Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1878 — The Cipher Dispatches. [ARTICLE]

The Cipher Dispatches.

The cipher dispatches published by the New York Tribune continue to excite lively discussion in the press and among men of all political parties. As an after clap to the Potter investigation they are possessed of peculiar interest, which has been CTgAtly increased within a few days by the publication of Mr. Tilden's emphatic denial of all connection with or knowledge of the suspicious dispatches until he saw them, with their translations, in the Tribune. Mr. Manton Marble, too, has uttered a card denying any complicity in any plot to buy up Electoral votes or Canvassing Boards in the interest of Mr. Tilden, and, to prove bis innocence, has selected one exceedingly unimportant dispatch, which he declares he never senL He makes no afc

tempt, beyond a general denial of guilt and assertion of innocence, to meet or explain the cipher telegrams, and neither does he disclaim the authorship of the most criminating of them all, or his own identity with the “ Moses” of the ciphers. Will Mr. Tilden’s denial clear him in the eyes of honest men?" Hardly. It is true that no proof has been offered, and, indeed, it has not been directly charged that Mr. Tilden ever saw one of these cipher dispatches, either in the original or the translation; but the circumstantial evidence is all against him. The facts as developed thus far are easily grasped, and from them an intelligent public can draw its own conclusions. As soon as it was known that the States of South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana and Oregon were in doubt, trusty agents ana confidential friends of Mr. Tilden were sent with all haste to the capitals of the disputed States. Mr. Manton Marble and Mr. John F. Coyle, the latter a most noted Washington lobbyist, were sent to Florida. They were joined later by Mr. C. W. Woolley, of Cincinnati, who appears as a good-natured meddler, always willing to help the cause of Democracy out of pure benevolence. Mr. Smith M. Weed, an Albany lobbyist and a fast friend of Mr. Tilden, went Columbia, S. C- His friendly rela-

tions with the late candidate far the Presidency are shown by the fact that he led the Tilden wing in the late Dem ocratic State Convention at Syracuse Mr. Patrick and Senator Kelly went to Oregon to take care of Gov. Grover and the late Mr. Cronin. Each of these parties carried with him a secret cipher, which he used in sending dispatches back to New York. , Kelly and Patrick used the rather simple “ dictionary” cipher, and the “Gobble” dispatch, announcing that Grover would appoint Cronin, and asking Mr. Pelton to deposit SB,OOO for the purpose of “ purchasing one Republican Elector to act with him,” has been understood for a long time. Air. Smith M. Weed lost no time in Charleston. He began by telegraphing in a most complicated double cipher, addressed to H. Havemeyer—but answered by Mr. Tilden's nephew and confidential Secretary from 15 Gramercy Park, Mr.

Tilden.’s private residence - that the State had beeu carried by Hayes, but that he had secured the Electoral vote of the State for SBO,OOO. He desired that the money should be sent to him at Baltimore, in three packages, one containing $65,000, one SIO,OOO, and one $5,000, the bills to be of the denominations SSOO and SI,OOO. The answer he received made him start to Baltimore, but before he could get back to Columbia, the question Jh*d been decided in favor of Mr. Hayes. "Later, after if' was ascertained that, through some unaccountable delay in closing his bargain, Mr. Marble had let the vote of Hbrida slip through his fingers, a scheme was concocted to buy up enough votes in the South Carolina Legislature to give the Democrats a majority, and then to suddenly seize the Hayes. Electors, and by taeepingl them separated in prison make it impossible for them to meet on the day appointed by law for casting the Electoral votes. The cost of this was estimated at $20,000, and Gramercy Park was asked in cipher to forward half that amount. On December 4 authority was telegraphed to Mr. Weed to draw for that amount, but the plan failed, and the vote of South Carolina w,as honestly cast. In Florida, Mr. Marble and his clerk, were no. IuSB aCiive, auu the aispatcWs sent to. 15 Gramercy Park by them prove only too plainly that they meant business. Mr. Woolley, it seems, had no key pipuer, but wfien jje felt im- ,

pelled to unburden his mind he handed his telegrams to Coyle, who put them in cipher and forwarded them. The dispatches of all these establish beyond a doubt that they made arrangement* to buy ane or more. Electoral votes in hlorida sos the sunr of 190,000; that they sent cipher telegrams to 16 Gramercy Park Conveying this information, and that the proposition was accepted in New York. It failed only, it would seem, because Mr. Marble oould not read the answer empowering him to act, and before it could be repeated the vote was cast for Mr. Hayes. These are the facte ae *hown by the dispatches in question, and it must be remembered that neither Mr. Tilden, Mr. Marble nor any other man connected with the sending or receiving of the ciphers, has denied their authenticity or the correctness of the translations. “On the face of the returns," to use an expression current during the Electoral muddle, Mr. Tilden and his “coparceners” stand convicted of an outrageous attempt to defeat th e will of the people by buying the highest elective office of our times. —Bl. Louis Globe-Democrat.