The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-09
HOW ELECTIONS ARE CONDUCTED
IN PHILADELPHIA

tend to occupy the whole week in discussing
it. 1t is impossible for the general reader to
wade through this mass of matter, but it is
easy to see, from its general purport that
in some portions of Philadelphia the reported
results of elections afford no indication what
ever of the sentiments of bona fde voters
The contestants claim that they have estab-
lished enough frauds to unseat all the Demo-
cratic officials nominally chosen in October,
1868, including the Mayor District Attorney,
Receiver of Taxes, City Controller, City
Solicitor, Prothonotary of the Court of Com
mon Pleas, and the City Commissioner, by
majorities ranging from 1000 to nearly 25OO
and they have adduced very impressive evil
dence to justify this conclusion.
The official returns gave Mayor Fox ma
iority of nearly two thousand. The contest
ants now claim that if the vote of the dvi-
sons where wholesale violations of law were
perpetrated is thrown out, and other palpable
errors are corrected, Tyndale will have ma
jority of more than 1000; and when able
lawyers seriously contend that they have ex-
posed discrepancies of this character, 1t Is
evident that our elections are rapidly degene-
rating into q contest of fraud and villainy
rather than a fair method of ascertaining
public opinion.
There is no doubt that the Democracy of
Philadelphia were determined to win last fall,
by fair means or foul. They resolved to carry
the city at all hazards and doubling whether
this could be done honestly, their desperate
and unprincipled managers concocted and
executed the most gigantic frauds that were
ever perpetrated in this community.
Their first reliance was upon coffee-pot
naturalization papers. This part OF their pro
gramme has been exposed at length hereto
fore in our columns. 1t is impossible to
point out in detail all the rascality connected
with the issue of more than 5000 charters of
citizenship in q few weeks; but there is little
doubt that the Democracy illegally gained
from this source alone more than the average
majority of their candidates on the city
ticket.
But their efforts were by no means con-
fined to the conversion, by false oaths or
fraudulent documents of newly-arrived emf
grants into old residents. Many other de-
scriptions of villainy were freely used to help
the cause. In some of the strong Democratic
divisions every important injunction of the
election laws was totally disregarded. No in
quiry was made in regard to the qualifications
of voters, and the only question considered
was whether the applicant for freeman
privileges would swell the volume of Demo
cratic fraud The lists of taxables were not
consulted the challenges and remonstrances
of Republican inspectors were not needed,
and the worst of ballot-box suffers held high
carnival. Out of many facts, however, we
have only space here to recapitulate few Of
the most striking.
In the Seventh division of the Third ward
1872 votes were received in one hour. This is
at the rate of more than three minute. The
rapidity is explained by the fact that the De-
mocratic Judge unlawfully retained through
out the day the list of taxables, and he man
aged this record so carelessly that he omitted
to mark twenty-seven persons who did vote,
while he marked ninety eight persons who did
not vote. Six hundred Democratic votes were
returned in the division, many of which are
alleged to be fraudulent One witness says
party of New York repeaters voted at this
division twice during the day, in the after
noon as well as the morning, and number OF
false presentations have been distinctlyproven
In another division two hundred and forty
nine votes were polled before list of taxable'
was produced. Here, too, the New York gang
of twelve or fifteen strangers, headed by Mike
Fitzgerald, were permitted to vote, and falsC
presentations were numerous.
In the Eighth division of the Fourth ward
Alderman McMullin himself was in the field
and great things were of course to be eS
pected. A Democratic majority of 1872 wa
returned. During the first hour 1G4 or 16
votes were polled, and the contestants clail
that at least 175 persons voted without an
nroof of their qualifications having bee
giyen. The New York gang We're traced
the neighborhood of this place, but as the
was an abundance of other recruits ready
make false presentations, it is possible that tn
confined their active labors to other localitit
The Republican inspector of this divisi
testi6es that all votes that were offered We
taken and that although he generally ask
tbe residence, the votes were in the h
before an answer was received.
In one of the divisions of the Twent
ward a false count of the tickets was made
tbe interest of the Democratic candidates.
In one of the divisions OF the seventee
ward Democratic inspector who mani
lated affairs, in style which the Fourth W
officials only could emulate, was proml
rewarded for his services by an appointm
on the police force after Mayor Fox was
stalled in Office With this incentive IN Y
he managed TO increase the Democratic
a