22 



ALABAMA. 



registrars in the several precincts, who may desire to 

 present testimony in their own behalf. 



VIII. Unless otherwise instructed hereafter, 

 Boards of Registration are directed, in determining 

 whether applicants to register are legally qualified, to 

 hold that the terms " executive and judicial," in the 

 act of Congress, March 23, 1867, comprise all per- 

 sons, whomsoever, who have held office under the 

 executive or judicial departments of the State or 

 national Government in other words, all officers 

 not legislative, which last are also excluded by the 

 act. Persons who applv to register, but who are 

 considered disqualified by the boards, will be per- 

 mitted to take the required oath, which, with the ob- 

 jections of the board, will be held for adjudication 

 hereafter. 



IX. The lists of registered voters, for each of the 

 precincts, will be exposed in some public place in 

 that precinct, for ten consecutive days, at some 

 time subsequent to the completion of the registra- 

 tion for each county, and before any election is held, 

 in order that all supposed cases of fraudulent regis- 

 tration may be thoroughly investigated.- Due notice 

 will be given and provision made for the time and 

 place for the examination and settlement of such 

 cases. 



X. Blank-books of oaths, required to be taken by 

 voters, and blank registration lists, as also full and 

 detailed instruction for the performance of their 

 duties, will be at once forwarded to the Boards of 

 Registration, appointed in this order, and it is en- 

 joined upon these boards that they proceed to com- 

 plete the registration with all energy and dispatch. 



XI. The detailed instructions to registrars will 

 designate the member of each board who shall be its 

 president. 



XII. Violence or threats of violence, or any other 

 oppressive means to prevent any person from regis- 

 tering his name, or exercising his political rights, 

 are positively prohibited, and it is distinctly an- 

 nounced that no contract or agreement with laborers, 

 which deprives them of their wages for any longer 

 time than that actually consumed in registering or 

 voting, will be permitted to be enforced against them 

 in this district ; and this offence, or any previously 

 mentioned in this paragraph will cause the imme- 

 diate arrest of the offender and his trial before a 

 military commission. 



XIII. The exercise of the right of every duly au- 

 thorized voter, under the late acts of Congress, to 

 register and vote, is guaranteed by the military 

 authorities of this district; and all persons whomso- 

 ever are warned against any attempt to interfere to 

 prevent any man from exercising this right, under 

 any pretext whatever, other than objection by the 

 usual legal mode. 



XIV. In case of any disturbance or violence at the 

 places of registration, or any molestation of regis- 

 trars or of applicants to register, the Board of Regis- 

 tration will call upon the local civil authorities for a 

 police force, or a posse, to arrest the offenders and 

 preserve quiet, or, if necessary, upon the nearest 

 military authorities, who are hTereby instructed to 

 furnish the necessary aid. Any civil officials who 

 refuse, or who fail to protect 'registrars, or appli- 

 cants to register, will be reported to the headquar- 

 ters of the officers commanding in the State, who 

 will arrest such delinquents, and send charges 

 against them to these headquarters, that they may 

 be brought before a military commission. 4 



By command of Brevet Major-General Pope. 



G. K. SANDERSON, 

 Capt. 33d Infantry, and A. A. A. G. 



On May 14th a public meeting was con- 

 vened at Mobile to hear an address by William 

 D. Kelley, a member of the Lower House of 

 Congress, and a warm advocate of the recon- 

 struction measures of Congress. The meeting 



was broken up, before the speaker had reached 

 the close of his address, by a disturbance or 

 riot, accompanied with the discharge of fire- 

 arms, by which one white and one colored 

 person were so injured as subsequently to die. 

 A coroner's inquest was held, at which the 

 mayor of the city, J. M. Withers, testified as 

 follows : 



Was not at meeting Tuesday, May 14th, having 

 left the business portion of the city after dark, pass- 

 ing by the place of meeting and finding it partially 

 assembled. No special instructions were given to 

 the .police in reference to that special meeting, but 

 the chief of police had instructions that he must at- 

 tend all such meetings, with all the available force at 

 his command, and prevent all interruptions and dis- 

 order, which instructions were repeated when in- 

 formed by Mr. G. Horton, the day prior to the meet- 

 ing of the 14th inst., that Senator Wilson and Judge 

 Kelley were expected to address a meeting that 

 night. * * * * Deponent voluntarily added 

 that he would do all in his power to prevent such in- 

 terruption. No reference was made to disturbances 

 of any other character, and none anticipated or 

 thought of by deponent. The available police force 

 spoken of as subject to the command of the chief of 



Eolice, and which he had instructions to take with 

 im to such night assemblages, consisted of twenty 

 men, being the day police then relieved from duty. 

 The night police, being much the larger force, are al- 

 ways placed on their beats through the city, with 

 instructions to attend to the duties of their beats 

 and not to leave them for fire or other alarms with- 

 out special instructions so to do. 



The Federal military commander in the 

 State, Major-General Swayne, made the follow- 

 ing report : 



HKADQTTAKTEES DISTRICT OF ALABAMA, ^ 

 MONTGOMERY, ALA., May 20, 1867. ) 



Major-G-encral John Pope, Commanding TJiird Mili- 

 tary District, Atlanta, Georgia. 



GENERAL : Herewith I have the honor to transmit 

 to you the report of Colonel 0. L. Shepherd, 15th 

 United States Infantry, commanding officer at Mo- 

 bile, upon the recent not in that city. 



Immediately upon hearing of the outbreak, I pro- 

 ceeded to Mobile in company with Brevet Brigadier- 

 General William McKee Dunn, Assistant Judge-Ad- 

 vocate-General, and made personal inquiry into 

 what had occurred. 



So far as I can learn, the disturbance was not ap- 

 prehended or deliberately planned, unless possibly 

 by a small party of ruffians, such as are usually 

 found in cities. Nor do I find that, after it commenced, 

 it was participated in by a large number of per- 

 sons, but that, on the contrary, the scene was hastily 

 abandoned except by the police, and by such parties 

 of freedmen as gathered together for defence or 

 from confusion or excitement. 



It seems that the speaker having been for some 

 time interrupted by persons who should have been 

 immediately removed, a single arrest was made. 

 This was accompanied by the discharge of a pistol, 

 after which a number of shots were fired at the stand 

 occupied by the speaker and his friends. After a 

 momentary lull, a large number of additional shots 

 were fired, apparently without vindictive purpose, 

 the weapons so far as known being pointed in the 

 air. 



I do not find that a greater charge than timidity 

 or inefficiency can be sustained against the police 

 authorities of the citv of Mobile. At the same time, 

 freedom of speech and public order have been greatly 

 outraged in that city, by an element which is active 

 in the spirit of the rebellion, and presumes upon the 

 sympathy of the police in this regard. This is sup- 



