The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1876-04-23

and entered records IN such manner ha' no' @
lee me yo,cs Al date sub 70 the last election
T' i,"aii" To- 1d maze l,av.ng tue yasi body Of NV
records for ycaI AVID putting the GoverGme9t TO
IA Oh, reicrco siip0l were charged fo udcIlre
the ioeor icl 'un- 70 al TIC so'ins prec,bci, IN a.
y AIMED M '' n e,r, ,5e 'h,n ion Vaeg1q Ss St
srcasl. ual dstricL
This was a sumner for Davenport. lie ex-
planned it, huvcVtr py eutering into long ac-
count Of what he had done as Chcf Supervisor |
Tor New York city from 1871 down to that time. |
As he now claims mat all his diobursemcnts OF |
Fund, through Col whitley, ON the order of |
the Pr sident, wns for legitimate work done |
under the ct Of l"u y, ISL, which his fees un-
following from his lotter of March 1. 1874, 10
topS to the Fifs, Comptroller. lie sals
now LILLE JOnNNY EXrf AINrD 1T.
otly after the passage u the act Of February IS
meet of ST ono tnc cthpr national election Laws
ict'rd. shic6, uad the act Of r,ofaa,y Is. ls7i,
Consr,.s @ere chosen wuud nc Of 6nt ut,c yliue la
tloet ,af, u...s NY M,ic kli NO. g',fy year end
ist, lr.catel afIcy "i 9wn rNrrr'ri iu, c'ri,s
VI W w. ,,r ' a., t.5,n a. M .fa tti T., a. it
Nor. uucf he law tur following yrar IL lo',. mem.
inacsc my ofi.a recorI g.. To- na.c tc fuiare
tnl"urnrni "i iNc "s A'. .'' u%viH, % u HD,n & @ ,nc
.,a~ sc sc.ia q Mr. gfoe.. ll.,mo,r n co9g,cs
onas carTeG Gu, Nth ss S ,spc Sc a. pes s
rage. iu Nidua' eau Ell hooks 60 I've prepared and
ich name was then comlar VIZ, use regis cred IA
tccti'a d.tricis' OF Gtats q o,Wctons Of e.ony
and of rrW voters were recorded in sucn manucr NJ
us,ict thereof were icit perfect there addtion
coup ee record ior hr remaindcr oi tue cy ier tue
le riSl3 ~ wnst gas done IN 1919 ost,a. Of tue
anucipatei tAat it would could be charge ag.lns!
, h IN n @ SRqer ,o se Or sa any more n An
htw. ~ 70 portion iiHt rctcrrci In nN ter ~
oh Nf d IH OIL O. Re I fF
10 ecc,io me zen ousand o., ars in cac,ss u TIE
l,s v,I'S % Zoe fSr a.; ' m sSS't to O oo
whct s ,litue over oucttrd u tue nupDcf cntrstd
srsaus ot nS fe,ol4s vui hereafter tc caar.cd
iOr at in cl,cl1a tarousA ut tns c.iy.
Li'tlc JOHNNY then proceeds To- ex' An how
lac iue - mako such ala efror IN his account.
| II was all owing, he s4i9, To the su idity OF a
clcts. who counted a.l ihe t9ii instead oi those
! 10 the Sixth Congressional District unlV. These
nimUercd ony b,9-O ins.ead Of 2s'G5j. lue
| rom his account py the First Comptroller. and
he only received sl4tp,5 instead Vi $io2.0j
which he had expected TO gobble.
An IMPORTANT ADMISSION.
| Now tho admission which Davenport makes
In hi. letter Of March 4, 1874, to the First Comp
tru.ler are OF tue utmost importance. First tie
| admits that the system which he devised after
tHe pas age Of the at Of FEB. 2s 1871. required
great deal Of work which could not be paid
servioeaole he must keep up his block books in
| dexins OF records every year. In 1873, when
one district Ohe SIXTH. he made a revision Of
bis block books for the entire CITY. This cost
him, he says, about ten thousand dollars. Now
| tue Government Of the United States mad moth
| ing whatever to do With shs elections outside
that district The work that Davenport did
| OF the Republican party who wero Interested In
the State elections. and they should have paid
| for IT II they waited II done. lie, however,
wanted to charge the United States sisl2.O5 for
II, IN ad ltioD , the $4,000 he received fr"m the
uyss c tanS S Toe Rs n aS CT
| t14O975 on the account he rendeted 10 the
Treasury, ana received In addition $4,000 from
| Col. nitley. SO that the Government OF the
United States paid s5,iO9;5 for the work OF
Davenport in the sixth Congressional District
| alone, exclusive of ths salaries paid to super
In ls74, his sccognt Tor fees rendered
and paid. In addition TO this he received from
the Secret service fund, through Col. Whitley,
on the order Of Attorney General Williams,
5000, maNnz In all paid to Davenport for IN 4
wear $loyiO.l5. The cost OF oil tue work Tor ISL
1872, 1873 and lSsi AS he claims in his variou.
letters to the First Comptroller. was In excess
Of his fees allow q under the law sass % Now
according to the receipts he gave v nitley. h,
received IN 1871. $,.sOO; ls.2, g., 0OJ IN Io,3
Si0OJ; aud ~ ls,i 5000. In ADDITION to tui-
quite a number of ms men were borne ON Whit
ley IS pay roll But, emitting THE. he received n
eXces. OF his fees from Whitley Sb.sOO. ano
therefore. on his own shoWing, he Is aheao
tl2.4lBpt. without counting his fees as Intec
: ates Commissioner growing out OF Violations
u election law-. an -ccount VI which have not
been able 10 procure.
TIE REAL QUESTION INVOLVED.
But the real question, after all. involved in thi
inyes,i-,ti is,"hat right had the President ant
Attorney-Genei al 10 nand over money sppru
prlated ior an entirely different purpose 10 b,
used Dy Little johnny Davenport ia dong can
piign work for the Republican party In New
y ork cityt The law unuer which he acted anC
| from which he derived his authority did not re
qGlre or authorize nun to do may Of tue tnIng
books and the Assembly di4trict maps was work
altogether foreign 10 the Intent Of the act o
Feb. 2s ISL lhe inde1ing Of the records OF TIA,
Chlef Supervisors onice, which Is provided fO
ffAT lnf a flalFl
"olock books. 1t meant simply what IL says
tho indeXing of the records, the appointment
OF ouperNisos. the registry lists hed 10 his IN ce
and the like. HAD Grant ana his Attorney q on
eral been actuated py the anne spirit whlcl
, would have said to Davenport wheT
he came to them and told them tha
! the work he had pndertaken would cost gre 4
deal more than he Wouid get lur ~ uudeT tn
law, and that II he continued he would be UanN
rupted-tney would nave SAID TO him as the hIs
Comptroller did You must look sewher,
tnan to the Treasury Of tho United States. Al
you are dong Is yeri proper camp ign work an
pub lean party, but the pubic money cannot o.
an would have sid had such a man beei
President 0r Attorney General at that time.
THE PRESIDENTS DILEMMA
To show up the real character OF this transac
tion properly let me suppose case. suppose
mittee OF Pennsyiyania hal selected man hb,
| !, Craig Biddle OF Philadelph "a Republican
whose honesty and uprlghtness no man will
Chief supervisor of Elections in that city. sup
pose also, that they had devised the same plai
for preventing fraudulent registration and vot
ing which Davenport adopted IN New York. an,
had gone TO the President and asked hi 10
twenty OF thirty thousand dollars from the Sc
cTet Service fund Of the Department OF Justio
toi Lut this plan into execution iOlPhiladel phi
aud thus secure an honest election II
that Rng-ruled city, would he have listened 4
the prOpOsitionf Certainly not. His conduc
In reRard 10 the hrst case that was tried unde
the Enforcement act, as amended by the act o
Feb. -, 1871, shows now differently he looked
upon Republican repeaters and fraudulent vO
ters man named Brown convicted o
| perpetratinR election frauds under the act U
Fen 20. 1871, In the United states District COur
Of Phi lAdelphia, ana sentenced to the peniten
tlary Uy Judge Cadwallider. Immediately ther
was a petition presented to President Grant 10
the pardon OF Brown, and II was granted. FO
two sessions OF Congress the Hon. ;. J. Rands
= had resolution passed In the House o
e Representatives calling upon the Attorney
| General to inform tue House Win
tion never was answered d. Ihis single circum
stance stamps the transactions with DavenpOr
with their real character. Grant was willing h.
apply public money IN defiance OF law to ass 5
. the Republican party In New York city, unde
tho pretext OF securing fair election but whe
a notorious repeater aud ballot-bOI suffer
convicted In the United States courts In Phia
delpnia for the violation Of the same law unde
when Davenport acted ia New YORK, Grant par
dons him and refuses to give Congress any In