'" Even an excise
commissioner under pay of the National Government worked against woman
suffrage all day in one precinct.
A premonition of what might happen appeared in September, when
Judge John M. Woods of the circuit court instructed a grand jury to
investigate the political situation in Berkely county. He declared, as
reported by the press, that election conditions had become intolerable
and that in his judgment one-third of the votes in the county were
purchasable. Elections, he said, had degenerated into "an auction
wherein offices went to the highest bidder."
It was not surprising, therefore, that the cry of fraud arose from
many localities as soon as the election was over, and was so insistent
that the Governor called a special session of the Legislature for the
announced purpose of an investigation into the charges. Colonization,
bribery, repeating and every known form of corruption was alleged to
have been employed. One of the chief newspapers of the state declared
that the election scandals had surpassed all that had gone before.
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