There wasn't any disturbance the 2d day November at the election Lexington beat. The whites acted well. No man offered any riot, disputing about the election. Close at 5 o'clock p. m. The poll opened 4 minutes after 6 o'clock.

1, the undersigned, supervisor of election appointed by the circuit court of the United States, hereby certify that the foregoing return is true and correct. Witness my hand at Lexington, Ala., this 4th day of November, 1880.

CHILLATCHIE PRECINCT, DALLAS COUNTY.

Evidence-L. Irby, pp. 131-138; Exhibits, pp. 138-140, 370; Toney Ables, pp. 141-144; G. F. Beach, pp. 100-104; and J. C. Duke, pp. 147, 148.

In this precinct the Democratic inspectors refused and failed to open the polls. The citizens did so, but as the county supervisors failed to furnish either ballot-boxes or blanks for the returns, the votes were put into a cigar-box and counted. Certified returns made out and delivered to the sheriff, or rather an offer to do so; when, as the evidence shows, he was told by the officer to take it away, as the d-d thing was not wanted in his office. This officer had no authority to refuse receiving the box; but as it contained 124 votes for Smith, and but one for Shelley, his profanity as well as refusal may be accounted for.

SUPERVISOR'S RETURN.

U. S. supervisor's return of votes cast for Representatives in Congress from the fourth Con gressional district of the State of Alabama, at precinct or poll No. 26, Chillatchie, in the county of Dallas, on the 2d day of November, 1880.

commonly called

I, the undersigned, supervisor of election appointed by the circuit court of the United States, hereby certify that the foregoing return is true and correct. Witness my hand at Chillatchie, Ala., this 2d day of November, 1880.

To J. W. DIMMICK,

LINDSAY IRBY,

Supervisor.

Chief Supervisor of Elections, Montgomery, Ala.: The polls at this voting place were opened by the colored citizens. The inspectors appointed by the co. (if any) never showed themselves, nor could we find out who they were, nor could we get any ballot-box. We voted in a segar-box. So far as to law the election was all right, except we voted in a segar-box.

LINDSAY IRBY.

In all the foregoing precincts the Democratic inspectors failed and refused to open the polls, thus compelling the citizens to appoint others, whom it was supposed, on account of illiteracy, would fail to make out the statements, returns, &c., in a legal manner, and thus furnish the county supervisors, who appointed these inspectors, an excuse for rejecting the returns. This failure on the part of the inspectors invariably occurred in precincts largely Republican, and, read in the light of the subsequent action of the county supervisors, furnishes convincing evidence

of collusion and fraud, by which the electors of these precincts were to be cheated out of their votes and Mr. Smith out of his election, and does not well comport with the resolve for a free, fair vote and an honest count.

PINTLALA PRECINCT, LOWNDES COUNTY.

See evidence of Samuel M. Duncan, pp. 200-203; W. D. Gaskin, pp. 203, 207; exhibits, pp. 344, 345; Samuel Lee, pp. 207, 208; J. V. McDuffie, pp. 211, 216; B. W. Mason, pp. 554, 555 (contestee's witnesses).

In this precinct the Democratic inspectors failed to open polls, and the evidence shows that polls were opened by the voters, and that one E. P. Holcombe, who had been appointed by the county supervisors as an inspector, refused to act, although present. The election was quiet and orderly during the voting, but about the time the polls closed said Holcombe appeared in the room and claimed the box, and against the protest of the officers took the box and put it in a carpet-sack or sachel, in which he had, in the opinion of your committee, another ballot-box stuffed for the occasion, and which he, after disputing with the officers of the election for a time, took out and left instead of the one he had taken from the table, and it appears fully and conclusively that the box stolen by Holcombe contained 315 votes for Smith and 35 for Shelley, and the one substituted only 9 votes for Smith and the balance for Shelley.

This high-handed, unfigleafed fraud is so grave and impudent your committee deem it proper to give the evidence, in part at least, in relation to this transaction:

WILLIAM D. GASKIN, a witness called and examined by the contestant, and in his behalf, being first duly sworn, deposes and says upon oath :

Question. Where do you reside; how long have you resided there; to what race do you belong; what is your occupation, and are you a Republican or Democrat in politics?-Answer. I reside in Pintlala beat, Lowndes County, Alabama, and have lived there about eighteen years; I belong to the African race; am a farmer by occupation, and a Republican in politics.

(Counsel objects to the examination of the witness, upon the ground that he resides outside of the district in which the commissioner resides, and in a different county.) Q. Was there an election held in Pintlala beat, Lowndes County, on the 24 day of November, 1880, and who were the candidates for Congress voted for at that election? -A. There was an election held there on that day. The candidates were James Q. Smith and Charles M. Shelley.

Q. Who were the inspectors appointed by county authority to hold said election? Were they present to open the polls, and were they supporters of Charles M. Shelley for Congress, and were they Democrats in politics?-A. The inspectors appointed by the county authorities were E. P. Holcombe, D. W. McCarthy, and Robert Dandridge. Robert Dandridge and E. D. Holcombe were present, but McCarthy was not. Holcombe was a Democrat, and a warm supporter of Mr. Shelley, as was also McCarthy. Robert Dandridge was a Republican.

Q. Did E. P. Holcombe offer to open the polls and hold the election ?-A. He pretended at first in the morning that he wanted to open the polls, and said that he had to wait for McCarthy. McCarthy did not come, and he refused then to act.

Q. Was Dandridge, the other inspector, present when Holcombe refused to act ?--A. Yes, sir.

Q. Was Holcombe a white man, and is Dandridge a man of color?-A. Holcombe was a white man; Dandridge is a colored man.

Q. Who opened the polls and held the election?-A. Robert Dandridge, Philip Samuel, and Toney Davis.

Q. Did the inspectors take an oath as such; and before whom was it taken? Were there clerks appointed, and who were they?-A. The inspectors took an oath administered to them by Mr. Collins, a magistrate. Two clerks were appointed-Henry Green and Sampson M. Rives. They were sworn by the same magistrate.

Q. Was there any announcement that the polls were open, and at what hour?— A. The polls were announced open at about half past eight o'clock, as near as I remember.

Q. Do you know Philip Samuel and Toney Davis, and how long have they resided

in Pintlala beat, and are they over the age of twenty-one years?—A. I know both of them; they are each over twenty-one years of age, and have resided in that place for the last twelve years.

Q. What office did you hold on the day of the election; were you commissioned, and where is your commission now?

(Counsel for contestee objects to the question, upon the ground that it calls for secondary evidence.)

A. I was United States supervisor, I was commissioned; and my commission is at home.

Q. Were you present all the day of the election, and did you attend to the manner in which the voters cast their ballots, and did you carefully scrutinize the manner of conducting said election?-A. I was present during the day of the election and noticed the manner in which the voters cast their ballots, and I carefully scrutinized the manner in which the election was conducted.

Q. Who received the ballots from the voters; what did he do with them; did you keep a tally or any account of the number of ballots cast for each candidate for Congress at said election -A. Robert Dandridge, one of the inspectors, received the ballots from the voters and passed them to another inspector, who deposited them in the box. I kept an atcount part of the day. There were but two candidates, and I kept

an account between the two.

Q. What part of the day was it that you did not keep an account?-A. After about half past three o'clock I ceased to keep an account.

Q. After half past three o'clock were you in the room, and did you observe the voting? State, if you have any means of knowing, how many votes were cast after half past three o'clock, and for whom.-A. I was in the room, and observed the voting after half past three o'clock. The only means I had of knowing how many were cast was my seeing the ballots as they were handed in with the name of James Q. Smith upon them.

Q. Were the ballots deposited in the box counted?-A. They were not.

Q. State as near as you can the number of votes cast for James Q. Smith for Congress up to three and a half o'clock; state as near as you can the number of votes cast for him between the hour of three and a half o'clock and until the voting was over.-A. Up to three and a half o'clock he had gotten about two hundred and seventy or seventy-five votes; from my best judgment, from that time until the polls were closed, I should say he got between forty-five and fifty votes.

Q. State why it was the ballots were not counted.-A. About eight or ten minutes before the closing of the polls E. P. Holcombe came in the room and took the box from the table where it had been all day during the voting; he said he was a bailiff and had a right to take possession of the box. He put it in his sachel. Five or six minutes afterwards his son-in-law, Samuel J. Murray, came to the door of the room and urged him (Holcombe) to give him the sachel, saying he was in a hurry to go home. Thereupon, Holcombe took from the sachel a box other than the one in which the ballots had been deposited and then handed to Murray the sachel containing the box he had taken from the table. We did not discover that the box had been changed until Murray had driven off with the sachel containing the proper ballots that had been voted that day.

Q. Describe the boxes, and how you discovered that they had been changed?-A. They were two cigar-boxes. The right box was bound in bright red paper, and had a picture on one end of a man with a sword in his hand. The hole in which the ballots were passed was in the end of the box, and the end was split from one side of the hole to the edge of the box. The box that was substituted was bound with a kind of pale bluish paper, and had the bust of a man on the end of the box whose features were illuminated with a smile. This box also had a hole in the end of it, but was not split. Q. Did the inspectors open the box that was left upon the table. And state if it was examined, and what you discovered it to be.

(Question objected to upon the ground that the box and contents are the best evidence of the matters called for, and when last heard from was in the hands of the friends of the contestant.)

A. We opened the box, after we discovered the fraud, to see what it contained. We did examine it, and found it stuffed with Shelley and Stephens tickets, and only about nine for Smith.

Q. Do you now state that the box left by Holcombe, and which you opened, is not the box in which the ballots cast during the day were deposited ?-A. Yes, sir; I do. Q. Do you know the number of colored voters in Pintlala beat, and do they chiefly vote the Republican or Democratic ticket?-A. There are, I think, between three hundred and fifty and three hundred and sixty, and they vote the Republican ticket; I know of no exception at the last election.

Q. Do you know the number of white men, voters of Pintlala beat, and do they chiefly vote the Republican or Democratic tickets?-A. There are between thirty and thirty-five white voters, I think, and with the exception of two, they all vote the Democratic ticket.

Q. Do you come to Montgomery voluntarily!—A. Yes, sir.

Cross-examined by JOHN F. WHITE, Esq., counsel for contestee:

Q. What are the politics of the inspectors who held that election?-A. They were Republicans.

Q. You stated that so many votes were cast for James Q. Smith at that beat; is that an accurate statement! -A. It was accurate up to the time that I kept the account. Q. How many votes did Charles M. Shelley receive during the time you kept the account-A. He received about twenty-one or two votes.

Q. Did he receive any after you ceased to keep account; and, if so, what is your best judgment as to the number!-A. My best judgment is that he received a few votes. I cannot state the number.

Q. Did you keep a written memorandum of the votes cast there that day?—A. I kept a tally of the votes as they were cast.

Q. Where is that tally-list-A. Did not preserve it.

Q. You do not pretend to make an accurate statement of all the votes cast there that day and for whom they were cast, do you?-A. The account was accurate up to three and a half o'clock; as to the remainder, I give my best judgment.

Q. Who was present when Colonel Holcombe came in and took possession of that box-A. Robert Dandridge, Toney Davis, Philip Samuel, Henry Green, Sampson M. Rives, and myself.

Q. What kind of sachel was it Holcombe had?-A. It looked like it was made of brown linen.

Q. Where are the parties you name as having been present when Holcombe came into the room?-A. They are all at their homes in Lowndes County, except Sampson M. Rives, who has moved away since the election.

Q. Do you know whether any or all of them were subpoenaed to attend this com mission?-A. I do not.

Q. State as fully as you can what conversation occurred after Holcombe took possession of this box in regard to his doing so.-A. There was a great deal of confusion when it was found that a box had been substituted. We protested against Holcombe's taking the box, and myself and one of the inspectors caught hold of the sachel.

Q. Did any of the parties present go out of the room while Holcombe had possession of the box?-A. I went out, after leaving the sachel in charge of one of the inspectors, who had his hand upon it. Holcombe had his hand on it.

Q. What was the condition of things when you got back?-A. I was gone about two or three minutes. I heard confusion at the room door before I got back. When

I returned to the room the sachel and proper box had both been carried off by Murray. Q. If these boxes were changed it was done in your absence, was it not?-A. To that extent, I suppose that it was.

Q. Did you actually witness the changing of one box for the other?-A. I witnessed the box being taken by Holcombe from the table, and know that the one he returned to the table was not the one we had in use all day.

Q. Did you see Holcombe take any box at all out of that sachel and place it upon that table?-A. I did not, but he said in my presence that he put it on the table. Q. To which box did he refer?-To the box that was substituted for the right

one.

Q. What has become of that box?-A. We forwarded it to the sheriff by the returning officer, Ed. Smith.

Q. Did you make out any returns in accordance with its contents?-A. We wrote a certificate that it was not the proper box, and forwarded it with the box, so that it might not be counted.

Q. Did you ever see or hear anything of that box that Murray carried off?-A. No, sir.

Q. Were you ever a member of the legislature of Alabama; and, if so, in what year?-A. In 1874 I was a member.

Q. Were you not deprived of your seat by impeachment; and, if so, what were the charges against you?-A. I was not deprived of it by impeachment.

Q. Were you not unseated by a vote of the legislature for bribery?—A. I decline to auswer any further questions on that subject, because I don't think it is right.

Q. State, as accurately as you can, the hour at which the polls were opened and closed at Pintlala beat that day.-A. The polls were announced opened at about halfpast eight o'clock and closed at the hour designated by law-5 p. m.

Re-examined by the contestant:

Q. Did you make any return to Chief Supervisor Dimmick of the manner in which the election at your beat was a failure, and why it was you were unable to count the vote? Does your report, as made, contain a true statement of the votes cast at that election for James Q. Smith for Congress ?

(Contestee objects to the question, upon the ground that it calls for new matter and secondary evidence.)

A. I made a return to Chief Supervisor Dimmick of the manner in which the election was a failure, and why we were unable to count the vote. To the best of my knowledge and belief, my report contains a true statement of the votes cast for James Q. Smith for Congress.

Statement of inspectors.

W. D. GASKIN.

Beat No. 17. Pintlala, Lowndes Co., Ala., Nov. 3d, '80.

The inspectors of the above-named beat will swear to the following statement, to wit: That they saw Col. E. P. Holcomb in possession of a satchel containing a cigar-box prior to the time that the said Holcomb took charge of the ballot-box, against the protest of the inspectors; and that Gaskin ordered the aforesaid Holcomb not to put hands on the box, when he, in reply to Gaskin, said the the said Gaskin has nothing to do with the box containing the votes or anything else; that as U. S. supervisor could give no orders nor handle any paper belonging to the election; but that he, G., could only stand, look on, and report how the election was held, and all that was done irregular; and that while the said H. was saying this to G., and asserting his rights as an officer of the election, notwithstanding all that G. had said to him against taking the box from the table on which it was, and had been during the election, the said H. seized the box and took it from the table and put it into a satchel which was brought into the room where the voting was carried on, and known as his private property. The box referred to above was the box in which ballots was voted by the people of the precinct was deposited. At least three hundred and fifty-four had been polled up to about ten minutes of five o'clock, when everybody desiring to vote had voted; and there was no one at the polls who had not voted, and Col. H. put the box in the satchel above mentioned. The satchel was of a brown linen color, containing a petition in the middle; and on one side was the box supposed to be conceal, and on the other side, which appeared to empty, he put the box taking from the table, and when he had done this Gaskin first took hold of the satchel himself, and finding afterwards that he was compelled to go to himself a few minutes called Robert Dandridge, and made him take hold of the box in his absent, until he could return, and as soon as G. went out to the door, he called the marshal, Wesley Nolls, and place him at the door of the election room, and instructed said Nolls, as U. S. marshal not to allow anything to be brought of said room until he, G., could return. And a few minutes before Gaskin left the room, Tony Davis, one of the inspectors, ask leaf of absent or leaf to step aside rather for two or three minutes. As there was no voting going on, and was not yet five o'clock, leaf was granted and Davis went, and was back in a short time, and when Davis return this was the time that G. went out, and in short time after Davis' return to the room, the other inspectors all being in the room, and Mr. B. W. Mason, also U. S. supervisor, and Col. E. P. Holcomb, the alarm was made that the box containing the votes that was put in Col. H.' sachel was out of place and that another fraudulent box was inserted in its place on the table, from which the proper box had been taken.

ROBERT DANDRIDGE.
PHILIP S. SAMUEL.
his

TONEY DAVIS.

mark.

(Indorsed :) AA. Election 1880. Lowndes County. Inspector's report at precinct No. 17. Pintlala beat. Rec'd & filed the 19 day of Nov., 1880. J. W. Dimmick, chief sup.

U. S. supervisor's return of votes cast for Representatives in Congress from the 4th Congressional district of the State of Alabama, at precinct or poll No. 17, commonly called Pintlala, in the county of Lowndes, on the 2d day of November, 1880.

James Q. Smith..
Charles M. Shelley.
William J. Stephens..

Total Congressional vote

Names of candidates.

Number of votes,

as returned by
inspectors.

Number of votes, U. S. supervis or's return.