Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1878 — A Swift Witness. [ARTICLE]

A Swift Witness.

Hon. Jeremiah Maguire, of jjlmira, who was Speaker oi the Democratic Assembly in 1875, the first year of Tilden’s State"AdmTulstFatioD, and who was among the foremost of those Democrats who opposed Mr. Tilden’s political projects, has beem staying at the Kenmore for a few days. To-day, in replyto inquiries .he gave the follow-, ing views regarding the cipher dispatches: “ I never read the dispatches as tifey Appeared,” said he, “ with much interest, because in December,' 1876, and January, 1877, 1 knew thoroughly all that was going on down in the disputed Southern States. 1 was kept informed of it by friends who were in it themselves. I know that Smith Weed start--94 for South Carolina, on 10th of

November, right from Tftden’s own hoftse, in Gramercy Park. He stopped over at Raleigh under the name of Keith. Why, 1 always call him Keith to this day on aooount of it He went from Raleigh to Columbia, and was there on the 13th, the day the College met 1 knew, ftrom sources that cannot be doubted, that 950,000 were offered to a cplored member—and it is to the credit of his race—to a ‘nigger’ member of the Electoral College to give his vote for Tilden, and he refused it sternly and persistently.” •* And who offered it?” “Why, Weed, of coarse. There can’t be any dqubt about that” And the ex-Speaker laughed. “ There was plenty of chances to buy, but nobody but Tilden himself was willing to buy, and he delayed and haggled too much. 1 saw in the report of some proceedings down there that two men came on to New York and offered to sell a Tilden vote for 91,000,000 to John Morrissey. When I read it I went up to Morrissey’s room and asked him what there was in It ‘Well, it’s all tree,’ said he, ‘ but it was too high. I could have got one for 950,000.’ ‘ Then,’ said 1, ‘ why don’t you do it? You are considered Tilden’s especial champion. Why didn’t you do it? 1 ‘Because,’ said Morrissey, ‘ 1 wouldn’t cross the street to make Tilden President that way. He’s ungrateful and deceiving, ana if it had come out he would have denied all knowledge of it and thrown all the odium on me. Beside, nobody wants him in Jthe White House, anyhow.’ When I told John that I thought he was an especial champion of Tilden, he delared that he wasn’t, hut he was opposed to John Kelly, and so joined forces with Tilden.” “ You have observed, Mr. Maguire, that Mr. Tilden has denied any complicity in the cipher dispatches P” “No, he hasn’t” responded the exSpeaker. “He denies that he reoeived them, that they were read to him, or that their contents were imparted to him, but he does not deny that somebody in his confidence received them and had power to act and did act for him in regard to them. It was just like him to keep himself so far clear of them that he might mako such a denial, and yet know all that was necessary about them. If there is ever an investigation by Congress, and he has to get on the stand, a sharp cross-ex-amination will show it all up.”— Cor. N. Y. Wines. —Even as no human being ever saw Louis XIY. without his wig, so no one ever surprised the late Garnier-Pages out of full dress. Whether at home or abroad, he was always in irreproachable black, with snowy collar and cravat. One day, under the Empire, some one asked him why he thus went about in solemn sables, and the following reply was returned: “Perhapsthis afternoon, or to-morrow, or- again it may not be till next week or next year, there will be an 1 incident; 1 a revolution will follow. I never can tell at what moment Paris may rise and the people demand that I shall lead them to tne Hotel-de-Villo. One should always be ready for the emergency, and I mean to be.” M. Garnier-Pages waited eighteen years, and on the 4th of September, 1870, the rising came, Paris called for him, and in full dress and faultless cravat the leader of 1848 was borne to the Hotel-de-Ville. —A clever little passage at the expense of a member of the Belgian Legation is current iu Washington. A young attache recently reached here fresh from London, his last station, and greatly vexed over what he was pleased to call his exile. “At all events,” he was in (he habit of saying, and the remark came to be widely quoted, “I shall speak no English in Washington. I learned it in London, and I don’t intend to spoil my aocent.” Time passed. The attache was at a reception. Somo friend of his asked a bright young American woman to permit him to present the attache to her. “ Oh, dear, no,” was the reply, and it has traveled over Washington;' “ I couldn’t think <sf such a thing. I learned my French in Paris, and it would ruin my accent to talk with a Belgian."