Short Excerpt from CHAPTER SIX
Early Twentieth Century Corruption and the Beginning of the Rule of Coal
Fearing Democrats would win both United States Senate seats, all fifteen Republican State Senators locked themselves in Republican Governor William Glasscock’s office, preventing the State Senate from convening and choosing the Senators. The Republicans decided this was the only way to stop the appointments as the Senate would not be able to form a quorum and the appointments would have then been left to the Governor, who would certainly choose two Republicans. “For 48 hours the Governor’s Office was a virtual boarding house and jail. The situation became tense and nationwide attention was attracted,” as the fifteen Republicans seized refuge in Governor Glasscock’s office, with the assurance that the National Guard would step in if necessary. When the Democrats were poised to use State law to compel the absent Republicans’ appearance in the Legislature, Glasscock’s security officer secretly transported the State Senators by horse-drawn cabs to Cincinnati, Ohio, as high-level Democrats followed them after learning of the Republicans’ plan. When twenty armed Kentucky woodsmen appeared at their plush hotel, the Republican State Senators feared West Virginia Democrats had conspired to kidnap them and agreed to negotiate........Chafin was running the Mud Fork Precinct polling place that election day and was assisted by seven or eight of his armed deputy sheriffs. Deputy United States Marshal Hugh Deskins, a Republican, was at the polls in an attempt to prevent some of the violations of the law that commonly occurred in Logan County on election day. Sometime between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m., Sheriff Chafin arrived at the precinct and announced that he was in charge. When Marshal Deskins announced his presence, Chafin struck him in the face in the presence of potential voters as Chafin’s deputies were standing in full view with their weapons drawn. Deskins did not resist Chafin’s attack; however, he later deputized four citizens and gave each a pistol. Chafin promptly arrested the four appointed deputies and put them in jail in spite of their federal authority to be there.Following the arrival of Chafin, the vote totals for Democratic candidates increased significantly. Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court found that Chafin’s actions inside the election room destroyed the opportunity for secret balloting. The Court also ruled that Logan County officials violated the State Constitution in requiring voters to cast open ballots in another precinct, the Shamrock Precinct. Voters were brought in pairs and forced to sit at school desks located one in front of the other while the ballots were marked openly at the desks. W.F. Butcher, one of the Democratic Commissioners, testified that “practically all the ballots were marked by the clerks [and] that when the voters came in they would either call for a ticket or would be handed one, and then the clerks would complete the ballots [instead of the voters].” The Court rejected the precinct’s entire vote, finding that it was “conducted in such a way as to prevent the free expression of the will of the voters.” To read Chapter Six in its entirety, get your copy of "Don't Buy Another Vote. I Won't Pay for a Landslide." today!
