Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1882 — BULLDOZING IN ARKANSAS. [ARTICLE]

BULLDOZING IN ARKANSAS.

[From the Detroit Poet. ] “Blessed are they who expect noth* ing, for they shall not be disappointed." The Republicans did not look for much consolation from the election in Ark* ansas on Monday, for since the bulldozers took possession of that State in 1874 it has been carried by the Democrats, whenever any opposition at all has been made, by a majority averaging about one-fifth of the entire vote. It had' been understood that they would easily enough elect all the State officers this year, and a Legislature that would send Senator Garland back to Washington for another term. It has turned out-that Col. Slack, the Republican candidate for Governor, ran with unexpected strength in regions where he was best known, and that in some localities where quiet and fair elections were held the Republicans have elected a few county officers, and there is a possibility that the Prohibitionists have carried Sebastian county against license, in which event the saloons at Fort only place in the county where liquor is now sold—will be closed up. Tl>e general result, however, is not differeht from what was anticipated. It would seem that in Arkansas, if anywhere, the Democrats might get along without seeking to intimidate Republican voters; and yet the reports from Helena are laden with a most outrageous case of bulldozing. Gen. M. L. Stephenson, ex-Judge of the Supreme Court, telegraphed from tliat town on election day as follows: “ The Court House was taken last night, locked and guarded. This morning judges were elected inside. No one outside was allowed to participate. Side polls were prevented by the violence of armed men at the polls. Men distributing tickets were knocked down and driven away and the tickets taken from them, voters were driven off, and substantially no voting was done any where in the city after 9 o’clock. One colored man was shot at three times by a Deputy Sheriff. This so terrified the others that they would not try to vote." Phillips county, in which Helena is situated, has a Democratic County Judge named Sanders who was himself a candidate for the office of Circuit Judge, aud whose election depended upon preventing in some way a full Republican vote. As County Judge he arranged the voting precincts in July last, and put them in such shape that about 1,300 voters, of whom 1,200 were Republicans, mostly colored, had to travel ten or twelve miles to reach the polls, and then all vote at the Court House. Sanders also appointed as judges of election two live Democrats and a colored Republican who had been dead for two years. The vacancy wars filled, not “by the voters assembled," as the law requires, but by a little family arrangement inside the barrier. In 1878 no Republican ticket wa<j nominated in this county, because the Democratic shot-gun policy prevented, and in 1880 again the Republicans prudently kept out of the field. Some weeks ago Gov. Churchill expressed a desire that, for the good name of the Btate, the Republicans should be allowed to vote, and it was partly on account of his assurance of fair play that the leading Republicans* of the county

deoided to move. They give the Governor credit for good faith, for he took pains to sendover his Private Secretary and Adjutant General a fortnight ago to receive the assurance of the. Democratic County Committee that no intimidation or falsification of returns should be allowed, and as late as last Friday he expressed his disbelief in the possibility of violence, and afterward telegraphed to Oapt. Barlow, of the Phillips county militia, to be prompt in assisting thecivil authorities to prevent disturbance. The local Democratic managers, however, failed to keep the pledges they had so freely given. At 7:45 a. m. the polls were opened, only two or three voters being admitted through the two doors of the Court House at a time. As they passed along the corfidor they handed in their ballots through a small hole high up in one of the doors opening from it—so high that they eould not she the ballot deposited in the box. The law requires the name of each voter to be written in a book with a number opposite corresponding with a number written on the back of the ballot. To prevent a tally being kept outside, the numbers used were not consecutive ones, so that nobsdy could tell, even if he knew the . number that was put on a ballot, how many votes had been aotually east. Anticipating some game of this kind, the Republicans had prepared ballots with “stubs,” Kke those upon bank checks, whioh were torn off and retained by the ticket peddlers, who stood by the door and gave out the ballots to the Republican voters as they went in, writing each voter’s name on the “stub.” In this way a‘record was made of ,the exact number of Republican votes that were received. After the voting had gone on quietly, though slowly, for about.an hour, the Democrats concluded to put an end to the balloting, whioh was dearly being conducted in a way to frustrate all their .plans. The onset, alluddd to by Gen. Stephenson, is thus described by a correspondent of the St. Louis OlobeDemocrat : “One of the distributors was standing near the south door of the building, holding in his left hand a book on which he wrote the names on the coupons, and a pencil in his right, when he observed that several whites had come out of the building and were making for him- One of them caught his left arm, another his right, and one searched his pockets. One was nearly half full of coupons. All of these were taken away, and with them his pocketbook, etc., everything but the coupons being afterward returned. The next thing he knew he was struok on the head, his hat knocked off, and he was forcibly kicked twice. At the other door the same performance occurred. All the distributors of coupon tickets were foiced to give them up. Finally the Deputy Sheriffs and others, some flourishing their revolvers, scattered among the fcrowd ordering it to disperse. The frightened negroes naturally did so, and half an hour later very few of the 1,000 or more blaoks entitled to vote there were, within half a mile. The intimidators then went to the Helena City wards and compelled those who had coupon tickets to give them np. At these there was no pretense or driving oft’ voters, but very few appeared.” * Thus ends another chapter in the history of shameless Democratic election- frauds in Southern States.