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1876.] OF THE HOUSE OE DELEGATES 1303
and vilely denounced by its speakers, and yet protected it
from an infuriated crowd bent upon its dispersion.
So high did the excitement, of which we have just spoken,
run, and so exasperated and inflamed were the respective
parties by the incendiary harangues thus delivered, that the
Police Commissioners had reasonable grounds to believe that
a serious disturbance of the public peace was intended on the
day of the State election, and to prevent this, they called
upon the general commanding the militia in the city to act
with his brigade, in conjunction with the Police Force, to
quell such disturbance, if it occurred, and if his services were
required. His assent was obtained on condition that he
could legally use his brigade for such purpose.
The evidence further showed that the entire Police Force
of the city was on duty day and night for more than a fort-
night prior to said elections; the men not averaging four
hours of sleep and rest out of the twenty-four of every day
during that time.
Your Committee further report that on the day of the State
election the police in unusual numbers were placed at the
polls of every precinct in the city for the protection of voters;
that the Sergeants and men at these precincts did their
whole duty in every respect; the evidence even of those sum-
moned to testify against them being that they not only of-
fered to protect, but did protect, all voters of every race, who
desirous of voting and apprehensive of trouble in its exercise
would permit them t.o do so. One witness, so summoned to
testify, going so far as to say that a certain Sergeant of Po-
lice promised to die by his side, if necessary, in his effort to
see that every man entitled to vote should do so if he desired
it. The Captains of the respective Police Districts of the city
were each furnished with horse and buggy, and made con-
stant rounds throughout their districts during the day for the
purpose of seeing that the Force did its duty; that the public
peace was preserved, and that the election shoald be a fair
and free expression of the people's will.
At the collisions already spoken of, in the Fifth, Fifteenth
and Eighteenth Wards the .Police were in force, and but tor
their determined exertions, placed as they were between the
contending parties, serious riots would have occurred and
much blood been shed. Perhaps it should be added that the
Police Commissioners desired to have examined, in addition
to those persons examined on their behalf by your Committee,
all of their Police Captains, their Deputy Marshal, and one
or two of their Sergeants and Policemen, but the time allot-
ted to them was necessarily so short, and the cross-examina-
tion of those witnesses whom they did produce, was so pro-
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