In Chesterfield County, following the 1870 election, conservatives and Republicans accused each other of election misconduct. The conservatives' accusation received a great deal of attention, likely because conservatives largely controlled the regional press. Here we take a closer look at the Republicans' claims.
Chesterfield Republicans claimed that conservatives had suppressed the Republican vote in the precincts of Cole Hill and Alligator through intimidation. The claims were sent to the state board of canvassers and then the senate committee on privileges and elections and its analogue in the House. Presumably, they deliberated on the claim, but there was never any substantiative public vetting. The board of canvassers accepted the election returns for the Cole Hill and Alligator precincts without giving a justification. The senate committee found that the evidence provided by Republican leader R. J. Donaldson was "very general and unsatisfactory," and recommended that he give additional testimony, but he never did so, and the matter was dropped.
The response by the house committee to the voter intimidation claims was a fiasco. When it came time for the nine-person committee to issue a report, the two different reports were issued, one recommending that the board of canvassers decision be upheld, the other recommending that it be overturned. Each report was signed by four members, with one member abstaining from signing either report. After a lengthy and contentious debate that include one committee member advocating voting against the recommendation of the report that he had signed, the House voted to overturn the board of canvassers decision.
What can we say about the Republican claims of voter intimidation. There are only a few pieces of evidence available to us. In its report, the county board of canvassers gave precise numbers on voters. In Alligator and Cole Hill precincts, the number of Black voters was 19 while the number of white voters was 202. These numbers indeed suggest misconduct. State-wide, Black voters almost uniformly supported the Republican party, and in Chesterfield, Republican candidates usually received the majority of the Black vote plus a small number of votes from white Unionists. The returns from the two precincts are consistent with this: the number of votes received by the Republican candidate is almost identical to the number of Black voters (21 versus 19). However, the number of Black voters is suspiciously low. Black residents made up about 16% percent of precincts, but they made only about 8% of the voters.
Some additional information is offered by the affidavits submitted to the General Assembly. The exact text is given below. One person (Rodrick Outlaw) claimed that Republicans had been threatened with violence if they voted for their party, while another person (Willis Copeland) stated that he knows three voters who voted the Democratic ticket because they were told that otherwise they'd lose their jobs (likely sharecropping).
We can try to get some more information out of the affidavits by looking into the people named. Unfortunately, the most useful resource, the 1869 militia enrollments, is currently unavailable (the website is down). Looking at census records, Rodrick Outlaw Jr. appears to be a small farmer who had been in the Alligator / Cole Hill area since before the Civil War. Expectedly, Outlaw was a white Confederate veteran. Since we only have a name and a rough location to go by, it is conceivable that I could have misidentified, but the use of the generational title "Jr." is further evidence that Rodrick was white because enslavement tended to work against the sort of family relations suggested by the generational title.
The trial justice that Rodrick went to, B. C. Cassidy, was someone he likely knew. Cassidy was a white South Carolinian who had been farming in Alligator / Cole Hill since before the Civil War. Although he never held a major elected office, he had long been active in local government, serving as a constable, an election manager, and a magistrate (an antebellum office similar to that of trial justice) during the antebellum. Cassidy appears to have become supportive of the Republican party, although unfortunately there is no records of his political development.
The other affidavit was handled by the trial justice Frank H. Eaton. Eaton is well-documented. Originally from the northeast, Eaton came to South Carolina as an officer in the 25th Regiment in the last months of the war, when the regiment was sent to Darlington to participate in the post-war occupation. He remained in the state after leaving military service. By 1870, he had moved to Cheraw and was serving in several state and federal positions. In addition to his position as a trial justice, he served as an assistant federal tax assessor and as a U.S. commissioner (a position similar to a modern magistrate judge).
I haven't been able to find about Willis Copeland, the person who had Eaton write out the affidavit, or the three men he refers to (Jacob McGoogin, Samuels Evans, and Henry Sellars). Copeland's statement suggests that the three men were likely freedmen who were working as sharecroppers for conservative former planters.
The senate committee's evaluation that the two affidavits were "very general and unsatisfactory" seems fair. Neither affidavit included enough information to change the election results, but they certainly invited further investigation, an investigation that was never performed. Absent new evidence, we can't verify the affidavits, but certainly, other developments in South Carolina clearly demonstrate that the Republican vote was often suppressed through threats like those that the affidavits reported.
At the same time, conservatives did not need to have suppressed the Republican vote to win the election. The official election returns had conservative candidates winning the election by approximately one-hundred and twenty votes, and the demographics of it only cost them about twenty votes.
The best summary of Chesterfield election was perhaps offered by legislators Lawrence Cain, Prince R. Rivers, and David Harris. In a complaint submitted to the General Assembly, they stated that the evidence showed that the election had been carried out in an illegal manner and recommended holding a new election.
Affidavit One
South Carolina
Chesterfield Co.
Personally appeared before me B. C. Cassidy Trial Justice in and for said county state Rodrick Outlaw Jr who being duly sworn deposes and says that on the 19th Oct 1870 at the General Election he was afraid to vote the Republican ticket on account of previous threats that Republicans would be shot or their houses burned over their heads that he voted the democratic ticket through fear and to his personal knowledge many other voters were threatened and kept away from the polls through fear.
Rodrick Outlaw Jr [marked with an "x"]
Sworn before me
1st Nov: 1870
B. C. Cassidy
Trial Justice
Affidavit Two
State of South Carolina
Chesterfield County
Personally appears before me Frank H. Eaton Trial Justice in and for said County and state Willis Copeland a legal voter of said county and being duly sworn declare on oath that he is intimately acquainted with Jacob McGoogin and Samuels Evans and Henry Sellars who are legal voters of said County. That he knows that they each intended to vote the Republican ticket on the 19 Oct. last but their employers threatened to turn them from their homes if they voted for Donaldson that under these threats he knows that each of the voters named voted the Democratic ticket contrary to their desire + purpose and he further says that each of the voters named are now afraid to testify to the fact lest their live be so dangered.
Willis Copeland [marked with an "x"]
Sworn to before me
this 19th Nov. 1870
F. E. Eaton
Trial Justice
Dramatis personae
Samuel Evans was working as a farmer in Jefferson township in 1870. He remained there until sometime between 1900 and 1910 when he moved to Union County, North Carolina.
1.Year: 1870; Census Place: Jefferson, Chesterfield, South Carolina; Roll: M593_1491; Page: 314B
2. Year: 1880; Census Place: Jefferson, Chesterfield, South Carolina; Roll: 1225; Page: 347B; Enumeration District: 006
3. Series: Militia Enrollments of 1869 (S192021)
Jacob McGoogin (or McGoogan or McGuigan) was working as a farmer and a laborer in Chesterfield township in 1870. He and his family had moved to Old Store by 1880.
1.Year: 1870; Census Place: Court House, Chesterfield, South Carolina; Roll: M593_1491; Page: 307A
2. Year: 1880; Census Place: Old Store, Chesterfield, South Carolina; Roll: 1225; Page: 396A; Enumeration District: 008
3. Series: Militia Enrollments of 1869 (S192021)
South Carolina. White.
Occupation: farmer.
Rodrick (or Rodrick) Outlaw was born in Kershaw County, South Carolian to unknown parents. He first appears in the historical record in the 1850 census. That year he was living in Chesterfield in the household of Jane Holloman and working as a laborer. He had started his own family farm by 1860. He served in the Fourth South Carolina Infantry during the Civil War. After the war ended, he returned to his farm. He was still living there in 1870 and in 1880. Rodrick died in 1897 and was buried in Pleasant Hill Church Cemetery.
1. The National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M432; Residence Date: 1850; Home in 1850: Chesterfield, Chesterfield, South Carolina; Roll: 851; Page: 133b
2. The National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M653; Residence Date: 1860; Home in 1860: Chesterfield, South Carolina; Roll: M653_1217; Page: 123; Family History Library Film: 805217
3. Year: 1870; Census Place: Alligator, Chesterfield, South Carolina; Roll: M593_1491; Page: 242A
4. Year: 1880; Census Place: Alligator, Chesterfield, South Carolina; Roll: 1225; Page: 259B; Enumeration District: 001
5. South Carolina Department of Archives and History; Columbia, South Carolina; South Carolina Death Records; Year Range: 1925-1949; Death County or Certificate Range: Lancaster. Certificate Number 014522
South Carolina. White.
Occupation: farmer
B. C. Cassidy (or Cassady) was born in South Carolina. He likely first appears in the historical record in 1850 as "Benjamin C. Cassady," a farmer in Chesterfield County. In the antebellum, he served several minor roles in the state government: as a constable, a magistrate, and an election manger. After the war, he appears to have become supportive of the Republican government and received an appointment as a trial justice by Governor Scott. He died in 1878.
1. Book1
2. Book2
3. Book3
4. Book4
5. Year: 1870; Census Place: Alligator, Chesterfield, South Carolina; Roll: M593_1491; Page: 240A
6. The National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M653; Residence Date: 1860; Home in 1860: Chesterfield, South Carolina; Roll: M653_1217; Page: 121
7. The National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M432; Residence Date: 1850; Home in 1850: Chesterfield, Chesterfield, South Carolina; Roll: 851; Page: 124b
Connecticut. White.
Occupation: assistant assessor, clerk, U.S. commissioner.
Frank (or Franklin) H. Eaton was born in Hartford, Connecticut to Jeremiah Sewall and Harriet Eaton. The family moved to Portland, Maine when Frank was a small boy so that his father could serve as pastor at the Free Street Church, a Baptist church. As pastor, Sewall was very outspoken in opposing slavery. Sewall died in 1856, but the family remained in Portland. By 1860, Frank was working as a store clerk.
Frank enlisted in the Union army in late 1862. He first served in the 25th Maine Regiment and then in the 29th. He left the service with the rank of sergeant major.
Frank began living in South Carolina after the Civil War ended. He likely first moved to the state with the 25th Regiment went it was sent to the town of Darlington to participate in the post-war occupation. By the summer of 1867, he was living in Marlboro County. That July, he was one of nine men appointed by the military government to serve on the county board responsible for registering voters, including newly enfranchised freedmen, and organizing a ballot on whether to hold a constitutional convention.
Frank had moved to the town Cheraw by 1870. There he served as an assistant assessor. Around this time, he also received a federal appointment as a U.S. commissioner (a position similar to a modern magistrate judge).
He moved to Columbia, SC in 1875. There he continued to work as a U.S. Commissioner and also practiced law. He provided legal representation for the Union veteran Charles J. Stolbrand. Stolbrand ran as the Republican candidate for U.S. congressman of the 3rd district. The conservative Democratic incumbent (D. Wyatt Aiken) claimed electoral victory, but Stolbrand tried to contest the outcome. He was unsuccessful and the incumbent remained in office for seven more years.
Frank was lost his position as U.S. commissioner in 1881. He was removed by Judge Bond for cause, although the details of Bond's reasoning weren't publicized.
Frank died on August 2, 1887. He is buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia.
Sources
1. The Abbeville press and banner. [volume], April 13, 1881, Image 3
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