Everyone of these innocent little “ors” is the instrument of and
contains infinite possibilities of fraud, and in the hands of election
officers, all of whom are members of one party and of the same faction,
are construed to mean one thing to one set of voters and another thing
to another set, when they offer to register.
As Mr. Creelman has explained in his dispatches, the registration
officer and his board will have the sole power to make voters in South
Carolina, as the Supreme Court of the State has decided that there is
no appeal to any Court of law from the acts of election officers. In
short, the Convention has been called to legalize the frauds which have
been perpetrated upon the elective franchise in this State since 1876.
No one can tell or estimate what the vote will be, and that question
can be answered only by the election officers.
ROBERT SMALLS,
THOMAS E. MILLER,
JAMES E. WIGG,
R. B. ANDERSON,
ISAIAH REED,
Republican Members of the Constitutional Convention.
Columbia, S. C., Sept. 30, 1895.
* * * * *
Transcriber’s Notes:
Punctuation has been made consistent.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in
the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have
been corrected.