Litchfield enquirer., 1871-03-23
BRIBERY.
HOW THE HON. VIM. H. BARNUM, GAINED HIS
 ELECTION IN 1867.

HOW THE HON. VIM. H. BARNUM, GAINED HIS
 ELECTION IN 1867.
 We make the following extracts from the testimony taken by the Congressional Committee on Elections, at Falls Village. on the 18th 18th and 17th of October 1867, and reported in the Hartford Courant :-
 "On the opening of the session about three o'clock, this afternoon, (Oct' l5 '60 Mr. Treat stated to the committee that at the investigation at Bridgeport it appeared from witnesses that man named Hurlbut, of Lime Rock, would be an important witness in the case,, and his name had been added to the subpoena. It now ap- peared tbat he had left the town, and his whereabouts are not known. He was a teacher, and boarding the family of w. H. Barnum. He left, week ago, Saturday. Daniel Presher, another inn portant witness, had also left his home and could not now be found. l.. Dem ing, whose affidavit was attached to the original memorial, left home just be
 fore the Bridgeport hearing, and he was now again absent. A man named Dickin- son, also an important witness, left home on Saturday morning, as is believed, in order to avoid the serving of a process up- on him, which was subsequently, left at his place of residence. It appeared that when it became known that Mir. Haynes, the as- sistant messenger, was in the vicinity to summon witnesses, the parties wanted left to keep out of the way. ts.a.a
 "Eli Ensign, the book keeper for Rich. ardson, Barnum & Co.,, was examined at length. He was questioned particularly in reference to two checks, one for $500 and one for $2, 2,O00 drawn by the firm and en- tered on the check book as drawn by ''our- selves" He, Ensign, drew the money on those checks on election day, but did not fill out the blanks in the check-book COZ responding to the checks drawn until the day after election. Couldn't tell why he did not make the entries until after the ch ecks were used. Sometimes checks were drawn in North Canaan. and returned to the office by mail. No doubt he Had many times filed the blanks in the check book the next day after the checks were drawn. He had no recollection of particular in- stances. Being pressed by MT. Treat to answer directly the question whether there was any book showing what the two checks in question were used for. the witness said there was not He drew the money on the checks at the Iron Bank, but could not tell what use he made of it. He might have used some of it for his own benefit. A ticket in the cash drawer showed an item ] of $232 20. which he supposed referred to money used on that day, and with other l tickets balanced the cash account. He might have used some portion of the amount on election day. and he might not. If any of it had been used for his own private purposes it ought to appear on some book, but it does not. Don't know how much I might have used for myself Balance the cash book. Every Saturday night in pencil, and often have tickets for various sums in drawers which are counted as cash. The book is balanced only once year. After the charges are made from the tickets they are torn up: The atten. tion of the witness was called to the fact that on the ticket shown was the date "April 10th, "and he was asked if that was written at the same time the figures were. He said that he wrote the date Mis morn ing, He wrote that date he supposed be- cause he thought that it was about that time that such amount was necessary to balance the cash. No one was with him when he wrote the date. Didn't know when the figures were put on the ticket. Supposed 1t was about the time of the date, April 10th. It was finally discovered that the ASn1Ss ou tu0 AChSt were sOrlginally 11O1,, 20. and the first figure had been changed to 2. This change was made by him ibis morning. On being pressed to give rea- son for making the change the witness hes itated, finally said he didn't know any req son, and after little, said it might refer to $l00 sent back to Mir. Barnum by MT. Brewster. Afterwards he said he supposed he changed it because he concluded he must have used more than $132.2O on elec- tion day. W. Fl. Barnum has personal account with Richardson, Barnum & Go. This 2,20 docs not appear in thatac. count. The witness was sharply question ed by Mir. Dawes concerning his reasons for entering the date on the ticket to-day and for altering the amount, but could give no satisfactory replies. MT. Dawes also asked why, after stating at Bridgeport
 that he could tell by the books what had been done with the money drawn on the