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by the first Reconstruction legislation. The discipline of the League was brought to bear on indifferent black citizens, and by threats of violence or of proscription many were driven to the polls. On February 3 the negroes began to flock to the voting places, each with a gun, a stick, a dog, and a bag of rations, as directed by their white leaders. It was again necessary for them to vote
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The Radical candidates were desperately afraid that the constitution would fail of ratification, and every means was taken to swell the number of votes cast. Many negroes voted rolls of tickets given them by the candidates. They voted one day in one precinct, and the next day in another, or several times in the same place. Little attention was paid to the registration lists, but every negro over sixteen who presented himself was allowed to vote. Hundreds of negro boys voted; it was said that none were ever turned away. Where the whites had men at the polls to challenge voters, it was found almost impossible to follow the lists because so many of the negroes had changed their names since registration. The sick at their homes sent their proxies by their friends or relatives. In one case the Radicals voted negroes under the names of white men who were staying away. The voters migrated from one county to another during the elections and voted in each. This was especially the case in Mobile, Marengo, Montgomery, Macon, Lee, Russell, Greene, Dallas, Hale, and Barbour counties.[1501] The _Mobile Register_ claimed that negro women were dressed in men's clothes and voted. The Radical chairman of the Board of Registration in Perry County stated that one-third of the votes polled in that county were illegal.[1502] In Mobile, when a negro man appeared whose name was not on the voting list and was challenged by the Conservatives, he was directed by a