Q. Do you know whether or not there were windows in that room, or whether the door was barred on the inside?-A. There are no windows to the room, and I tried the door from the outside. I pushed against it and I could not open it.

J. F. Lanier, 559, 560, 561:

Q. Where was the ballot-box put while the inspectors were eating supper?—A. In the side room of the store.

Q. What persons brought the box to your store?-A. I don't know who brought it to the store. Captain High brought it in.

Q. What did he do with it?-A. He put it into the side room and locked the door. Q. What did he then do?-A. He took the key and went out of the store.

Q. How many keys are there to your side-room door?-A. Only one.

Q. Is there any way to get into that side room except through the door that Mr. High locked?-A. There is another door to the room fastened on the inside by a bar. Q. Was that door which was fastened on the inside fastened that night?-A. It was.

Q. Was it possible for any one to have entered your side room while the ballot-box was in there except by going through the door that Mr. High locked?-A. Only by breaking the front door.

Q. Did any one break down the front door?-A. They did not.

Q. You having testified that no one broke down the front door, please say now if by any possibility your side room could have been entered except through the door Mr. High locked while the ballot-box was in there without your detecting it -A. No, they could not.

Q. How long did you stay in the store after Mr. High and the other gentlemen went to supper?-A. About half an hour.

Q. Did anybody go into the side room during that half hour?-A. They did not. Q. Did you leave anybody in your store when you went to the house to supper ?— A. I did not.

Q. What did you do with the key to your store when you went to supper?-A. I put it into my pocket.

Q. Did anybody go into your store while you was at supper?-A. They did not. Q. When you returned to the store who was with you?-A. Captain High, Captain Hertzler, J. S. McDonald, B. C. Lanier, jr., B. C. Lanier, sr., and others.

Q. Who came in and got the box?-A. Captain High.

Q. Did you see him unlock the door of the side room?-A I did.

Q. What is Alex. Kelly's politics?—A. He is a Republican.

Q. If any one has stated that while you was at supper on November 2, 1880, he saw two men go into your store by the door nearest to your father's house, was such statement true or false?-A. I am satisfied that no one went into my store while I was at

supper.

Q. Did you send anybody to guard your store while you were at supper?-A. I did. Q. State who it was, and what you told him to do.-A. It was Henry Kibble, and I told him to go down and stay about the store until I came; that I forgot to take my money out of the drawer that night.

Q. Did Henry Kibble go into the store?-A. He did not.

Q. Was Henry Kibble at the store when you came down?-A. He was.

Q. Did you refuse to permit the officers of election to count the ballots in your store? If so, why?-A. I did not make a positive refusal. I told them that I suspended business during the day to assist the register, and that they were making an unreasonable request of me.

Q. If you had suspended business during the day, from what source did the money which you left in the drawer, and that you sent Henry Kibble down to look after?— A. From sales on days previous to that.

Q. You stated that the door opening out of the side room, which is fastened by a bar inside, was fastened while the ballot-box was in there. Have you any special reasons for remembering that that door was fastened at that particular time, or do you state it because you habitually keep it fastened?-A. My reason is this: I had gone in there a short while before the box was put in that day and shut and fastened the door, and no one had gone in there from that time till the ballot-box was put in, nor until the next day.

H. Kibble, 569:

Question. State your name, age, occupation, and where you lived on November 2, 1880.-A. Henry Kibble; about fifty years; house and farm hand; I lived with B. C. Lanier, right here.

Q. Did you see J. F. Lanier about supper time on the night of the election?-A. I did.

Q. Did he tell you to do anything?—A. He told me just about supper time, in the yard, if I could get the chance to come to the store and set upon the fence until he could come from his supper, and to hail him when he did come, so that he might know that I had been here.

Q. What did you do?-A. I did come down to the fence near the corner of the store and staid there until John F. Lanier came there.

Q. How long after J. F. Lanier told you to go to the store did you go to the store? -A. I come right off.

Q. How far from the store was you when he told you to go to the store?-A. About two hundred yards.

Q. Did anybody go into the store while you was there?-A. No, sir.

Q. Are you certain about that?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. Did you hear any noise in the store or see any light in the store while you was there?-A. I did not.

One explanation of the large vote cast for the contestee at this precinct is that many colored Republicans having no Republican candidate for Congress preferred the contestee to the contestant. This is shown by the proofs.

J. Hertzler, a witness for contestant, 183, 188:

Q. I believe you stated yesterday that while the election was going on a crowd of colored men came up and voted, and that it was rumored or stated that the leader of these colored men had sold out, did you not?-A. I so understood the next day.

Q. You mean, do you not, by selling out, that this colored man had gone back upon the Republican party?-A. That is what I understood; that in that way this majority was brought about.

Q. Then, on the next day after the election, you understood that this majority was brought about by a colored man inducing an entire club to vote the Democratic ticket?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. Isn't it true, Mr. Hertzler, that you would think, from your knowledge of colored men, that they would disposed to secrete the fact of having voted the Democratic ticket if they had been censured for it?-A. Well, I expect they would, likely. Q. It is true, too, of your knowledge of the colored men, that very many of them have a very imperfect idea of the sanctity of an oath ?-A. Yes, sir.

P. McDaniel, a witness for contestant, 212:

Q. It is true, is it not, that any colored man who wanted to change his ticket could do so as he passed through the little room before he got to the polls?-A. After he entered the door, why, if he saw cause to change, and was mean enough, he could change right in the presence of the officers there; he didn't change in our presence, though,

where we could see.

Q. You say, then, if he was mean enough to do it, he could change after he got in the room?-A. After he entered the door.

Q. And when they got in that room most of them staid some five minutes, did they not?-A. Yes, sir.

Q. It is true, is it not, that some colored men voted the Democratic ticket, and one or two admit it, and the other men who voted the Democratic ticket are apt to deny it?-A. Well, I don't know, sir, of any one that we gave tickets voted the Democratic ticket, and if they did it is not known to the general run of colored people. Any one that voted the Democratic ticket the officers know could not have voted after they entered the room without changing inside the door.

Q. Is it not true that there is a good deal of feeling expressed by the colored men down there about men who vote the Democratic ticket and then conceal it ?—A. Yes, sir.

Q. Is it not true that women have actually threatened to leave their husbands because they were suspected of voting the Democratic ticket?—A. Yes, sir; I have heard of the like.

Q. Is it not true that in those clubs there has been a good deal of talk, and among the members of those clubs a good deal of talk about men of the colored race who were understood to have voted the Democratic ticket and concealed it? A. Yes, sir. Q. Don't you think some of them are sorry for it?-A. I don't know. A man that is mean enough to do anything of that kind I can't tell hardly when he is sorry. W. Wallace, a witness for contestant, 222, 223:

Q. Were these men who said they would hold their tickets a foot and a half from their body who had been suspected of voting the Democratic ticket on the sly ?—A. They were men who voted the Democratic ticket in August.

Q. And they had been censured by the other colored men for deserting their race in August, had not they?-A. What do you mean by censured? Yes, sir; they had been laughed at. I don't know that they had rated them in any way, though they had been laughed at.

Q. Then, to fully understand the matter, the men who held out the tickets a foot

and a half from the body were men who voted the Democratic ticket in August, and they did it—that is, they held out their tickets in November to show you that they voted the Republican ticket in November?-A. They done that to prove that they were true Republicans; that is, all men did.

Q. Did every man take his ticket in his left hand or right hand?-A. In his right hand.

Q. Did you examine his hand and sleeve, to see that there was no other ticket there?-A. Well, they would open their hand. I did not examine their sleeve, but their coat was so short I could see their wrist and see there was nothing else in their hand.

Q. You thought it important to examine their wrist and see that there was nothing up their sleeves?-A. Yes, sir; I did.

Q. And you examined each one in this way?-A. Yes, sir; I examined every one that voted the ticket.

Q. You examined each one of the 156 colored men ?-A. Yes, sir; I did.

Q. You examined their hands and sleeves to see that there could be no foul play A. Well, I did not feel of their arms and sleeves, but I examined their wrists close before I gave them their ticket.

Q. You did all this because you had very little confidence in these men ?—A. I had confidence in them, but I did it to be satisfied in my own mind that they did vote the Republican ticket.

Q. If the Democratic ticket they had had been rolled up very close they could have secreted it so you could not see it, could not he ?-A. Every man held his hand open and showed me that he had no ticket before he asked for mine.

A. McCalley, 506:

Question. State your name, occupation, and if you are a colored man.-Answer. Alfred McCalley; forty-seven years of age; occupation, minister of the gospel and a farmer; colored man.

Q. State if you was a delegate to the Democratic convention held in Decatur last August which nominated a candidate to represent this district in Congress ?—A. I

was.

Q. What other colored men, if any, from this county, were delegates to that convention?-A. W. H. Counsill and Anderson Critz.

Q. Were there many colored men who were earnestly advocating the Democratic cause in the November election ?-A. There were.

Q. About how many voted the Democratic ticket at Lanier's store in the November election?-A. I can't state the exact number, but think there were a good many. Q. Do you know of any acts of terrorism to prevent colored men from voting the Democratic ticket in the last November election or preceding thereto?-If so, state what they are.-A. I do. I know that colored men are generally ostracized if they vote the Democratic ticket. Essex Lewis was turned out of the Cumberland church because he voted the Democratic ticket, and I have been ostracized on that account. The elder of the church told me that neither Essex Lewis nor I should ever be received at his house again since we were going to vote the Democratic ticket. The pastor of the church invited me to assist him in administering sacrament at Poplar Hill. I went to do so. After I had read a passage of Scripture and prayed and got up to announce my text, a confusion ensued and many of the congregation departed, saying that they would not stay to hear a "Democratic nigger" preach. This was since the election. Q. Please state if you went to Hartsell's to make a speech in September last in the interest of the Democratic party?-A. I did.

Q. Please state what occurred?-A. I was asked what party I was advocating. I said the Democratic party. Then they would not permit me to speak.

Q. Who was it that would not allow you to speak?-A. The colored people.

Q. Did you know who they were?-A. I did not. I only know that there was a large portion of them who would not permit me to speak.

Q. Did they use any threats against you if you tried to speak?-A. They did. They said if I got up to speak that they would mob me.

Q. What did you do?-A. I took the 4 o'clock train and returned to Huntsville. Q. Why do you think that a great many colored men voted the Democratic ticket at Lanier's store in the November election?-A. There are a great many colored men who favor the Democratic party, and will always vote that ticket but for the ostracism and terrorism practiced by the Republicans or Greenbackers.

Another explanation of the result is that Lanier's precinct was carved out of Triana and Whitesburg precincts after the August election and before the November election of 1880, and the aggregate Democratic majority at the two precincts in August was 169, whereas at the November election the aggregate result was a Democratic minority of 222.

This shows not a Democratic gain, but a Democratic relative loss of 391

This is shown on pages 533, 534, and 535 of the record. It appears, therefore, that the aggregate opposition vote was 111 greater at the Triana and Whitesburg precincts in November than in August, while the aggregate Democratic vote in November, in all three precincts, was 225 less than at the two original precincts in August. And almost half of the aggregate Democratic, votes cast in November in the three precincts were cast at the new precinct of Lanier.

A third explanation is, that three colored men, including Rev. Mr. McCally, were members of the convention which nominated Mr. Wheeler, and were influential workers for him.

Still another explanation is, that William Wallace, alias Wallace Toney, distributed Wheeler tickets. Wallace denies this. But Jordan swears to it on page 566. Wallace is impeached on pages 549, 556; and not one of the numerous witnesses, afterwards examined by the contestant, is called upon to sustain him.

IV.

MERIDIANVIILLE, No. 2.

The following is the conclusion of the committee respecting the election at this precinct:

The returns being successfully impeached, contestant very properly relies upon the direct testimony of the voters themselves, which clearly entitles him to 55 votes at this box.

But the contestant did not specify, as one of the grounds of his contest, that he received 55 votes, or any other number of votes, at this precinct; nor did he advise the contestee in his notice of contest that he would attempt to prove such votes by witnesses. Nor did he demand the rejection of the precinct return. All he said was this:

I am informed and believe, and so charge the fact to be, that there was fraud and ballot-box stuffing or a false count at the precinct of Meridianville (box No. 2), in Madison County.

The grounds of this alternative charge, urged in argument, were (1) that the contestant received 18 votes less than the Garfield electors; (2) that all the inspectors were Democrats; (3) that 55 ballots were cast for the contestant, but only 47 counted for him; and (4) that one of the in

spectors so inclined his person that the supervisor could not see the ballots when they were counted out at the close of the polls.

The circumstance that the contestant received 18 votes less than the Garfield electors would not seem to be a very serious element in the charge against the integrity of the returns. It is not surprising that he did not receive all the Republican votes at this precinct. In truth, it is rather amazing that he received any at all.

He had been a life-long Democrat, and while connected with the Democratic party had vilified the Republicans, and particularly the colored voters, with extraordinary virulence.

To the complaint that all the inspectors were Democrats, the answer is obvious. In the first place, the law on this subject is not mandatory. In the next place, a Republican was appointed, but did not appear; and in his absence the inspectors made an appointment to fill the va cancy. There was no law requiring them to select a Republican in that case. They did, however, attempt to do so. But book-learning seemed to be at a discount among the contestant's supporters, and the attempt was a failure.

The charge that 55 ballots were cast for the contestant and only 47 counted for him, rests upon 55 so-called depositions offered by the contestant.

These depositions are inadmissible for the following reasons: (1) None of the depositions are certified as required by law.

(2) They constitute testimony in chief, and were taken, in the face of the contestee's objections, during the last ten days of the time limited by law.

(3) The notary refused to permit the contestee to cross-examine the witnesses.

To maintain the assertion that 55 votes were cast for the contestant, instead of 47, he depends largely on the testimony of a colored man named Wade Blankenship. The following extract from his deposition, printed on pages 234, 235, and 241, will show the character of the witness on whom the contestant relies for the impeachment and overthrow of the returns of these polls :

Q. Where did you hold that club meeting before the election ?-A. On Jack Penny's place.

Q. How many were present?-A. I don't remember before the election; I don't remember how many was present, sir.

Q. About how many -A. Well, at that meeting there was probably sixty-five or seventy men there.

Q. You know that to be true, do you?-A. Well, I don't know to be positive, but there was somewhere in the neighborhood of that.

Q. Can you swear positively that there were sixty men present ?-A. I wouldn't swear at all about it; I was not acting as secretary of the meeting; I was there only as a speaker that night, and I paid no particular attention as to how many men were present.

Q. Did you know the men that were present personally?-A. Yes, sir; I knew every man in the house; I reckon there is none out there a stranger to me.

Q. Can you swear there were fifty men?-A. Yes, sir; I would do that, but I wouldn't want to swear that there were any designative number, simply from the fact that I don't know how many were there.

Q. If you don't know how many were there why did you swear there were sixty-five or seventy there?-A. I say I did not swear that.

Q. Then you don't understand that what you say here is swearing, do you?—A. I understand that, of course, but I didn't speak definitely as to how many were there. Q. Can you swear that there were forty men there?-A. I could do it, but I don't want to swear as to any designated number, general, as I first stated to you.

Q. If you are certain there was forty there, why do you object to swearing there was forty there?-A. Well from the simple fact that I didn't count them; I just judged from the crowd sitting around that there was sixty-five or seventy men that were present.