Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1878 — The Pivot Man. [ARTICLE]

The Pivot Man.

Like Figaro in the opera, John Sherman appears to have been in every part of the Louisiana conspiracy. He was recognized by the chiefs and their subordinates of all degrees as the master spirit and director of the work to be done by them ; as the responsible agent of Hayes, and as the man of all others who knew the situation best, and was ready to meet its demands, of whatever kind they might be. Hence he was looked up to by Wells, Anderson, Kellogg, and the rest of that crew, as the pivot upon which the whole machine turned.

From the highest to the lowest, they all knew him, and his word was law to their acts and movements. That he was entirely familiar with every part of the operations of the Returning Board, when in secret session, and sometimes singly, as when Wells ordered the original return of Vernon parish to be destroyed, they falsified figures, forged returns, inserted manufactured protests, and rejected whole parishes upon affidavits fabricated by the cart-load at the Custom House, is no longer doubtful. In the part he played then ignorance was impossible, and the part he has played since that time makes it certain, when taken in connection with the proofs that have been produced in a variety of forms, that he must have had intimate knowledge of every phase of the conspiracy, as he certainly had acquaintance with the actors who appeared on the stage, and the machinists who shifted th* scenes behind it. No detail was too small for his attention, and, from the day he entered New Orleans as a visiting statesman until the hour when the great fraud was consummated, he was the head and front of the conspiracy to steal the Presidency. When it. was achieved, he got the reward which he chose to ask, and nas utilized it, as he did the Chairmanship of Finance in the Senate. After Tom Anderson returned to New Orleans in December, 1876, with the irregular and illegal certificate of Louisihe carried there as a meswas necessary, without delay, to get up another in due form. That was done, as has been proven, in the case of Levissee, by forging the names of some of the electors who were not present and could not be reached within the time allowed by law. Charles Hill, a carpet bagger from New Jersey, and an officeholder of course, was detailed to take the forged certificates to Washington, though he had no legal appointment to that effect. Hill was examined by the sub-com-mittee in New Orleans on the Ist of July, and he was required to relate his experience in delivering the forged certificates to the President pro tempore of the Senate. After stating that he had seen Zach Chandler, to whom he bore a letter from Kellogg, he testified:

I went at once to Mr. Ferry, who was in his ofii le at the Capitol. His secretary was there; Mr. Moses, I think, was his name. No one else was in the room. I to'<4 him I had brought the returns from Louisiana. Mr. Ferry asked me if I had any one to witness the delivery of the document sto him. I told him I knew Mr. Sherman, for I had met him there. In a few minutes Mr. Ferry, after stepping out, came in with Mr. Sherman. I then delivered the documents. This delivery was witnessed by Mr. Sherman. He then went to the room of the Finance C >mmiitee and there wrote me a letter to Gov. K Uogg, acknowledging that the returns had been delivered to the Vice President. The letter was a private letter, and I don’t know what the contents were. Q. —How was it Mr. Sherman was handy to witness the receipt of the returns when you gave them to Mr. Ferry? A.—l don’t know except that he was in the Senate chamber or room adjoining. Q. —How often did you see Mr. Sherman when he was h- re with the visiting statesmen ? I saw Mr. Sherman some five or six times here. y —Did Mr. Sherman say anything else to you in Washington? A.—When I was coming away I called on him to bid him good by, and he gave me to understand that the party would stand by us. Q. —D d you inform Mr. Sherman or any one else of the fact that the second returns or certificates you had carried on had cured the defects of the old ones? A.—l did not indicate to either Mr. Sherman, Mr. Hale, or Mr. Frye anything about curing the defects of the first. Mr. Sherman knew that better than I did. Q. —Sow did he know that? A. —He must have known. Q. —Have you got any ground for supposing it? A.(Hesitating)—l’ve not got any ground for supposing it. Hill was undoubtedly right. Sherman knew better than he did what his agents had been doing in Louisiana; for no move was made and no act of importance was done without his knowledge or advice. From the beginning to the end he was the mainstay of the conspiracy; and it is now made clear that but for his presence in New Orleans, and the support given to the Returning Board after their first false count, which left out two of the Hayes electors, the iniquity would never have been completed. By promises of reward and of protection the second count was made.— New York Sun.