Report of the Joint select committee appointed to inquire into the condition of affairs in the late insurrectionary states, so far as regards the execution of laws, and the safety of the lives and property of the citizens of the United States and Testimony taken.

1626 CONDITION OF AFFAIRS IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.
Question. And with a similar result?
Answver. Yes, sir; I think, perhaps, with a greater result in Greene County, for the
vote was larger and the majority greater in that county. It is very large, and I think
really their result was greater, overcoming that majority, than it was even here.
Question. Did you ever hear, or do you know from your intimacy with the county of
Greene, which is very considerable, of any effort to coerce or intimidate the negroes
there, and compel them to vote the democratic ticket?
Answer. Never, sir. As far as I have ever heard or known they agreed with us here that
the negroes could comprehend us better than we had ever supposed that they could;
and they could be influenced by our arguments; they could listen to reason and would
listen to reason; and that the best way to succeed with them was to be upon terms of
friendship with them, to persuade them, and to reason with them, and state facts to
them, such as they could understand, and say to them it was to their interest to vote
with us.
Question. Was there any effort to coerce them here or there by means of discharging
them from employment
Answer. I never heard, sir, of a single instance of that sort. If there was anything
of the kind, I never heard it. On the contrary, a great many farmers could not influence their freedmen to vote with them at all. They came and voted against them.
They came with them to town and voted against them, so it was said; and I don't
know of a single freedman ever being discharged from the employment of any man
on account of his voting.
Question. In point oc' fact, is not the anxicty to obtain labor so great by the landowners in this part of the country that they are compelled to get this labor in any
way that they can?
Answer. That is it, sir. If they were to discharge the freedmen on that accountQuestion. They would find employment immediately, would they not?
Answer. They would find it very difficult to keep from going into bankruptcy. Their
creditors would get all they had. Most of the planters are in debt. They have not
entirely recovered from their embarrassments yet. They mostly have mortgages on
the crop to get supplies to make it. They owe to the commission merchants, and
would not take any such steps as would deprive them of labor and cause the foreclosing of their mortgages upon them.
Question. The negroes feel very independent on that question, do they not?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. There is more effort on the part of the white people to get labor than on
the part of the negroes to obtain employment?
Answer. Yes, sir. There is very great effort on the part of the planters to get labor.
Toward the close of the year the streets are pretty much full of them, electioneering
with them, and endeavoring to get them.
Question. They electioneer harder with them to get them to go to their places than
to get them to vote with them?
Answier. Yes, sir; I think if they had electioneered as hard with them to get them
to vote the democratic ticket as they do to get them to live with them at the end of
the year. our majority would have been still greater.
Question. You say you practice regularly in Choctaw County?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. There have been some disturbances reported here from that county; do
you know anything in regard to them?
Answcer. The disturbances, you mean, in regard to the holding of courts, or the taking of life?
Question. Any violations of law.
Answer. There has been a man killed, I don't know his name, near De Sotoville; he
was killed prior to the holding of the last court. I only know the fact that there was
a man killed there; I don't know for what reason. I have heard of several other persons being killed around in that neighborhood, but I don't know the reasons of it. I
have heard this suggested: that some one, I think, was killed for an attempted rape on
a female, but which one I don't know. There was a negro man that was a register,
killed a freedman two years ago down there. He pointed his gun at him and killed
him; he was tried and acquitted for it; this was the principal disturbance there.
Question. You say a colored man held the office of register?
Answler. Yes, sir; he had held the office of register, and he killed a negro man
upon the same place by pointing his gun at him, and it is supposed, at least the defense was set up, that it was an accidental shot, and upon that ground he was acquitted.
Question. On the ground that he had no malice, no intention to kill?
Answer. Yes, sir. Others believe that he did it to show his authority as register.
Question. They have had some trouble down there with their officers?
Answtcer. Yes, sir.
Question. The probate judge and others?