Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1879 — JOHNNY DAVENPORT’S DEVILTRY. [ARTICLE]

JOHNNY DAVENPORT’S DEVILTRY.

Tho Work Before tlio Wallace Committee. ' [Washington Cor. Chicago Times.] Senator Wallace has just paid a Hying visit to Washington to make ready for the summer work in looking after Johnny Davenport. He says it is the intention of the committee to overhaul Davenport and his past conduct in connection with elections, thoroughly and completely. Several committees have investigated Davenport, and, though each of them discovered fraud and rascality committed by him, a great deal has been left undiscovered. Senator Wallace, says he has the names of men who were appointed Supervisors and Deputy Marshals by Davenport at the last election, together with their residences, and ho intends to investigate their characters and records. Ho thinks enough is already known to warrant the statement that Davenport’s hirelings will he proven to belong to the worst criminal classes in New York. These men were employed because of their bad character and their willingness to commit any act required of them. Crimes against citizens and against laws were contemplated, and criminals were employed to execute them. United States Marshal Payne, of New York city, refused to furnish a list of names and residences of the men who had been employed under him as Supervisors and Deputy Marshals, until he was forced to do so by the Wallace committee. Wallace says the Tammany Society employed a firm of reputable lawyers last winter to prosecute men who, as Supervisors and Deputy Marshals, had outraged voters at the polls and deprived them of their right of suffrage. These attorneys called upon Davenport for the names of the men he had put at the polls, and by him were referred to the United States Marshals The lawyers then requested from Mr. Payne the information needed, and, after being put off for weeks, they got a list of names simply, and this was all they ever could get. The efforts to obtain the residences of United States election officers were entirely fruitless, notwithstanding the energy they displayed. All sorts of dodges and subterfuges were resorted to by the Marshals to avoid giving information that would enable the prosecution to lay hands upon the Davenport hirelings, and finally, when there was no longer any chance for evasion, the attorneys met with a downright refusal. Payne and his chief clerk were summoned to appear before the Wallace committee in Washington, and to bring with them a copy of the roll of Supervisors and Marshals, together with the residence of each one. This summons, of course, could not be disobeyed, and it was only the power of Congress that finally compelled Payne to disclose the habitations of his election employes. It is to follow out this line of testimony that the committee has laid out its summer work.