fraud and falsehood just far enough in Hinds county, and that the time has comewhen it should be slopped—peaceably if possible, forcibly if necessary. And to this end it is proposed that whenever a radical pow-wow is to be held the nearest anti-radical club appoint a committee of ten discreet, intelligent and reputable citizens, fully ident ifled with the interests of the neighborhood and we 1 known as men of veracity, to attend as representatives of the tax-payers of the neighborhood and county, and true friends of the negroes assembled, and that whenever the radical speakers proceed to mislead the negroes, and open with falsehoods and deceptionsand misrepresentations, the committee stop them right then and there, and compel them to tell the truth or quit the stand.” Nor do these outrages find any excuse in the statement made repeatedly by witnesses, that the negroes were organizing or threatened or contemplated organizing themselves into military bands for the destruction of the white race. The evidence shows cone usively that there were not only no such .organizations, but that the negroes were not armed generally ; that those w'ho had arms were furnished with inferior and second-hand weapons, and that theirleaders, both religious and political, had discountenanced a resort to force. Many rumors were current among the whites that the negroes were arming and massing in large bodies, but in all cases these rumors had no basis. In a sentence it may be asserted that all the statements made that there was any justifiable cause for the recent proceedings in Mississippi are without foundation. On the other hand, it is to be said, speaking generally, that a controlling part and, as we think, a majority, of the white democratic voters of the State were engaged in a systematic effort to carry the election, and this with a purpose to resort to all means within their power, including on the part of some of them the murder of prominent persons in the republican party, both black and white. There was a minority, how large the committee are unable to say, who were opposed to the outrages which by this report are proved to have taken place. This minority, however, is for the time overawed and as powerless to resist the course of events as are the members of the republican party. Under more favorable circumstances they may be able to co-operate with the friends of Older and redeem the State from the control of the revolutionary element. (1.) The committee find that the young men of the State, especially those who reached manhood during the war, or who have arrived at that condition since the war, constitute the nucleus and the main force of the dangerous element. As far as the testimony taken by the committee throws any light upon the subject it tends, however, to establish the fact that the democratic organizations, both in the counties and in the State, encouraged the young men in their course, accepted the political advantages of their conduct, and are in a large degree responsible for the criminal results. (2.) There was a general disposition on the part of white employers to compel the laborers to vote the democratic ticket. This disposition was made manifest by newspaper articles, by the resolutions of convections, and by the declarations of | land-owners, planters and farmers to the woikmen whom they employed, ar.d by the incorporation in contracts of a provision that they should be void in case the negroes voted the republican ticket. (3.) Democratic clubs were organized in all parts of the State, and the able-bodied members were also organized, generally into military companies, and furnished with the best arms that could be procured in the country. The fact of their existence was no secret, although persons rot in sympathy with the movement were excluded from membership. Indeed their object was more fully attained by public declarations of their organization in connection with the intention, everywhere expressed, that it was their purpose to carry the election at all hazards. In many places these organizations possessed one or more pieces of artillery. These pieces of artillery were carried over the counties and discharged upon the roads in the neighborhood of republican meetings, and at meetings held by the democrats. For many weeks before the election members of this military organization traversed the various counties menacing the voters and discharging their guns by night as well as by day. This statement is sustained by the testimony of Captain W. A. Montgomery, Captain E. O. Sykes, J- D. Vertner, leading democrats in their respective counties, as well as by the testimony of a large number of trustworthy republicans. (4.) It appears from the testimony that for some time previous to the election it was impossible, in a large number of counties, to hold republican meetings. lu the republicau counties of Warren, Hinds, Lowndes, Monroe, Copiah, and Holmes meetings of the republicans wyere disturbed or broken up, and all attempts to engage in public discussion were abandoned by the republicans many weeks before the election. (5.) The riots at Vicksburgh on the 5th of July, and at Clinton on the 4ch of September, were the results of a special purpose on the part of the democrats to break up the meetings of the republicans, to destroy the leaders, and to inaugurate an era of terror, not only in those counties, but throughout the State, which would deter republicans, and particularly the negroes, from organizing or attending meetings, and especially deter them from the free exercise of the right to vote on the day of
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