The daily gazette., 1876-11-04
Shall ,ve hare Homest Eseetssnss

propriety, and the laws, which have dis
tiuguished, Grants Administration, there
has been nothing more shameful than
the encouragement and support given by
the President to frauds upon the ballot
box, and to the persons who have been
concerned in them We have had several
Presidents whose policy has not always
met with the approval Of the people; but
Ulysses s. Grant is the first President. of
the United States who has ever appeared
as the encourager and protector Of ballot
box suffers and repeaters.
In Arkansas, before that State was re-
deemed from carpet-bag rule, the most
audaclous frauds were committed at the
pollingplaces, in the registration of voters
and in the counting Of votes, in order to
maintain the Republican party in power.
Powell Clayton, now United States
Senator, and for years the leader of the
Grant party in Arkansas, was indicted by
Grand Jury mainly composed of these
frauds, and his prospects for serving a
term in the penitentiary, instead of the
Senate, were most promising, when Pre-
sident Grant came to his relief by remov-
moving the Republican United States
District Attorney and the nitcd States
Marshal who had permitted the return of
the Indictment, and by appointing in
their place two officials designated by
Clayton himself. OF course, under these
circumstances, the prosecution fell, and
Clayton escaped punishment. But the
peril he had incurred seems to have en-
deared him to the President, and lie has
ever since had much influence with the
Administration.
The action of the Republican, Senate
in the case of Pinchback established be-
yond controversy the fact that the spuri-
Gus Kellogg Government in Louisiana
was creation of fraud; that, after being
defeated at the polls, il was deliberately
counted in by the same infamous Return
ing Board which is expected to perform
a similar work at the present election.
Grant knew these facts when he used
the United States army to drive lawfully
elected members of the Legislature out
of the State Capitol, and to install a
spurious Government in the place of the
one which had been chosen by the peo-
pie. And the men in Louisiana who
instigated these frauds and assisted in
perpetrating them, have been invested
with the control Of Federal patronage
there, and support ofthe President.
In 1872, when Grant was candidate
for his second term, the result of the Oc-
ltober election in Pennsylvania was re-
lgarded as of supreme Importance as an
indication of the way in which the Presi-
Dental contest would be decided. In
that year the frauds upon the ballot box
in the city of Philadelphia, in Pittsburg
and elsewhere, surpassed anything pre-
viously known even in Pennsylvania
and resulted in fabricated Republican
majority in the State of over $4,000
This virtually decided the reelection o
Grant, which followed in the ensuing
month.
In October of that year the election
frauds perpetrated in Philadelphia were
so outrageous as to arouse the indigna.
ton of decent men in all parties. Gangs
of repeaters sent from this city openly
voted in the different polling precincts
under the protection of partisan police,
who in some instances arrested and i'm
prisoned Democratic supervisors for re-
lflsing to receive illegal votes. Thous-
lands of lawful voters were personated at
the polls by Republican repeaters who
voted in their names; and if the voters
THUS fraudulently personated complained.
and insisted upon the exercise of their
fright of franchise, they were either club
bed away from the polls by the police, or
locked up in prison. And finally, when
1t came to counting the votes, according
to a published declaration signed by
Messrs. Henry c. Lea, and L. p. Ash
mead, of the Citizens Municipal Reform
Association, "not less than 10000 votes
were bodily subtracted from the reform
ticket and added to the side that wa.
predestined to win."