. Decide We where
| you will place yourselves in Novemberi
The report Of the three republican com
mitteemen alleged that violence and dis
order were rampant all through Alabama
| In the campaign of 1874 and there was
a general reign of terror and intimida tion
at the polls on election day. This re-
port quoted the testimony of Addison G
Smith, democrat, young lawyer. Smith
testified that Sheriff Williamson of Sum-
ter county summoned posse about the
middle of September. of which he was a
| member some 10 to 20 men, to go to
Belmont, hamlet within six miles of
Demopols, to dispense a negro mob hid
ing in the Bigbee river swamp. AS the
posse marched to Belmont and the PLAN
|
dred excited white men awaiting them,
| some of the number from Mississippi
| Nothing more serious came of the dis
tGrbance than the several days march
| ing w. b, Hayden, foreman of the
United States grand jury. reported that
In Sumter and Pickens outrages and
crimes We're fragrant.
The two democrats made minority re-
port. They alleged the majority with
indecent haste" had thrown together
a. mass of testimony from irresponsible
| witnesses. The two democrats by minor
| ity report averred the undersigned have
no hesitancy in affirming that Alabama
| was as peaceful. quiet and law-abiding
as either Georgia, Tennessee or Missis-
sippi prior to and during the late can
vass; that there was no greater necessity
for the presence of United States troops
in Alabama than there was in the state
of Missouri or California, that the few
acts of violence that had occurred prior
to the demand for troops We're not proved
then, nor has there been any proof since,
that they were instN,ated from political
motives; that it was party necessity of
the radical leaders to create real or ap-
parent disorder in the state; that the
use of the bacon, donated by Congress to
the sufferers by the overflow, as a cor
ruption fund, the appointment of special
deputy marshals by the score in counties
and districts in the black belt, If not un-
der instructions from the head of the de-
partment of justice. at least with his as
sent and connivance, and the false, un-
founded charges Of murder, violence and
insecurity of person and property, made
for the purpose of obtaining the intro
duction of the military into the state,
were all part and parcel of the scheme
concoeted by republican congressman to
carry the election in November last
/ Charles Hayes and W. b. Jones, in the
plantation region of western Alabama;
Alexander McKinstry and Ben Lane Posey
| in Mobile. Amos Kel in Barbour county,
| all scalaWaRH. fnmented the conflict of