"niggers" Don't Vote

Meridlan, Miss., Nov. 0. - Today I saw something of the "Mississippi plan" üf Bal-ring elections. I carne down from Livingston, Ala., List iiight, reaching this place gliortly bcforc mldnlght, Tliere liad been a "white inenV' rally liere tlmt even ing, Includlng a tpfcLliffut procesalon, by the way of preparation for the iluties of to-day. Wïieti I airived there was still a good deal of noisr; in the streets, witli an accesional oollltlon between whitesand blucks, thoiigh notblng of a scrimis nature occurred. I was up betimes this mornlnar, a.s I nppot-ed iliu voling brgan ;it ü oVlnck. I wil surpnsrd tn lemrn tlial Uie poJlB did not open tilt 9 o'clock. About the iii( 111:111 I niet un the etreel Wal a nejjro, with a large planter almve OHfl of lii- eys and shcwiiig the mark9of a fresli uit. I asked lililí liow lio fjot hurt, and he replied: "A white man liit me; wiil a l)iick las' nifrlit." I asked I1I111 il' Ilie troi;!)le out of politics1, and be said it did. I aftcrwards saw two otbers wfio wero injured in a pplitical tracas hist blgfat. At rhc hour for opening of Uie jkiIIs I was at o.i:e of the two voling places in chis city. The voics were icceivei in a room 6!i the seroudfioor of u hrge building havinjj an outsiile stilifRy. A rnpe was sti-etched up t Hu middle oí this stairwy, forming two passages, om' for thosr goliig up and tlie othof'for the exit of thaso who li nd votcil. At 9 o'clook tlif re wpic 23 ui' Jü wlnte men on hand, but no ntgyool, Two ur tliree dozen of the latter were standiiii; in litile gnmps on the d ipusito side of Uie 8tn et, appareiltly wailinff to see "how the c.it was going t jumii" licfore aUeuiptinj; to vote. Thrre is a complete frstem of regis ration in Mississippi and Uie votiar was slow. üuards were statiODtwi at the foot of the Btairs ind at the upper landing, and but two persous ut a Unie were pernjitted to pas up 'l'lie white men at once bepau to vote. In a few minutes two or three colored men crosseil the Street aud took their places in the line, ready to ascend wlien tlieir time cime. No cfrort was made to keep thein away, and they weresoon joined byothers. iJy half past nine there were "0 or more negros and aboul as many wbites crowded around the foot ot the stairway. The negros seemed to think tliat perh ips, after all, tliey would be nllowed to cast their liallols, aud from all directions they eouhl be sein iiiaking their way towuid the pnllinj; plaee. Jiy this time tlie whltes began to show syniptoms of irrtutlon. Tliey nodded and winket to one another, and soou I heard one of them say: "I guesswe liml better do a little hustling.'? At this moment a piece cl" artillery in 11 common near by was discliarged, with 11 loud report causiug the negros to start and the white men set ii a wild yell. It was dcteruiined to give tbe blacks a chance by pointing out to them the vvay af politica! salvatlou. A portly, welldressed man, who appeared to one of the "solid" citizens, with a heaty wooden cane in his hand, carae to the rear of the negro?, near wliere I wks standing, an (1 sakl in a loud volee: "Boys, if you want to vote the democratie ticket, the one we will give you, it is hII right, hut if yon inlend to vote the republican ticket you had betterget away from tiere, and he right quick about it, too. Tliat's business, and you ,understand me. We don't want any trouble loday and there wou't be any if you just go away quickly about your business. At this speech the white men joined in another yell. Two or three negros who stood nesr hlm withdrew from the crowd and walked alowly away. All the rest remained, as f determlned to "hold the fort." The white?, to the number of eisrht or ten under the leadership of the solid citizen, ranged thetnselves in rear of the coloree! men. When all was ready, the solid eizen shouted, "Close up!" At this moment there was a cali from the upper guard, "Two more come up und vote." "White men go up; niggers stay down," cried one of the crowd. Then half a dozen took up the shout, "Close up!" and the "hustling" began. The white men threw themselves against the negros, plunging into the mass with their shoulders and elbowing and jostling them about with much roughnessand violence. Two negros feil to the sidewalk and were considcralily trampled before they were ble to gei up. They were not gtrnck or knocked down, but were slmply swept ofl' their feet in the stanipede tbat ensued. The terrifled negros ran in every direction, and in a minute after the order to "close up" not a single one remained. The complecte succes? of tlie "hustle" was gieeted with loud and prolonged cheering. I will say here that the flring of the cannon was kept up, at the intervals of half an hour, throughont the day. At the lirst discharge I askcd a gentleman wli it it was for. It was sornething new to me M a pilitical factor. He srailed as he leplied: "Oh, just to scare the niggi !." 1 heard mftiiy reports of artillery miles awiiy, indicating the cumbustlon of powder also in the country districts. Isaw several white men, soine flve or six psrailing th streets with rifles or shotguns on their shouHers. None of them were used, and they may or tnay not have been intended to co-operate slleutly witli the plee et rUllary i" '' little pirk. I only mention the fact that I saw them. Elght or ten of the negros h;ul mude their way up stairs anU voted before the "bnatllog" began. When they had been driven away the whites placed themselves on guard, and no negro was allowcd to get near the line of tho-e waitincr to vote. Siid one of tlie forraer, a line looking gentleman : ''It don't mitter if a dozen or 20 of them vote, but there can't very nnny of them get near those ballot boxes todtty." í saw a colored man approach, with tbe evident purpose of roting. A "hustler," who knew him, accosted liim with: "Helio, Jim. What do you want here?" "I t'ought I'd go up V vote." "Well, here's a ticket," and the white man hamled him a democratie ballot. "I'd be glad for to please ye," said the negro, "bot dat aiu't my kind of a ticket; I couldn' vote dat, nohow!" "Then you just git right out of here" - and the aposlle of the "white man's party" raised his cine as a menance. He did not strike. The negroe saw that it was not agiol day for hlm to vote, and turned upou his heel and walked away. I might mention a score of similar instances that passed under my observation dld space perniit. About 10 o'clock I went over to the ottier city precinct, the court house being the voting place. Hete, bv the very same process, a crowd of 75 or 100 negroes had been "hnstled" away. When I reached the spot the whites were lnughlng and chuckling over the {ftVctive work that was done. The blacks were driven olTlike cattle. A few had also voted eirly in the morning at the court-house, but after 9:30 only white men approached the sacred shiines of political llberty. In the three or four hours I spent at the polls in the city I saw just one exceptlon. A white man entered the crowd at the court-house arm-in-arm with n negro. The passage of the latter was ohstructed by one or two of the "hustlers." "Let him go," said the white escort; "he's going to vote the democratie ticket; ai)d I 11 eee that he does it, too!" Thereat the crowd cheered lustilv. That negro waB a "man and brother'' and a "tellow citizen." Those who wlshed to vote another ticket were ' d-d niggers.1' Tlm negroes appeared to have been snpplied with republican tickets before going to the polls, as tuey were not to be had there. I aw one colored man walk toward the voting line with a package of pérbvpa two dozen in his hand. I saw a white man, who had been all tlie morning particulaily zealous in his efforts to save the country, suaich the tickets from the negro's hand, tear them uji and fling the fragmenta into the air, at the saine time angrily telling the colored man to leave. He went without a word. I have told this just as I saw and heard it, as earetully as if I were under oath. I wantod to telejraph something to-day, but - though I served four years in the ariny and am not a coward - in the state of public fceling here it was not safe or prudent to tile sucli a dUpatoh to a paper in the north. Every word of this letter