Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1879 — THE INVESTIGATIONS. [ARTICLE]

THE INVESTIGATIONS.

THE POTTEB OOMMITTEE. ~ MAJORITY REPORT. On the Ist, Mr. Potter, the Chairman, submitted his report which whs adopted by a vote of six to three, the adirniativo votes beinu caatby Democratic members, the negative by Republi can members and Gen. Butler being absent. Tbi Republican members announced that they would submit a minority report. The following is a briet summary of the majority report: The report note forth the difficulties atteiMinii an investigation of a conspiracy which tuis been succeiwfully carried out. and whicn resulted in plnoiwr the successful paitliu lower. It admit. that life confessions of dissatisfied conspirator, are entitled to little credit, but points to the fact, that about the essential features of the election and canvass in Florida and Louisiana there is m substantial dispute before the committee, the Republ.oans calling no witnesses in Florida and few in Louisiana. It dismisses the testimony of Anderson, Mrs. Jenks and others, and professes to deal with the case upon the general and con trolling facta alone, the report is divided int three parts indicated by the sub-beads below. FLORIDA. The report cites the law for the appointment of Presidential Electors and the canvass of th< votes, and claims that the Tilden Electors, having received a majority qf thovotis east in th< State, were thereby necessarily entitled to he de dared elected, and that the Canvassing Board by rejecting without warrant of law abortion ol the votes so as to show a majority for Hayes, unlawfully counted Tilden out. The repor then recites the judgmentof the Supreme Court, deciding that the Hayes Electors were not elect cd, nor entitled to cast the vote of the State, anu that the Tilden Electors were, and al-o the judgment of the Court in the action brought bj Drew, the Democratic candidate for Governor, to obtain a recanvass where the Court directed a recanvasa, and decided that the Can vassers in refusing to count the votes cast had defrauded Drew and unlawfully seated K tear ns. The Legislature of tne State thereupon directed 11 recanvass of the Electoral vote in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court, the J udges of which were Republicans, and the rccanvaas showed the Tilden Electors ehosen. '1 he Governor then issued his certificate to the Tilden Electors as the true Electors, but the Electoral Commission refused to consider the judgment of the Court, the action of the Legislature and the certificate given bythc Governor in favor of the Tilden Electors, and held that it could not take notice of any action by the State after the 6th of December. The report recommends a law providing that when there is a dispute as to who were the real Electors of any State, the judgment of its Court of last resort, if certified to Congress before the meeting of the two houses of Congress to receive and count the Electoral vote, ahull be conclusive as to the right of the disputing Electors, and which vote from the State shall bo counted unless the two bouses of Congress shall other-' wise agree. The claim of the Republicans that they were entitled to the vote of the state byreason of fraud is declared untenable. It then contrasts the conduct of the visiting Republican statesmen with that of Gen. Barlow, whose fidelity to all his obligations, and integrity, independence, fairness and truth the report especially commends. The report gives a list of all persons connected with the election in Florida who have been appointed to office. LOUISIANA. In regard to Louisiana the report discusses at considerable length the powers and duties of the Returning Board; the false census of the colored inhabitants; the assumption that color necessarily indicated political predilections; the numerous instances of . false registration; the Republican charges of intimidation; the facts in regard to the negro vote as indicated by the testimony; the manufacture of affidavits and protests; aud the outrageous action of the Returning Board in arriving at conclusions so diametrically opiiosed by facts. The reports st 1 ten that the Returning Board would never have so outraged the people but for their encouragement from visiting statesmen and the support which they and the troops gave them. It refers briefly to the alleged bargain by which Hayes, who had 8 000 votes less than Packard, got counti <1 in while Packard went out, and mentioned Sherman's offers to prove intimidation, but points out that whenever the committee offered to receive it the evidence was not produced, and they were met by some sham excuse for not producing it; how they had examined many of the witnesses that were before the Returning Board, who, in almost every instance, recanted and explained how they came to make their false affidavits in the first place, and how such statements as they made before the Returning Board were totally unfounded. In regard to the Sherman letter, the report simply states the facts as they stand, showing that a letter was actually written and largely influenced political action in Louisiana, whoever signed it, and drawing attention to the attempt in ti e interest of Sherman by Mrs. Jenks, whose husband and brother are employes of the Treasury Department, to induce the committee to produce a forged letter. A long list of persons connected with the Louisiana election, who have been appointed to office, is given. THE FOBOED CERTIFICATE. Treating of the forged Louisiana Electoral certificate, the report tells how the Vice-Presi-dent, having refused the first certificate, the Republicans secretly manufactured another, antedating it, and made it in paper and printing to resemble the one previously made; how, having very little time to prepare it, and it being impossible to get all the Electors to New Orleans to sign it within that time, it became necessary to forge the signatures of two absentees; that thus there were put to the triplicate paper eighteen forged signatures, which were attached on Dec. 2) in a small upper room in the State building, then in charge of Conquest Clark: how the making of thia second certificate was concealed until it was produced before Congress; how, when it was referred to the Electoral Commission, it was not read, but ordered to be printed, and the Electoral 'Cdnimissidh were served with two printed copies of the forged certificate perfect in form, and no copy of the genuine, but the defective certiiicate; how after the Commission had given its decision, the record of the Commission was changed so that the forged certificate, copies of which were really before the Commission, was suppressed, and the record made to show as if the genuine defective certificate had been considered and passed upon-, now this was not accident, but design, and that itrnot only appeared in one of the published records of the proceedi»zof the Electoral Commission, but in both, although made months apart, how the Republican managers were informed by Kellogg that there was something wrong about the second certificate, and new all the way through there lies the thread of a design to impose a forged certificate upon Congress, and then they suppressed it, so that if discovered, the record might show as if it had never been .produced. The burlesque (John Smith) certificate the report regards as a part of the same fraud, its object being to mislead and draw off attention from the forged certificates. It then calls attention to the fact that all persona connected with the forgery have been appointed to office and the suspicious circumstances connected with the appointment of the same, mid particularly the charge that Kellogg land Clark. l.Jjis private Secretary, were privy to the forgeries. The report calls attention to the danger of Returning Boards, and the greater danger of controlling elections and protecting Canvassing Boards by Federal troops, and above all to the crowning danger with which the country is threatened by reason of the enormous patronage centered in the Presidency, which makes the Presidential office so great that in order to control it the grossest frauds and violations of law may be expected on the part of those who desire to profit by that patronage. THE CONCLUSIONS OF THE COMMITTEE. The report concludes with finding that full effect was not givenq to the Electoral votes of Florida and Louisiana; that Noyes, Bhurman and others encouraged this result; that the second' certificate from*-Louisiana was forged as to two. of its names, Kellogg aud Clark being privy to it, and that Tilden and Hendricks received a true majority of the Electoral votes, and wore the real choice of the people at the hut Presidential election.

MINORITY REPORT. On the afternoon of the 3d, the minority of the Potter Investigating Committee presented their report. In it, while testifying to the equitable and generous spirit which characterized the decisions and rulings of tho Chairman, they announce that they dissent from the views in the report of the majority, both as to the pertinence of the same to the investigation and to the conclusions expressed upon the testimony taken. -When the Florida investigation whs begun they had offered a resolution that the alleged frauds on the ballot box, as well as those charged upon the Canvrssers and returning officers, should be examined. This was voted down by the majority, although it was a matter of notoriety that both kinds of charges were made. While acknowledging fha unfairness of the decision, the minority yielded and conducted the investigation in accordance with the wishes of tho majority. But they were surprised, and desire most emphat.cally to dissent from the action of the majority in affecting to report for whom the vote of Florida was given after they had refused to examine both sides of that very question. /. • TS * bIBPSTOHVa. While their work was in progress a publication wa» made of the cipher dispatches. The character of the revelations made the inaction of the minority appear singular itr this case, but they quietly waited to see what course the majority would feel it necessary to take. They had learned that (the majority treated these disuatcheaaa a separate matter of investigation •Itnd report. They could not so regard it. A report upon the frauds of Florida with the ciphl* dispatches omitted would be lire the play of “Hamlet” with Hamlet left out. The* facts were too notorious to be lell out, and. therefore, they dissented from the method of making up the report suggested l<y the other side. The majority report that they would have preferred to ait with closeddoots, but yielded to the wish of the minority. Thia was true. They thought the same also of the cipher investigation—that publicity was necessary imd public Judgment is just. Upon the cipher-dw--1 atqh investigation the minority report that they present their views under the disadvantage of not possessing any indication of what the views of the majority will be.

Reciting the allegations of Tilden and Ma agents that ths Returning Boards of Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina were honeycombed with fraud and corruption and their efforts to establish the truth of these allegatioua, the minority ss’i tlie publication of these dislatchra showed oonclu.ively that the very moa who had been loudest in their denunciauons of the tribunals before whom they had failed had themselves endeavored to corrupt with money those very tribunals. At that moment accusations ceased to be the assertions and opinions of honest men and became the slanders of foiled and beaten suborners of corruption. The country which had lieeik,deceived by the apparent earnestness and honesty of Tilden and his agents began to realize the intense hypocrisy of all that Marble had written And Pelton circulated. Thia fabric of alleged fraud thus fallen was what the report of the majority is endeavoring to build np again and upon the old foundations. When the parties, to the attempted bribery were put upon the stand they were foroed to admit the receipt and transmission of criminating dispatches, each and all of them. Col. Pelton, whine appearance before the committee was really pitiable, seemed to have been selected to bear the largest share of the burden. Mr. Manton Marble occupied a different situation. He bad, prior to October. 1878, taken a conspicuously high-toned position, and had otherwise conducted himself loftily before mankind. He could not, therefore, avoid an attempt to preserve himself. It was not for him to take hold of the position of Mr. Smith Weed, that it was right to use stolon goods from robbers. Nevertheless, tfie committee had two propositions to buy the Florida Returning Board in his own handwriting, two replies of Pelton and his own rejoinder. These he was obliged to admit and also to admit the substantial accuracy of the translations. His explanation of the two iaoriminating disK itches which the committee had, and a poesie third one which the committee did not know, was that he sent them as danger signals. The burst of contemptuous laughter with which the audience greeted this explanation Mr. Marble will probably never forget. The evidence that Tilden was ignorant of these transactions was limited to the denials of Tilden and Col. Pelton, and that the latter should endeavor to save his uncle upon whom be was dependent was natural, but the idea that a penniless man living in the house, and sitting at the very table of his wealthy uncle (Mr. Tilden), should have conducted negotiations involving such large sums without a word or a hint to the man most deeply interested or to anybody-, could not fora moment be entertained by candid men. If Col. Pelton's story be true, be must be removed from the category of knaves to that of fools, but the man who conducted the campaign of 1876, as acting Secretary of the Democratic National Committee, was not a fool, nor did Mr. Tilden, after the election, center all his interests in the hands of a fool. Mr. Tilden's denial was of course to be expected. Precisely what the arrangement was by which Mr. Tilden was kept ported as to the doings of his agents and yet lett in a condition to make a general denial, it he was so left, the committee will probably never know. Against these denials are set all the facts and circumstances of the case. After a further elaboration of these facts and circumstances, the minority say they are driven to the conclusion that if Tildn had told he knew of these transactions, they would have been in possession of material to form an undisputed judgment. In respect to South Carolina, the minority declare that the testimony- of Dunn, uncontradicted, clearly shows that Smith Weed was play ed with by shrewder men than himself, for a puopose entirely proper, and in a manner entirely justifiable. As to Florida, Woolley bad not been called, and Marble had probably not given the full facta of his attempt In respect to Marble’s statement, it amounted to this: A man told him that a man told him that a third man told him that the Canvassing Board could be bought This was not to be considered with his preparations for bribery, but it is all the evidence he vouchsafed. The truth was that all this clamor about fraud was made because the canvass changed the “ face of the returns.' ’ Now there was nothing sacred about the "face of the retunft.’’ The very existence of the Canvassing Board implies that the “ face of the returns" are not a safe guide or a final arbiter of elections. In Florida the face of the returns gave but ninety-one majority to Tilden on their most favorable construction. The fast that the final count gave the State the other way surely could be no ground for charging corruption without other evidence. As to whether there was any Republican dispatches similar in character to those of Tilden's agents the report says there is little evidence on which such an inquiry can be founded, but from the first there has been going on a kind.of unsuccessful shadowbunt for some dispatches supposed to be destroyed. This subject is closed as follows: “We cannot close our comments on these dispatches without expressing at least the hope that here after the country may be spared the spectacle of the hypocrisy which is involved in the literature of fraud written, by men who made ready to bribe."

FLORIDA. In reference to the election in Florida the report says: "The Democratic party|was composed m tbe main of native white voters of Florida. On one side was arrayed the Northern emigrants, many of whom were Union soldieirs, and the lately-enslaved colored men. tin the other side were the former masters. Confederate soldiers or contributors to the lost cause; and if Florida elected Tilden Electors, the colored men must be won to their support, and we desire most emphatically to deny that it was even attempted by peaceful methods. Resolutions of Conventions for Northern consumption were passed, but fraud and violence were resorted to and even death inflicted. We assert that the supporters of Tilden, to carry that election, did resort to the most open illegal voting, fraud and personal violence. After reciting the duties of the Returning Board, the report goes on to criticise the conduct of the Florida Board. Threats of personal violence, it states, were made against a member of the Returning Board by Democrats, and he was followed by armed m< n at night to his house from the sessions of the Canvassers, and a distinguished representative of the Democratic party endeavored to influence Tiia action by an offer of money. The minority say most emphatically that among all the men of Tallahassee while the beard was in session in the interest of Tilden, including those bearing gifts, among all the supporters of tbe Tilden Electors in Florida in attendance, including-those who threatened assassination with the aid of private detectives who, in consultation with the majority of the committee, have been hunting for testimony, no one liss been found to testify tea fact bearing against the honesty and fairness oA the Republican members of the Board of State Canvassers of Florida. The attack on Gen. Noyes ig denounced as unwarranted, there being no evidence that he held any questionable communication with any of the State Canvassers as to the result of tbe Florida election. Adopting the rule contended for by the majority report that the Canvassing Board could only canvass county returns by aggregating the vote appearing upon their face for the rcHpcotive candidates, the Hayes Electors had forty majority. Following the rule laid down by the Supreme Court, they had iOO majority. Purging the county returns of fraud, according to the decision and advice of the Democratic Attorney-General, they had 9U) majority. LOUISIANA. In writing of Louisiana affairs attention is paid to the “Sherman letter.” The majority report, it states, fails to report explicitly whether the testimony sustained the charge that such a letter Anderson and Weber swore had been written. They (the minority) emphatically declare that it does not, and that the palpable perjuries of both the witnesses named justify a feeling of deep disgust that they should be treated as capable of creating a serious attack upon the character of a man who has borne a high character in the service of the country for five and twenty years. The affidavits before the Returning Boarda, alleging fraud and violence, were considered, and the making of them justified. Concerning the alleged spurious Electoral certificate, the report adm.ts that two of the Electors were absent and their names were signed by other parties, and that this made the certificate spurious, but they claimed that the spurious certificates and returns were not considered, as Che records of the Electoral Commission clearly show. The report concludes as follows: “ We regret, therefore, that the result of the investigation, in Which the taking of testimony continued till the last day but one of Congress, and is still incomplete, must Irma report,that, in obedience to the directions of tile House, a great mass of evidence has accumulated, which can neither be considered nor acted upon by Hongreas, and the advantage gained by the public in the daily consideration of it, upon which the minority insisted, is the only matter of profit to any."

SUPPLEMENTARY MAJORITY REPORT. The majority of * the committee, speaking of the cipher dispatches, says generally that the Western Union Telegraph Company seem to have exercised duo care in respect to the preservation and privacy of their dispatches, and the theft and publication of certain dispatches did not seem to be their fault. At the same time they could not but suspect that Orton, President of the company (since deceased), who was an earnest and active Republican leader. forwarded dispatches in custody of the company to the Republican Committee of the Senate rather than to tho Democratic Committee of the House. He had also shown his bias by allowing certain of the dispatches to be withdrawn. On the examination of the Indiana dispatches, in which Mr. Z. Chandler was asked by Mr. Tyner to “ appoint two Indian agents," one could see bow very naturally the telegraph officials should have failed to recognize these nost improbable cipher dispatches to have any concealed meaning, but regarded them rather an corrupt dispatches. That they could recall them sowell was’a credit to the efficiency of the compuny. andsuugeets that nothing in the protection of disiiatohrabv telegraph would be gained by transferring that busmens to the Government. It was not for tho com mittee, however, to suggest whether anv legislation was required to prevent private telegnuns from being purloined or exposed or for their production in proper oases. Considering the whtchfnl, competent and intelligent partisan custody of the dispatches for fourteen months, it ’ was to be expected that’ nothing would come to light not wanted by the parties in charge, and it would have been too much to expect that any messages reflecting seriously on the conduct of the Republican party Would lai found among these bundles. The translations of the cipher dispatches disclose negotiations on the part of certain near friends of Tilden, after the election, to secure the Electoral votes of the Blates of South Carolina and Florida. 1 hese iiersoni seemed to have apprehended that the Electoral votes of those States, which they believed belonged to Tilden, wonld be declared for Hayes, and to have regarded themselves as Justified in endeavoring to defeat this corrupt and fmndwlewt action by submitting -to the payment of mopevs which they were

Informed the Canvassing Boards demanded by way of blackmail. The cummittee did not in any way justify their action, and considered it a gross wrong. But these negoliaUous ware not authorized by the National Democratic Committee. nor any iiernon entitled to speak for them. AH persona who had been connected with the neentlaiiona, so far as the committee had secured their testimony, declared that in no way were they authorised by Tilden, whoso particular friends they were, and Mr. Tilden had himself voluntarily appeared to corroborate that statement on oath. No charge from any source whatever had at any time attached to the nams wf Mr. Hendricks.

BUTLER'S REPORT. In his report upon the investigation, Gen. Butler, who dissented from the conclusions of both the majority and minority of tbe committee, concludes that in 1876 there was no full and free election by the whole body of electors of the State of Louisiana, and that the Electoral vote of that State ought not therefore to have been counted in favor of either candidate for the Presidency; that if any legal election was held in Louisiana, then the majority of the votes actually cast in the State were for the Tilden Electors and for Gov. Nioholls; that in case tbe vote of the State is counted at aR the votes of the “bull-dosed parishes.” as they were called, were within the fair and just exercise of the jurisdiction of the Returning Board, to be rejected in the proper exercise of tneir judgment, with the exception of some few (lolling precincts not mater-al to the reeult; that in parts of the State other than said bull-dozed parishes, where a full campaign was made by both political parties, the majority of votes were cast for Packard for Governor, and a portion of the Tilden Electors, leaving two or more Hayes Electors elected; that such a count and return would have given full expression to the will of tbe people in such parts of the State as were not affected by coercion and violence in favor of Packard, and against two or more of tbe Hayes Electors, which wonld have given the Presidency to Tilden, as would have oeen themase if the whole vote of the State had been rejected by both houses. . The declaration by both houses of Congress that under the circumstances the State of Louisiana should not be counted for either candidate would have been the beat possible reeult to tbe country, because it would taught a lesson to ovenealous partisans that elections cannot be carried either by force and intimidation at the polls or by fraud iq returns so as tq avail the successful candidate; and if so carried by either the votes would be rejected by tbe final counting tribunal. On the contrary, under the riding of the Electoral Commission, if they are accepted as the governing law, every encouragement is given to reckless, strenuous partisans to carry their States either by force or by fraud; that the Electoral Commission, as constituted, has afforded no practical solution of the Constitutional difficulties attending the fount of the Electoral votes in disputed Staten, and that an exigency again arising like that 01 1376 will surely lead to revolution; that the appointment of the Electoral Commission was wholly beyond and outside of the Constitution, and its determination ought to have no legal force or effect; that the appointing of Judges of the Supreme Court upon such political formation had done great harm to the cause of justice by impairing the reverence that the people have always j ustly had for the integrity of the decision of that Court of causes between party and party, and in undermining the popular estimate of the stern impartiality of the Court, that in all questions it will do equal and exact justice under the law to every citizen, and in view of ita ill-succese the experiment ought never to be tried again. '1 he result has shown that it is against public policy, and tends to bring the elements of corruption into political methods of action, to send semi-official partisans of large political influence on one aide or the other, or both, into States for the purpoee of controlling or advising either in regard to bow ita Electors shall vote, or to advise as to the manner in which the votes of States shall be returned and counted; that the oounting-in of Hayes was obtained by a series of gross and unjustifiable irregularities and frauds, which cannot be too strongly condemned and reprobated; that, if any title to the Governorship of Louisiana resulted from the late election in that State to any one it was to Gov. Packard, who was legally elected, duly qualified and inaugurated, and had the right to the support of the General Government against domestic violence and insurrection, bv which the State and himself were equally deprived of their just political rights; that the act of Hayes, as President of tbe United States, in appointing and sending the MacVeagh Commission down to Louisiana for the purpose, and the instruction to act under which it was sent, was an act wholly unauthorized by the Constitution, and not within the power or scope of the Executive, and especially reprehensible, as ita purpose and motive was to carry out a corrupt political arrangement, and compact on his part made by his friends, with his knowledge and acquiesence and consent, the fruits of which he is still enjoying without right and against the law; that there neither is nor ought to be any indefeasable title to any executive office which cannot be reached, re-examined, and decided by proper proceedings authorized by Congress to be taken ana heard ultimate!' before the Supreme Judicial Court.