Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1890 — SPEECH OF HON. D. W. VOORHEES, [ARTICLE]

SPEECH OF HON. D. W. VOORHEES,

OF INDIANA, In the Senate of the United States, Wednesday, January 8, 1890. The Senate having under considerat : on the following resolution: “Whereas, It is alleged in the public press without contradiction that, on or about the 10th day of December, 1889, at Indianapolis, Ind., Smiley N. Chambers, United States district attorney tor th district of Indiana, interfered in his official capacity and prevented the arrest of William W. Dudley by due process of law upon the charge to the effect that he, the said Dudley, did willfully, unlaw fully, and feloniously violate the election laws of the Unit?d States at the general election held in Indiana November, 1888: Now, therefore, be it

“Resolved, That the AttorneyGeneral of the United States b directed to infor jm. the Senate what instructions, if any, the Department of J ustice has issued to the said Chambers on the subject of the arrest of said Dudley or his exemption from arrest and by what lawful authority the said Chambers, as United States district attorney, whether acting under instructions or not, was entitled to prevent the arrest of said DBdley or any one else charged with crime in due form ot law.

“Resolved, That the AteorneyGeneral is further directed to transmit to the Senate all correspondence which may have taken place between the Department of Justice and the said Chambers on the subject of the arrest of said Dudley”-

Mr. Voorhees sai h • Mr. President: in connection with the N overnbt r election of 1888 there was a crime commuted in the State of Indiana which inflieted an indelible stain on the history of that memorable year and impeached the integrity of the political result which followed. The fact of this crime is open, universally known, and practically confessed by its perpetrator and his coadjutors, and yet by constant vigilance in obstructing the. laws, and in denying and perverting justice in the courts, the leaders of a great party have thus far caused it to go un« punished.

The beneficiaries of a polluted ballot-box, now in high places, have felt themselves compelled to shie d a d protect th -i corrupt instrumens of their success and aggrandizement from the penalties due tv such notor. ous and brazen guilt. It is high time this most’disgraceful and most alarming episode in the history of elections in the United States should be fully understood by the whole people and the proper deg ee of responsibility be assigned to each and all its participants, whether those who perpetrated or those who have tried to hide the offense and shield the offenders, or those who have waxed fat and treat on the fruits of the villainy. shall nothing extenuate, nor au’t set down in malice, but forbearance on this subject has long since ceased to be a virtue in the esLmation oi ail honest, minded people in Indiana, and for them alone 1

speak. Sir, on the 24th day of October, 1888, just thirteen days before the American people were called upon by the Constitution and the laws of their fathers to txercise the highest and holiest duties of selfgovernment, a letter was issued—one, doubtless, of many of the same kind—from the headquarters of the Republican national committee, 91 Fifth avenue, ew York, signed by William W. Dudley, then and now treasurer of said committee, and addressed to a partisan Republican citizen of the State of Indiana. By the interposition of on 3 of those invisible ministers of a righteous providence

who wait upon and the workn ings of human guilt and make crime so difficult to conceal, this infamous communication appeared on the 3lst day of Octpber in the Indianapolis Sentinel and other leading newspapers of the country.

In the midst of much cant and hypocrisy on the subject of a f r ir election,and with usual slander and abuse of the Demecratic party, the treaturer of the n itional executive committee of the Republican p*rty embodied in this pernicious paper a proposition as full of treason to the principles of self-gov-ernment and public morality as the propositions of Benedict Arnold at West Point were to the cause of the American Revolution. I will send it to the desk and ask the Secretary to read it. The chief clerk read as follows: [Executive Committee.—M. S. Quay, chairman; I. S. Clarkson, vice-chairman: J. S. Fasaett, secretary; Wm. w. Dudley, treasurer; John C. New, A. L. Conger, G. A. Hobart, Samuel Fessenden, George R. Davis, J. Manchester Haynes, M. H. De Young, William Cassius Gocdloe.] Headquarters Republican 1 National Committee, j 91 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York, Oc' ober 24.

Dear Sir: I hope you have kept copies of the lists sent me. Such information is verj va uable and can be used to gn. at advantage. It has enabled me to demonstrate to

friends that with proper assistance Indiana is surely republican for governor and President, and has resulted, as I hoped it would, in securing for Indiana the aid necessary. Your committee will certainly receive from chairman Huston tne assist necessary to hold our floaters and doubtful voters, and gain enough of the other kind to give Harrison and Morton 10,000 plurality. New York is now safe beyond peradventure for the Republican Presidential ticket; Connecticut likewise. In short, every Northern state, except possibly New Jersey, though we still hope to carry that state. Harrison’s majority in the electoral college will not be less than one hundreu. Make our friends in e ch precinct wake up to the act that only boodle and fraudlent votes and false counting of returns can beat us in the state. each of our precinct correspondents: To find out who has Democratic boodle and steer the Democratic workers to them and make

hem pay big prices for their own men. Second Scan the election officers closely and make sure to lave no man on theboard whose integrity is even qeustionable, and insist on Republicans watching every movement of the election officers. Third. See that our workers know every voter entitled to a vote, and le<. do one else even offer to vote. Fourth Divide the float** ers into blocks of five and put a trusted man with necessary funds in charge of these five, and make him responsible that not e get away and that all vote our ticket. Fifth.

Make a personal appeal to your best business men to pledge themselves to devote the entire day, November 6, to work at the polls, i. e., to be present at the polls with tickets. They will be astonished to see how utterly dumbfounded the ordinary Democratic election bummer will be and how quickly he will disappear. The result will fully justify the sacrifice of time and comfc rt, and will be a source of satisfaction afterward to those who helo in this- way. Lay great stress on this last matter. It will pay! There will be no doubt of your receiving the necessary assistance through the national, state and county committee?, only see that it is husbanded and made to pro duce results. I rely on you to advise your precinct correspondents, and urge them to unremitting and constant efforts from now till the polls close and the result is an* nounced officially, ge will fight for a fair election here, if neeessa-

rv. The rebel crew can’t steal this election from ue, as they did in 1884, without some one getting hurt. Let every Republican do his whole duty, and the country will pass into R-publican hands, never to leave it, I trust. Thanking you again foi your efforts to assist me in my work, I remain, yours sincerely, Wm. W. Dudley.

Please wire me result in principal precincts ..nd c ounty. Mr. Voorhees. Sir, the dav and weeks which immediately followed the publication of this polluted and polluting campaign document will aiways be remembered for t .e rapidity, the audacity, and the fe cundity with which the most selfevident falsehoods were conceived and put forth by the Republican i ress and Republican leaders, in order to avert the odium and escape the legal penalties of an organized attempt at wholesale briery. This document, emanating officially from the executive national Republican committee, and never to this hour disavowed by said committee, pointed out that an ample corruption fund was ready in hand, and gave explicit lirections for its use by agents selected for their skill in such rascality as the bribery of a class of poor, venal voters, styled “floaters.”

The stoutest partisan nerves in the Republican party, even those that dia not shake or weaken in the rape of the Presidency in 1876, were appalled, and, for the time being, paralyzed, by the exposure which fell upon them in the fall of 1888. Resort was had, far and wide and loud, to the vehement cry of “Forgery!” The authenticity of this paper is no more question-

ed new by Dudley, or by any one else, than the existence of this Capitol, but in the confusion and shame and humiliation which always follow a sudden discovery of guilt, no one was as yet sufficiently hardened in political debauchery to face th;) country and confess the truth.

A house of refuge fiom public scorn, criminal prosecution, and penal servi'ude was speedily built, and from its foundation stone to the comb of its roof it was built of li is. Dudley was on the Republican national committee as the immediate, personal representative of Benjamin Harrison, then a candidate and now President of the United States. lie was placed there nt the e most request of Harrison, and between them there existed the closest and moat confidential political and personal relations. Dudley had been more instrumental than any other man in Indiana in assuring the election of Harrison to the Senate in 1880’Bl, and by his disreputable political methods had so prostituted he office of United States ma shal, which he then held, as to acquire he descriptive name of “Strawoail Dudley.” Harrisbn rewarded nm for his work, such as it was, and made him Commissioner of tensions. In fact, thest two yminent citizens of Indiana were the political Siamese twins of tLe s ate, and neither of them took an important step without the knowledge and approval of the other. When, therefore, the scheme of bribery and corruption was exposed on the 31st of October, as far and as fast as lightning could carry its shameful story, who supposes that Dud-

Jey was left vithout advice, instruction or assistance? It was a cris's of the most periJous kind for the Republican party and all its hopes, and the ablest and coolest heads in that party w«re bent, not in prayer, but in deeoand anxious consideration and management.— Dudley was in New York with his committee. What was said and done there upon consultation and what advices he received from his chief at Indianapolis can be determined very accurately by the policy which he at once adopted. It was the policy of bold mendacity, the policy cf flagitious false hood. His proclamation was put forth that he did not write the letter; that it was spurious, a fabrication, a forgery. Partisan excitement and interest were intense at the,time, and many believed Dudley s denial who denounce it now, and many affected to believe who knew then that it was false. He promptly brought suit against the World, the Timjs, the Post, and perhaps others of the great journals o New York, for publishing his letter as an item of news, and demanded enormous damages for libel on his character. This fraudulent resort to the courts of New York was designed as a blind to the people, and to cause them to believe a lie in ’he interest of the Republican party, at least until ufte v the election. Subsequent proceedings, however, have doubtless conv need even Dudley how difficult it is to play Jekyl and Hyde at the same time, and without the aid of theatrical costumes, foot-lights,l and drop-curtains; how difficult it is, in other words, to combine in the ordinary affairs of life the assumption of injured innocence and honesty with the conduct of a scheming, conspiring political freebooter. From the earliest day it was possible for any one of his libel suits in New York be forced to trial by the more than ready and willing defendants, to the present hour, Dudley has been an alert, vigilant, and persistent exile from the jurisdiction of the Empire State. 4 With the first symptoms of an opportunity to put his good name to a judicial test, and to recover enough money for another huge corru; tion fund, he fled from New hork with the speed of a bank embezzler, and found in this District as safe a refuge, it seems, as if he had gon -* to Canada. For more than a year the defendants in the libel suits have been exhausting all legal methods to get him, the plaintiff, into court to prosecute hi. own cases in vindication of his own damaged reputa tion and as yet their efforts have all be jn in vain. These defendants, failing to secure the personal presence ofDudley in court, have also made every effort obtain his testimony in his own behalf—to induce him to inform them and the court of all the particular whereby he has been damaged in his fair fame and reputation to the amount of several hundred thousand dollars.

(To be continued.)