The returns of the State board of canvassers give to

John S. Richardson...

Samuel Lee.....

20,142

11,674

Majority for Richardson ......

8,468

The contest was begun by the contestant, Samuel Lee, against the sitting member, John S. Richardson, and in his notice of contest he alleges the following grounds:

1st. That a majority of the legal votes polled at the election held on the 2d day of November, 1880, in the first Congressional district of South Carolina were cast for me. 2d. That owing to frauds, violence, and intimidation, committed in your interest by your partisans and supporters in each and every county in the Congressional district, the true result of the election was defeated, and a pretended and fraudulent majority made to appear for you.

3d. That the returns made to the State board of canvassers by the commissioners of elections of Sumter, Williamsburg, Georgetown, and Horry Counties do not con tain true and correct statements of the votes cast for a member of Congress in said counties.

4th. That according to the returns of the election made by the managers of election of the several voting precincts in the counties of Sumter, Williamsburg, and Georgetown I received a majority of the votes cast in each of the said counties.

5th. That in Sumter County the commissioners of election illegally refused to count and canvass and include in their statement of the result of the election the vote cast, canvassed, and duly returned for a member of Congress at the following voting precincts, to wit: Sumter No. 1, Carter's Crossing, and Rafting Creek.

6th. That in Williamsburg County the commissioners of election illegally refused to count and canvass and include in their statement of the result of the election the vote cast, canvassed, and duly returned for a member of Congress at the following voting precincts, to wit: Salters, Gourdins, and Midway.

7th. That in Georgetown County the commissioners of election illegally refused to count and canvass and include in their statement of the result of the election the vote cast, canvassed, and duly returned for a member of Congress at the following voting precincts, to wit: Upper Waccamaw, Lower Waccamaw, Santee, Sampit, Choppee, and Pee Dee or Birdfield.

8th. That in Horry County the commissioners of election illegally refused to count and canvass and include in their statement of the result of the election the vote cast, canvassed, and duly returned for a member of Congress at the voting precinct of Martin Hill.

9th. That in Sumter, Williamsburg, and Georgetown Counties, at the following voting precincts, to wit: Lynchburg, Mayesville, Shiloh, and Privateer, in the county of Sumter, and Kingstree, Gourdins, Black Mingo, Greelyville, Salters, Cedar Swamp, Prospect Church, Pipkins, Andersons, Scranton, and Grahams, in the county of Williamsburg, and Georgetown, Upper Waccamaw, Sampit, and Carver's Bay, in the county of Georgetown, the vote actually cast for me was larger and the vote actually cast for you was smaller than appears on the face of the returns made by the managers of election at the voting precinct aforesaid; that the difference between the vote as actually cast and the vote as returned by the managers aforesaid arises from the fact that at each of the aforesaid polls numerous ballots bearing your name for Congress were fraudulently placed in the ballot-box for the purpose of creating an excess of votes over voters, and thereby compelling the managers to draw out and destroy the excess of ballots thus created, in order to reduce the number of ballots in the box to the number of names on the poll-list; that in drawing out of the box at each poll the excess of ballots fraudulently created as aforesaid numerous ballots bearing my name for Congress, and which had been legally voted, were drawn out and destroyed and in their place was counted a corresponding number of ballots with your name for Congress thereon, which had not been legally voted; wherefore, to the vote returned for me by the managers of election at each of the polls aforesaid should be added the ballots bearing my name for Congress which were drawn out and destroyed, and from the vote returned for you at each of the polls aforesaid should be deducted a corresponding number.

10th. That in Marion, Marlboro', and Chesterfield Counties, at the following voting precincts, to wit: Marion Court-House, Berry's Cross-Roads, Campbell's Bridge, Little Rock, Friendship, High Hill, Mt. Nebo, Marsbluff, Arieal, and Stones, in the county of Marion, and Bennettsville, Smithville, Adamsville, Brownsville, Brightsville, Hebron, Clio, Red Bluff, and Red Hill, in the county of Marlboro', and Chesterfield Court-House, Mt. Croghan, and Hebron Church in the county of Chesterfield, for the causes set forth in the preceding paragraph (No. 9) the vote actually cast for me was

larger and the vote actually cast for you was smaller than appears on the face of the returns made by the managers of election at the voting precincts aforesaid; wherefore, to the vote returned for me by the managers of election at each of the polls aforesaid should be added the ballots bearing my name which were drawn out and destroyed, and from the vote returned for you at each of the polls aforesaid should be deducted a corresponding number.

11th. That the polls required by law to be held at Stateburg, in Sumter County, and at Griers, in Georgetown County, were not opened, because the managers of election, who were your partisans and supporters, and members of the political party whose nominee you were for Congress, neglected and refused to act, in consequence of which numerous voters who went to said polls for the purpose of casting their ballots for me for Congress were deprived of the opportunity to vote for me for Congress, as they intended and desired.

12th. That at Black River or Brown's Ferry voting precinct, in Georgetown County, 276 votes were cast for me and 20 votes were cast for you; that at the close of the poll upon opening the ballot-box and counting the votes therein, the managers found that there were 602 tickets in the box; that this excess of 306 ballots was caused by your partisans and supporters fraudulently placing in the ballot-box that number of small tissue-ballots bearing your name for Congress; that when it was ascertained that the ballot-box had been stuffed as aforesaid, a controversy arose between the U. S. supervisors and the managers as to the duty of the latter under the circumstances, and not being able to agree the managers sealed up the box and delivered the same to one of the supervisors without making a canvass and return of the votes required by law; wherefore, the vote cast as aforesaid at said precinct should be added to the vote returned for you and for me, respectively, by the commissioners of election of Georgetown County, to wit, 20 for you and 276 for me.

13th. That at Cheraw voting precinct, in Chesterfield County, the poll-list kept by the managers of election and their clerk was falsified in your interest by the insertion thereon of 116 fictitious names, and for the names thus fraudulently placed on the poll-list a number of ballots bearing your name for Congress were surreptitiously placed in the ballot-box and counted, canvassed, and returned for you; wherefore from the vote returned for you at said precinct should be deducted the number of ballots so illegally counted, canvassed, and returned for you.

14th. That at each and every voting precinct in the counties of Chesterfield, Horry, Marlboro', Williamsburg, Darlington, and Marion numerous illegal votes were cast for you by persons not qualified to vote and by persons who voted more than once.

15th. That at each and every precinct in the counties comprising the first Congressional district a large number of colored voters who desired and intended to vote for me for Congress were denied that right, without good and sufficient cause, by the managers of election.

16th. That throughout the Congressional district the supervisors appointed by the circuit court of the United States to represent the Republican party, whose nominee for Congress I was, and the deputy marshals of the United States were obstructed, hindered, and prevented by your partisans and supporters from fully and freely performing the duties required of them by the laws of the United States.

17th. That at each and every voting precinct in the eight counties comprising the first Congressional district all the managers of the election were known to be your political partisans and supporters, and members of the political party whose candidate for Congress you were; that in the reception and rejection of votes and in the general management and conduct of the election the managers of election aforesaid at each and every poll acted in your interest and for your benefit; that at each and every precinct where there was an excess of ballots in the box the managers of election as aforesaid in drawing out such excess acted in your interest, manipulating the ballots in such a way as to draw out mostly tickets with my name for Congress

thereon.

18th. That in Darlington County there was not a free and fair election, owing, first, to the repeating, illegal voting, and ballot-box stuffing, which was committed in your interest and by your partisans and supporters at each and every voting precinct in the county; second, at Darlington Court-House poll, Florence, Effingham, James Cross-Roads, Gum Branch, and Timmonsville, by the poll-list being falsified by the insertion thereon of fictitious names, repeating, violence, intimidation, illegal voting, and by the rejection of a large number of qualified voters who desired and offered to vote for me for Congress; wherefore the entire vote returned as having been cast at each of the above-named polling precincts should be rejected and entirely excluded. 19th. That in Darlington County, at the following voting precincts, to wit, Effingham, James Cross-Roads, Gum Branch, Timmonsville, Lisbon, Lydia, Society Hill, Leavenworth, and Mechanicsville, for the causes set forth in paragraph No. 9, the vote actually cast for me was larger, and the vote actually cast for you was smaller, than appears on the face of the returns made by the managers of election at the voting precincts aforesaid; wherefore, to the vote returned for me by the managers

of election at each of the polls aforesaid should be added the ballots bearing my name which were drawn out and destroyed, and from the vote returned for you at each of the polls aforesaid should be deducted a corresponding number.

20th. That at Graham's Cross-Roads, Scranton, and Cedar Swamp, in Williamsburg County, the ballot-boxes were stuffed, the poll-lists falsified by the insertion thereon of fictitious names, violence, intimidation, repeating, and illegal voting committed in your interest and by your partisans and supporters, to such an extent that it is impossible to tell how many legal votes were cast at said voting precincts; wherefore the entire vote returned as having been cast at said polls should be rejected and entirely excluded.

To the notice of contest the sitting member filed exceptions and answers as follows:

SIR: In reply to your notice of intention to contest my seat in the Forty-seventh Congress of the United States as a member from the first district of the State of South Carolina, served on me on the 20th day of December, 1880, I have to say

I. That I deny and except to your right to contest my seat, either in your own behalf or in the interest of the voters of the first Congressional district of the State of South Carolina, for the reason that you were not at the time of the general election of the 2d of November, 1880, either a legal voter or a citizen of the said district or State. I allege that two years previous to said election, with the intention of removing from South Carolina, you sold whatever property you owned in South Carolina and removed with your family beyond the borders of said State, and returned to the said State less than twelve months previous to said election.

II. I object and except to your notice so far as you charge force and intimidation on the part of my supporters, because you do not specify, as the law and practice require, or pretend to specify, a single instance of force or intimidation committed by any of my supporters anywhere in the Congressional district on any of the voters of said district. Nowhere in your notice do you state who was forced to vote for me, or who was intimidated by my supporters and prevented from voting for you, or in what manner, place, or town such intimidation was had, or by whom it was done.

III. Because your specifications of grounds of contest are insufficient in law, and do not set forth facts sufficient or of such a character as to enable you to contest my right to said seat. And not waiving my aforesaid exceptions, but expressly reserving and relying on the same, I do hereby expressly deny, on information and belief, all the charges and allegations in your said notice contained and set forth, and require you to prove the same, except as hereinafter admitted.

To the first ground of your contest I deny the same, and each and every allegation therein contained. On the contrary, I allege that my official majority, as found by the State board of canvassers for the State of South Carolina, was eight thousand four hundred and sixty-eight.

To the second ground of your contest I deny the same, and each and every allegation therein contained.

To the third and fourth grounds of your contest I object, and except to them as indefinite and insufficient in law. If true, as alleged by you, they do not show or allege that I am not entitled to said seat, or that you are; and they do not state how or wherein the said returns are not true and correct, or what would be your majority in said counties if the said returns were corrected as claimed by you. In reference to your allegation in said third ground of contest, while I do not admit it, because I do not know it to be true, but, on the contrary, require you to prove it, I claim and allege, if true, as alleged by you, I would still have a large majority of the votes cast at said election, and be entitled to said seat.

In reference to the fourth ground of your contest, I answer that I believe it is true, as alleged by you therein, that a majority of the votes cast in said counties of Sumter, Williamsburg, and Georgetown were cast for you, but I object and except to your specification as indefinite and insufficient in law. It does not state what returns; from what voting precincts; how or wherein the said returns are not true or correct, or what would be your majorities in said counties; and I expressly and emphatically deny that you would, if your said allegations were true, thereby or by reason of anything alleged in said third and fourth grounds of contest, have a majority of the votes cast in said district, or be entitled to said seat.

To the fifth ground of your contest, I answer that I do not know or admit that in Sumter County the commissioners of elections illegally refused to count and include in their statement the votes cast and returned at Sumter precinct No. 1, Carter's Crossing, and Rafting Creek. I admit that the votes cast at said voting precincts were refused and excluded. As to the votes cast at Sumter precinct No. 1, I waive the question as to whether the same were legally or illegally refused and excluded by said commissioners, and agree that the same may be counted. And I allege and claim if they be counted, I would still have a large majority of all the votes cast in said district. As to the votes cast at Carter's Crossing and Rafting Creek, I deny, on

information and belief, that they were illegally refused and excluded from the said statement, and I allege and claim, if they be counted, I would still have a large majority of all the votes cast in said election.

To your sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth grounds of contest, on information and belief, I deny the same and each and every allegation therein contained.

As to so much of the allegation contained in your ninth ground of contest as alleges that there is such a voting precinct as Mayesville in Sumter County, I deny the same; and though I received a majority of the votes polled at said supposed precinct, I allege that there is no such voting precinct established by law, and ask that the vote returned and counted from said supposed voting precinct be excluded.

To your eleventh ground of contest, on information and belief, I deny that the poll at Stateburg, in Sumter County, and at Grier's, in Georgetown County, were not opened. I deny that said polls were not held because the managers neglected or refused to act. I deny that because said polls were not held numerous voters who desired to vote for you were thereby deprived of the opportunity to vote for you.

On the contrary, on information and belief, I allege that the poll at Grier's, in Georgetown County, was held, and I charge and allege that your partisans and supporters, with force and arms, took from the possession of the managers of said poll the box containing the ballots cast for a member to Congress and carried off the same, refusing to allow the said managers to count the ballots and ascertain the result. And I further allege that no one was prevented from voting for you who desired to do so, by anything that was done at either of said voting precincts by my partisans and supporters, or by the managers at said precincts.

To your twelfth ground of contest, on information and belief, I deny the same, and each and every allegation therein contained; and I charge and allege, on information and belief, that your partisans and supporters, with force and arms, took from the possession of the managers of said Black River or Brown's Ferry precinct the box containing the ballots cast at said voting precinct, and refused to allow the same to be counted by the managers, as by law required to be done.

To your thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth grounds of contest, on information and belief, I deny the same, and each and every allegation therein contained. As to your seventeenth ground of contest, and all other grounds where similar allegations are made by you, I charge and allege that the managers of the election were appointed, and the purging of the ballot-boxes, where the same was found to be required by law, was done in strict accordance with the laws of South Carolina governing in such cases, and that said laws were framed and passed by the political party of which you are a member, and the appointment of said managers and the purging of the boxes were done in strict accordance with the practice adopted and acted on by the party of which you are a member when said party were in power in South Carolina. I further charge and allege that the party to which I belong have not altered, amended, or repealed the said laws in one iota.

As to so much of your allegation contained in your eighteenth and nineteenth grounds of contest as alleges that there is such a voting precinct as James CrossRoads in Darlington County, I deny the same, or that there was any vote polled at or counted from any such voting precinct.

The undersigned alleges and charges that there is no such voting precinct established by law as Mount Clio, in Sumter County, and claims that the vote counted and canvassed as polled at said supposed voting precinct should be excluded.

The undersigned further denies that if the irregularities alleged by you to have been committed did occur (of which he has no knowledge or information), they were of a character in any degree to affect or invalidate his true and lawful election. On the contrary he alleges and claims that, counting the entire vote polled at every voting precinct in the Congressional district, and accepting the returns made by the Republican supervisors, wherever they made returns, as to the number of such votes and the persons for whom they were cast, the contestee received a large majority of all the votes cast for a member of Congress from the first district of the State of South Carolina at the election held for such member on the second day of November, 1880. While the undersigned denies that there was any "force or intimidation" whatever used or practiced anywhere in the Congressional district by his partisans and supporters, he alleges and charges that there was great force, undue influence, violence, and intimidation practiced by you and your partisans and supporters upon and over a large number of colored voters who desired to vote for him, and who in consequence of such force, violence, undue influence, and intimidation were prevented from voting for him, and forced by fear of violence and injury to their persons or property to vote against their wishes for you. That this was notably the case at each and every voting precinct in the counties of Sumter, Williamsburg, and Georgetown. That to render this intimidation more complete and effectual you and your partisans and supporters caused large numbers of the colored people to be formed into clubs, and appointed captains over them, who were charged to march their squads in a body

to the polls, and there see that they voted the Republican ticket. That you and your partisans did so officer them and march them in squads to the polls, and by such means massed large bodies of colored voters at certain polls, thereby crowding out Democratic voters, and preventing them from voting thereat, and thereby overawed, intimidated, and forced many colored voters to vote the Republican ticket who desired to vote the Democratic ticket. That you and your partisans and supporters procured certain little blank books, which you and your partisans and supporters caused to be placed in the hands of certain of your partisans and supporters, and gave out that these books were furnished by the United States authorities, or by the National Republican party who were in authority for the purpose of entering therein the names of all colored men who voted the Republican ticket, to be returned to the said authorities as evidence that they had so voted.

The undersigned further alleges and charges that you intimidated a large number of colored voters and prevented them from voting for contestee by procuring yourself to be appointed a United States deputy marshal, and acting as such in the interest of your own election. That you and your partisans and supporters procured the appointment of a large number of special deputy marshals, whom you and your partisans and supporters caused to be stationed at each and every poll in the Congressional district without warrant of law, there being no city or town in the district of twenty thousand inhabitants. That these deputy United States marshals had displayed on their persons the badges of their authority obtained from the United States authorities, and were active partisans and supporters of yourself, overawing and forcing many colored voters to vote for you who would otherwise have voted for him. The undersigned further alleges and charges that in order the more effectually to intimidate and force the colored voters to vote for you, you caused your name as a candidate for member of Congress to be printed on a thick, stiff, and striped-back card, easily discerned at a considerable distance, thereby seeking to prevent, and in a great many instances did prevent, the colored voters from voting a secret ballot, as is contemplated by the law. That many of these colored voters desired to vote the Democratic ticket on which contestee's name was printed as a candidate, and would have done so could they have voted it without its being known to your partisans and supporters for whom they voted. That many colored voters actually came to the friends and supporters of the undersigned and stated that they intended and desired to vote the Democratic ticket, but could not do so, for fear of your partisans and supporters, unless the Democratic ticket could be pasted on the inside of your stripedback ticket, and these-when this device was resorted to to shield and protect them against the violence and intimidation of your partisans-voted the Democratic ticket. The undersigned alleges and charges that your partisans and supporters armed themselves with guns and pistols, openly displayed on their persons, and went to the polls so armed and equipped, and there threatened and intimidated many colored voters who intended and desired to vote the Democratic ticket, and prevented them from so doing; that this was so done at each and every voting precinct in the counties of Georgetown and Williamsburg, and at Sumter Court-House, Carter's Crossing, and Rafting Creek, in Sumter County.

The issues between the parties are so clearly set out in their pleadings that little comment thereon is needed.

We therefore proceed to examine the case according to the testimony found in the record, and the law applicable thereto.

GEORGETOWN COUNTY.

It is agreed (Richardson's brief, Record, p. 92) by both contestant and contestee that all the vote of Georgetown County was rejected by both the county and State board of canvassers save one poll, to wit, Georgetown poll-that is, viz, Santee, Sampit, Upper Waccamaw, Lower Waccamaw, Carver's Bay, Choppee, Pedee, and Brown's Ferry, eight precincts thrown out and Grier's not held.

The "official returns" give to Lee 617 votes; to Richardson 302 votes for the whole county; total, 919 votes. Thus giving to Mr. Lee a majority of 315 only.

But Mr. Richardson admits (brief, p. 10) that the total vote in 1876 in the same county was 3,836, almost four times as much as in 1880, and this is explained because of the throwing out of the eight precincts. Were these eight precincts, or any of them, improperly thrown out?