Q. You were sworn, were you?-A. They swore that they had known me ten years. Q. Did you take an oath that you would bear true allegiance to the country?—A. Yes, sir. Q. And that you had renounced your allegiance to the Queen of Great Britain?—A. Yes, sir. Q. That was regularly administered to you before you got your paper?—A. Yes, sir. Q. Then the clerk made out the paper which is here?-A. Yes, sir. Q. What did you do afterwards with the paper?-A. I took it home. Q. Did you go afterwards to the registrars with it?-A. I went with it to the registrar's on the next morning. Mr. Hedge went with me. Q. Mr. Hedge was the constable, and went before the registrars?-A. Yes, sir. Q. What did they do then?-A. They put my name on the registry. Q. Did Mr. Hedge tell them you had been naturalized?-A. I believe he did. Q. Was that the reason you went back there that morning, to get upon the list after having been naturalized?-A. Yes, sir. The naturalization paper given to this young man, born in the country, was produced, and is in these words: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (Cut of eagle.) COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, Plymouth County, 88: To all people to whom these presents shall come, greeting: Know ye that at a superior court, begun and holden at Plymouth, within and for the county of Plymouth, on the fourth Monday of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, Alexander Morrison, of Plymouth, in the county of Plymouth, and State of Massachusetts, born in the town of Sandwich, in the county of Barnstable, Massachusetts, having produced the evidence, and taken and subscribed the oath required by law, was admitted to become a citizen of the said United States, according to the acts of Congress in such cases made and provided. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of said court at Plymouth, in said county, this first day of November, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and seventy-eight. Clerk. [SEAL OF COURT.] WM. H. WHITMAN, Your committee think that this action of the registry board of Plymouth was either a gross outrage upon the sons of foreigners, born within the country, or (taking the most charitable view of the case) the board showed lamentable ignorance of the law, of common sense, and of their plain duty. The campaign of 1878, in Massachusetts, seems to have been anomalous. For the first time, so far as your committee could learn, ministers of the Christian religion were openly invited to aid in the campaign by furnishing the names and post-office address of their church members, to the end that documents containing the dogmas of a political party might be sent to them through the mails. A circular in the following form was sent to every clergyman in the State whose name and address could be found from the religious monthlies: REPUBLICAN STATE COMMITTEE OF MASSACHUSETTS, ADIN THAYER, Chairman. S. B. STEBBINS, Treasurer. DEAR SIR: In order to enable us to distribute documents effectively, will you kindly furnish us immediately with a list of the male members of your church and parish, and with such other names as you may deem expedient. By so doing you will aid us in saving the honor of our commonwealth. With esteem, yours, GEORGE G. CROCKER, Secretary. ADIN THAYER, Chairman. There were a large number of responses, and documents were sent to the names and addresses furnished. Of the character of the documents furnished to the members of the churches, your committee did not learn, but it is fair to suppose that, as the following circular seeks to arouse the alarm and indignation of "Christian citizens," it was forwarded to church members: REPUBLICAN STATE COMMITTEE OF MASSACHUSETTS, HEADQUARTERS, 376 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, September 19, 1875. ADIN THAYER, Chairman. S. B. STEBBINS, Treasurer. DEAR SIR: A desperate attempt is being made, under a hypocritical pretense of State reform, to deliver Massachusetts over to the Repudiationists, Greenbackers, and Communists. This attempt should excite the alarm and indignation of every Christian citizen, and call forth the active, earnest, and persistent opposition of every lover of the fair fame of Massachusetts. It must be met defiantly and vigorously at once by private and public appeal to the intelligence, honor, and conscience of Massachusetts. The State ticket nominated by the Republican party stands for public and private honesty and national good faith. We earnestly invoke your active aid in securing its election, and thus saving the "old commonwealth" from the control of unscrupulous and self-seeking demagogues. Per order of the Republican State Committee. GEORGE G. CROCKER, Secretary. ADIN THAYER, Chairman. Your committee deem this system of electioneering dangerous and vicious, calculated as well to bring the Christian religion into the mire of politics as to arouse sectarian animosity among the people. In pursuing another duty enjoined by the senate in Rhode Island this subject of controlling the votes of employés by the employers through fear of loss of work was incidentally examined. At Westerly, in the southwest part of the State, there are two corporations, known as the New England Granite Company and the Smith Granite Company. They employed in 1876 about 150 men in getting out and preparing granite. Direct influence was brought to bear upon these employés about a week before the Presidential election of 1876 by these corporations issuing a hand-bill and circulating it where the men worked, which stated that the election of Mr. Tilden would be a great injury to their business, and by the concluding paragraph, which declared they would secure their own interest by voting against Mr. Tilden. The circular was in these words: To all voters employed by the N. E. Granite Works and the Smith Granite Co.: Having become fully convinced that the election of Samuel J. Tilden and a Democratic Congress on the 7th of November will do a great injury to our business, and will also be a national calamity, we do most earnestly advise all voters in our employ to vote the Republican ticket, most especially for a Republican member of Congress. You will by so doing secure your own interest, our interest, and the interest of your country. The N. E. GRANITE WORKS. The plain implication from the language here used is that the injury to the business of the corporation would result in loss of employment to the workmen, and it undoubtedly had the effect to intimidate voters. It was shown that at Hope Village in the Congressional election the Republicans used a colored ballot of a very distinctly marked color, and that the Democratic ballot was plain white. At that time there were a number of Democrats employed in the works who attended Democratic meetings and desired to vote that ticket, but when these men came to vote on election day, men in the employ of the Hope Manufacturing Company stood at the ballot box and watched the ballots all day. Some of these Democrats went home without voting, and others declared that they did not dare to vote. At Woonsocket there are seven or eight large manufacturing estab lishments usually operating as corporations. They employ many workmen, a majority of whom are of foreign birth, and among the employés are many whose political opinions are Democratic. It was shown that at almost every election for years these men voted under the eye of their employers' agents, who were Republican, and in very many cases under circumstances showing intimidation and fear of loss of work. The representatives of the manufacturers of Woonsocket are chiefly Republican. The owners are not residents of Woonsocket, but of Providence and other places; but their agents in Woonsocket, as a general thing, and with but one exception, are Republicans. On the day of election they are very active, exceedingly active, in getting in the voters who work at their establishments. They are sometimes carried to the polls in their own private carriages, and sometimes in carriages hired by the party. They are usually met at the entrance to the hall by men in the employ of those corporations, who will present the voters, as they are marched in, with ballots. They are followed, in many cases, from the entrance to the hall to the ballot-box, and watched until the ballot is seen to be deposited in the ballot-box, so that there may be no opportunity for them to change their ballots and take others. One witness described the acts which he thought amounted to intimidation, in this language: On the night before the last Congressional election, parties who we know are Democrats came to me and told me they were afraid to vote the Democratic ticket openly; that they wanted me to get them some ballots so that they could vote if they got down; that their overseers were watching them; that the Republican candidate, Mr. Ballou, was a heavy stockholder in the corporation, and they expected to be bulldozed, as they stated it. I had letters from two parties requesting me to leave the ballots, so that they could distribute them among the help the next morning before seven o'clock. We thought it would make a difference to us of thirty or forty votes if those men voted our ticket. I do not think that this intimidation is carried on in all the mills there; there is some difference between them in that respect; I think that in the Social Company's mill we get as many Democratic as Republican votes. As has been stated by others, there is a man there named Sampson who makes himself very officious on election-day, who takes care of the voters as they come up. From the Woonsocket Machine Company, at the last Congressional election, they had their overseer posted about two feet from the ballot-box, and he was handing ballots to the operatives as they came up to vote. His name is Charles A. Chase. I remember now a party who did work for the Woonsocket Machine Company, who told me, shortly after the election, that he was going to lose his position, and he did lose it. About a month after that they discharged him because he would not peddle Republican ballots in the shop. Another witness described it thus: I have known men employed in the Woonsocket machine shop to be marched up, in the hall, in squads by a man named Chase, who had some position there-I do not know whether it was that of engineer or what it was-and compelled to hold their hands up with the ballots in thein, in this manner. [The witness elevated his right hand to a level with his head.] They walked along and he went with them, watching them until, as each man dropped the ballot in, he took his eye off the men. At the last Congressional election I saw him march up two squads from the machine shop. I know one man up there who, at the same election, informed me that he wanted to vote the Democratic ticket, but was obliged to vote the Republican ticket, because he had been given to understand that it would be for his interest to do so. His property was mortgaged, and a party who ran on the Republican ticket controlled, or his intimate friend controlled, the mortgage at the time. The man was afraid to vote otherwise, he informed me. They have come to me, for instance, and to other Democrats in my hearing and sight and said We want a ticket." This was the evening before the election. And they gave us a ticket and said that they had to carry it or they would lose their job. There is a strong feeling in their minds that if they do not vote the ticket that is given to them by their employers they are liable to be turned off, that they are spotted, and, if anybody is turned off, it will be them. These employés who are Democrats, who have been furnished with tickets or who say, "We shall be furnished with a ticket by the boss of the manufacturing company's agents," come to our headquarters and say, "We want a ticket in our pockets that is of our kind, so that we can vote it if we change it for the other." Well, the employers have found that they were being cheated by the men; that the men, in spite of their convincing advice, had got the tickets that they wanted to vote and had put them in. That accounts for their compelling the men to hold their hands up. They give them their ticket when they get out of the carriage and compel them to hold it up in their hands as they march along through the crowd. It was shown that in the tenth ward of Providence, at the Presidential election of 1876, the time-keeper employed by The Corliss Steam Engine Company was at the polls with his book, and as every man working for his establishment would cast his ballot he would check his name or write his name down upon the book. He was not there as an official of the election. He would watch to see which way a man voted and then take memoranda in his book. Employés complained of this and said. they were afraid to vote. The ward was largely Democratic and this action produced disturbance on the part of citizens who sought to have the time-keeper removed because the employés of the Corliss Steam Engine Company were afraid if they voted their principles they would be discharged from the works, and he was finally removed from the place. This company employed several hundred men at that time. Your committee was instructed "to inquire and report whether it is within the competency of Congress to provide by additional legislation for the more perfect security of the right of suffrage to citizens of the United States in all the States of the Union." They have performed that duty, and while they find that improper practices, as hereinbefore detailed, exist in the States visited, and the freedom of choice by voters in those States has been interfered with, and persons practically threatened with dismissal from employment if they voted in opposition to the wishes of their employers, yet they cannot find that it is within the competency of Congress to correct this wrong by additional or any legislation, but that, on the contrary, the remedy therefor is to be found with the law-making power of the State in which the wrong is perpetrated. Wrongs upon the ballot or interference with the right of suffrage or with the modes of qualifications of the voter are questions which are to be corrected and controlled by the States, and not by the Federal Government. Suffrage is under the control of the States, and not of the Federal Government. The latter has no voters of its own creation, it cannot define who are voters, it cannot qualify voters, nor can it protect voters from wrong by inflicting punishment upon those who compel them to improperly exercise their right of suffrage. It may punish for crimes committed in regard to the manner of voting, but an offense against the right itself must be punished under State law, and not by Federal statute. The "civilized bulldozing" which we find to have existed in the ancient and honored commonwealths of Massachusetts and Rhode Island is an evil which the people of those States must themselves correct, and your committee feel that in bringing the facts to the public gaze they will help to strengthen a sentiment already in existence, and aid in crystallizing it into such statutory enactments of those States as will correct the evil or punish its repetition. Mr. BLAIR submitted the following as the VIEWS OF THE MINORITY: The minority of the Select Committee appointed to Inquire into Alleged Frauds, &c., in the Recent Elections report as follows the result of their investigation in Massachusetts and Rhode Island as to the alleged intimidation of voters in those States. On the 17th day of December, 1878, the Senate passed the following resolution: Resolved, That a select committee, to consist of nine Senators, be appointed by the Chair to inquire and report to the Senate whether at the recent elections the constitutional rights of American citizens were violated in any of the States of the Union; whether the right of suffrage of citizens of the United States, or of any class of such citizens, was denied or abridged by the action of the election officers of any State or of the United States, in refusing to receive their votes, in failing to count them, or in receiving and counting fraudulent ballots in pursuance of a conspiracy to make the lawful votes of such citizens of none effect; and whether such citizens were prevented from exercising the elective franchise, or forced to use it against their wishes, by violence or threats, or hostile demonstrations of armed men or other organizations, or by any other unlawful means or practices. The committee shall also inquire whether any citizen of any State has been dismissed or threatened with dismissal from employment or deprivation of any right or privilege by reason of his vote or intention to vote at the recent elections, or has been otherwise interfered with. And to inquire whether, in the year 1878, money was raised, by assessment or otherwise, upon Federal office-holders or employés for election purposes, and under what circumstances and by what means; and, if so, what amount was so raised and how the same was expended; and, further, whether such assessments were or not in violation of law. And shall inquire into the action and conduct of United States supervisors of elections in the several States; and as to the number of marshals, deputy marshals, and others employed to take part in the conduct of the said elections; in what State or city appointed; the amount of money paid or promised to be paid to them, and how or by whom, and under what law authorized. Resolved, That the committee be further instructed to inquire and report whether it is within the competency of Congress to provide by additional legislation for the more perfect security of the right of suffrage to citizens of the United States in all the States of the Union. Resolved, That in prosecuting these inquiries the committee shall have the right, by itself or by any subcommittee, to send for persons and papers, to take testimony, to administer oaths, and to visit any portion of the country when such visit may, in their judgment, facilitate the object of the inquiry. This committee was created by reason of the loud and general complaints of frauds, intimidation, and heinous crimes alleged to have been committed in certain of the Southern States at the national elections in autumn of 1878, whereby a fair expression of the will of the people was prevented and the exercise of the constitutional rights of American citizens in the elections was denied or abridged, and in many cases the suffrage itself totally destroyed. In pursuance of the terms of the above resolution, the committee proceeded to Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, the States which common fame designated as the proper theaters of investigation; and after taking some fourteen hundred printed pages of testimony, all relating to the Congressional elections of 1878, reported to the Senate the result of their labors, at the same session, in the month of February, |