The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1876-08-10
GREELEY ON TILDEN.
His Blistering Letter on Election Frauds.

His Blistering Letter on Election Frauds.
It is notorious that in the election of
1868 great frauds were perpetrated upon
the ballot box in New York. The actual
republican majority in the state was
overcome by a fraudulent majority in
New York city. How it was prepared
and managed is shown by the following
copy of Mr.. Tilden's famous circular:
Private and Strictly. C~onndential-l
Rooms OF THE DEMOCRATIC
STATE COMMITTEE,
October 27, 1868.
My DEAR SIR-Please at once to
communicate with some reliable person
in three or four principal towns and in
each city, of your county and request
him(expenses duly arranged for this
end) to telegraph to William M. Tweed,
Tammany Hall, at the minute of clos
ing the polls, not waiting for the counts,
PERSONS estimate of the vote.
Let the telegraph be as follows:
ssThis town will show a democratic
gain Tor loss) over last year of (number)
or this n is sufficiently certain: This
town will give q republican Tor demo-
cratic majority Of
There is of course, an important OBJ
iect to be attained by a simultaneous
transmission at the hour of closing the
polls, but no longer waiting. Opportu-
nifty can be taken of the usual half-hour
lull in the Geographic communications
over the lines before actual results be-
gin to be declared, and before the Assoc
ciated Press absorb the telegraph with
returns and interfere with individual
messages, and give orders to watch care
fully the count.
Very truly yours,
SAMUEL ]. TILDEN,
Chairman.
MIR. GREELEY's OPINION OF TILDEN.
TO Samuel J. Trlden, Chairman Demo
cratic State Committee:
SIR-You and l are growing old.
We came young from the country, and
have lived and struggled side by side for
nearly forty years. We have participa-
ted ardently in many political struggles,
always on different sides. v
On one very important point, however,
your bitterness as a partisan has inn
PEELED you to ignore and come short OF
YOU duties as a citizen and a profess
ional upholder of government by the
people, and for this dereliction l here
arraign you. l allude to the preserva-
ton Of the purity of the ballot-box.
1 can imagine how a man may shut
his eyes to many things which he deems
it convenient not to know; but l must
speak of what you must know, however
YOU NAV wish to seek to be ignorant of
it, The matter to which l call your
attention is vital to the very existence
of free popular government. Whenever
it shall be generally understood that the
ballots of elections are not determined
by the ballots of illegal voters, but by
frauds in voting or frauds in counting,
then the event Of avowed, unequivocal
despotism must be lear at hand. Be-
tween the rule of an emperor and the
rule of a clique of baflot-box suffers
every intelligent man must prefer the
former as less rapacious and more re-
sponsible. When honest citizens shall
avoid the polls, asking, "What is the
use of voting? the result is already fix
ed" the days of the republic will be
numbered. Between a ruler who pro-
hibits voting altogether and the gang
who make it a sham by filling the ballot
boxes with illegal votes, or miscounting
those actually cast, the sway of the
former is every way preferable.
You hold a most responsible and in
fluential position. in the counsels of a
great party. You could make that party
content itself with polling legal votes if
you only would. In u late constitu-
tional convention 1 tried to erect some
fresh barriers against election frauds.
Did you? The very little that / was en-
abled to effect in this direction I shall
try to have ratified by the people at ovl
ensuing election. Will you? Mr.. Tilden
you cannot escape responsibility by say
ing, with the guilty Macbeth:
"Thou cnnst not say l did II; never shake
Those CORY locks atme.'
for you were at least a passive accom-
plice in the giant frauds of last N0vem'
Der. ~
Your name was used, without public
protest ON your part, whereof the mani,
fest intent wa to s1make assurance
doubly sure'' that the frauds here per
petrated should not be overborne by the
honest vote of the rural districts. Ani
You, not merely by silence, hut by posi-
tive assumption, have covered th0s'
frauds with the mantle Of your respon
sibility.
On the principle that s'the receiver i
as bad as the thief" yof are Is deepl,
implicated in them to-day as though
your name was Tweed, O'Brien, o
Oakley Hall.
Mr.. Tilden, you and l were arden
participants in the struggle of 1910
wherein Martin Van Buren, was ouste
from the presidency by General Harrl
son. You know how thoroughly GU
city wa absorbed in that contest, where