r. Murrell says that David Armstrong, who was president of third
ward Republican club, a man who stood high in the community, and
against whom no charge was made except that of being a
Republican, made the remark:

"What right have these white men to come here from Morehouse
Parish, and Richland Parish, and Franklin Parish to interfere
with our election?" And some white men heard of it and got a
squad by themselves and said, "We'll go down and give that nigger
a whipping." So Sunday night, about ten o'clock, they went to his
house to take him out and whip him. They saw him run out the back
way and fired on him. One in the crowd cried out, "Don't kill
him!" "It is too late, now," they said, "he's dead." The Carroll
Conservative, a Democratic newspaper, published the whole thing;
but the reason they did it was because we had one of their men on
our ticket as judge, and they got sore about it, and we beat him.
They killed Armstrong and took him three hundred yards to the
river, in a sheet, threw him in the river, and left the sheet in
the bushes.

Proceeding with the account of that transaction, Mr. Murrell
swears that the colored people had heard that the bulldozers were
coming from the surrounding parishes, and that he and others
called on some of the leading Democrats in order to prevent it,
but all in vain. He says:

We waited on Mr. Holmes, the clerk of the court, and we said to
him, "Mr. Holmes, it is not necessary to do any bulldozing here;
you have the counting machinery all in your hands, and we would
rather be counted out than bulldozed; can't we arrange this
thing? I made a proposition to him and said, "You know I am
renominated on the Republican ticket, but I will get out of the
way for any moderate Democrat you may name to save the State and
district ticket. We will not vote for your State ticket; you
cannot make the colored people vote the State ticket; but if you
will let us have our State ticket we will give you the local
offices." We offered them the clerk of the court, not the
sheriff, and the two representatives. We told him we would not
give them the senator, but the district judge and attorney. After
this interview Holmes sent us to Dr. Askew, ex-chairman of the
Democratic committee, and he said to me, "Now, Murrell,