Richard Reese, President of the Grant club of Schley County, confirms
the statements of George Smith in regard to the treatment of the
Radicals in Schley County. He says:
"When the Ku-Klux commenced riding about the country I was at Macon
attending the colored convention. When I got home some white men,
Democrats, who were friends of mine, told me that the Ku-Klux would
certainly kill me if I staid at home at nights. I took my blanket
and hid in the woods. I have never had a gun or pistol in my life.
I lay in the woods every night until after election. Day times I
came home and worked my crop. One day, as I was in my yard, Mr.
Jack Childers, a Democrat, came along from Americus, and said to
me, 'Where is old Dick, the damned old Radical?' I said, 'Here I
am.' He said, 'Well, you will be certain to be killed.' I said,
'Well, if they kill me they will kill a good old Radical, and I
haven't got much longer to live noway.' He then started to get out
of his buggy and come at me, but the man with him held him in and
drove on. I had the Grant tickets in my house, and went to the
Bumphead precinct, but there were more Radicals than Democrats
there, and they would not open the polls at all. We staid there
till twelve o'clock, then started for Ellaville. The white and
colored Democrats were voting, but they would not let a Radical
vote until about two o'clock, when Charley Hudson got upon a stump
and said no man could vote unless he had paid his taxes. He then
got down, and he and nearly every white man there went around to
the colored voters and told them that if they would vote the
Democratic ticket their tax was paid. I offered my ticket, and they
said my tax was not paid, and if I put in my ticket they would put
me in jail, and send me to the penitentiary. I had already agreed
with a white man, who owed me $50, to pay my tax, and he said he
had done it, but when I found him, and he found what was the
matter, he said he had not paid it. They demanded $4.50 poll-tax,
and I paid it and put in my vote. They were determined that I
should not vote, and I was determined that I would vote for Grant
any way, as I was the president of the club. They told me if I
would vote for Seymour and Blair I need not pay my taxes. After I
got my vote in I took all my Grant tickets and scattered them among
the crowd, and told my club they need not try to vote, it would do
no good. Grant would be elected without Schley County, and we all
went home.
"Last spring we built a school-house, and hired a white lady to
teach our school for several months. We held meetings and schools
every Sunday. Friday night, February 5, 1869, our school-house was
burned up.
"Last night we had a meeting to see what we could do about building
another house. We have a deed of one-and-a-half acres of land, but
there is no timber on it, and the owners of the land around have
put up a paper forbidding us to cut a stick on their's, and see how
tight they have got us. We want the Government or somebody to help
us build. We want some law to protect us. We know that we could
burn their churches and schools, but it is against the law to burn
houses, and we don't want to break the law or harm anybody. We want
the law to protect us, and all we want is to live under the law."
ANDERSONVILLE, _Feb. 7, 1869_.