New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-11-27


the Rings candidate for Governor. But ne
declared that "gross and mfounded charges
d" Of ffaud are made by them (the Re
"publicans) against those high III autior-
"ifv:D that their aim was to threaten
"and Overawe the electors OF the state VI
"New-York in the exercise OF Their hign
privilege" and "to excite the masses anu
lead TO acts Of disorder and violent resist
"ance." Whatwas the matterf Republicans
had ascertaned the names or illegal VoleIs'
and proposed to arrest them! 1hereupoh
Democracy threatened violent resistance-eveh
by the official proclamation OF the Mayor
whose duty it was to keep the peace and en-
force the law On the very night before the
election, Mr. T. c. Acton, President OF the
Police BOARD. held conference with the Mayor
and Commissioners, in which, according to the
report then published, he said;
n those nresen were willing to join It'll him in this
object lthe suppression of illegal voting he would fur
nsb them with the names of those Illegally registered
There were over 900 in the First ward hidredS In inc
Second ard Third more than 1000 In the Fourth, be-
tween 400 and 500 in districts alone OF the SIKH
vour district Commissioner BRENNAN MI Actoh
enumerated nearly every remaining ward III the Guy,
declaring that there were from 1Ooo 10 Z'oOo lcE"i
VOTES registered in EACH again offered to produce the
=.
tho Mayor ne said IL intention to prevent these
frauds and to have II possible fair and peaceful cleo
ton YOU Mr. Mayor can materially ala us IN SO doihs'
Commissioner Brennan can If he WILL DO inc same i'll 'ne
Sixth Ward; and sheriff OBren in the Eighteenth ana
TwentyIrst If you viii help us, the matter can DC
easily accomplished IL you reiuse' VIC must uo no O''
we can without your aid"
Did the Mayor or Democratic Commission
ers HELM or offer to help2 The damning
record is that the Mayor himself warned Mr..
Acton that if he continued TO speak and act
on election day with such spirit and earnest
ness. he "would run the risk of losing his own
"life," and Mr.. Brennan thought "such con-
"duct would have tendency to create
"riot." An honest Superintendent, not Wiling
TO leave Tammany justices to set free Tam
many repeaters as fast as they were ar
rested, had ordered that persons arrested for
illegal voting should be taken before United
States Judges. But Mr.. BoswOrth moved, and
with Brennan voted, to revoke that order, and
Brennan Thought it good tine to give him
"0he superintcndenO a leave of absence"
These were the closing preparations OF Tam
many officials. To the last moment, while
bowling that Republicans were going 10 COM
NIT fraud, these Democrats lab0red to sweep
away all obstacles TO fraud. And the next day
John II. Hoffman was counted in by the most
Infamous swimdle in our political history.
Whenever Democrats raise n clamor about
alleged frauds by Republicans, we may be
sure that Democrats have been stealing some
thing, and are trying to get off with their
booty. In this campaign they undertook TO
steal certain States, highwayman-like, with
club and rifle. To cover the operation, they
. Ia
declaring that Republicans could get the cleo
toral votes of Louisiana, South Carolina, and
Florida only by fraud, when, in truth, there
was every reason TO believe that in all there
was Republican majority. In spite of rifles
and importations, two of these States
have given Republican maionties IN the
vote IA returned, but the Democrats
shout "fraud" more loudly than ever 1t is
absurd to pretend that the Democratic party
ever has been matched in swindiing. Plaque
mines, Kansas, and New-York in 1868
remind us that the very party which is now
50 clamorOus has never hcsitated to win by
robbery if it could, never consented to any
measures for prevention of fraud, and
never ceased to raise n great din of charges
against its opponents in order to hide its own
rascality. Col. lngersoll called that party the
Southern claims agent. But for many years
it has been the repeater's friend and highway
mans attorney.
We insist that the honest vote Of the
Southern States which have been in dispute
shall DO fairly counted, no matter whom it
elects or whom it defeats. We insisted upon
this from the beginning, when South Carolina
and Florida were in doubt. We insist upon
4.
that on the face of the actual returns
both these States have clearly gone for Hayes.
We insist upon it just as positively in Louisi-
ana, where the real result is still cnycloped in
n fog of conflicting aitidayits. But the whole
land has for the past three weeks been deaf
ened by the cry of " Republican frauds in
"South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana"
That cry has been raised by the very
men who committed the frauds in the
st te of New-York in 1868, and who have
profted by similar frauds for forty years past.
1t il the stop thief cry in politics, and we do not
believe that the people are likely long to be
deceived by it. The party that is smart
enough to cheat the Tammany Democracy at
ballOt-b0x stuiling and false counting has
not yet been discovered. When it is, the
discovery will hardly DO made under
the guidance of Tammany Democrats.
The people mean to do exact justice in the
matter of the late election, and TO punish
fraud wherever they detect it. But they are
not deceived by the Democratic cry of Stop
chief" and they prefer that the men who are
covered all over with the infamy of election
frauds in the past, shall not assume just now
to be the especial champions of the purity OF
the hailot -boY