Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-07-21
Greeley on Ti1den.

shameful and stupendous frauds up
on the ballot box. The actual Re-
publican majority of the State was
overcome by fraudulent counting In
New York City. The management
and preparation of this rascally out.
rage, was largely in the hands of
Samuel j. Tilden, as the following
circular issued by him will show:
Private and strictly CONFIDENTIAL.
Rooms DEMOCRATIC STATE Com.
October 9th, 1868
My DEAR SIR:-Please at once to com
municate with some reliable person, in
thee or four principal towns and in each
city OF your county, and request him lex
penses duly arranged for this cnd) to tel
egraph to William NJ Tweed, Tammany
Hall, at the minute of closing the polls,
not waiting for the count, such PERSONS
estimate of the VOTE
Let the telegraph be as follows:
''This town will show Democratic
gain Tor loss) over last year of (number);
or this one if sufficiently certain: This
town will give a Republican Tor Demo.
cratic) majority Of"
THIS IS, Of course, an important object
to be attained By simultaneous trans
mission at the hour of closing the polls,
but no longer scaiting. Opportunity can
be taken of the usual half-hour lull in the
Geographic communications over lines be-
fore actual results begin to be declared,
and before the Associated Press absorbs
the telegraph with returns and interfere
with individual messages, and give orders
to watch carefully the count Very truly
yours, SAMUEL j. TILDEN.
1t was the result that followed
this circular of Mr.. Tilden's, that in
splred Horace Greeley to write him
the following open letter, which is
in the well known and incisive style
of the great journalist:
To Samuel J. 1vlden, Chairman Demo-
cratic State Committee:
SIR-You and l are growing old.
We came here young from the count
ry, and have lived and struggled side
by side for nearly forty years. We
have participated ardently in many
political struggles, always on differ
ent Sides. On one very important
point, however, your bitterness as a
partisan has impelled you to ignore
and come short of your duties as a
citizen and professed upholder of
the government by the people, and
FOR THIS DERELlCTION 1 HERE AR
RA1GN YOU. I allude to the preserva-
ton of the purity of the ballot-box.. {.
I can imagine how a man may
shut his eyes to many things which
he deems it convenient not to know;
but 1 must speak of what you mast
know, however you may acish or seek
to be ignorant Of 1t. 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 results
of elections are not determined by
the ballots of legal voters, but by
frauds in voting or frauds in count
ing, then the event Of avowcd, une-
quivocal despotism must be near at
hand. Between the rule of an EN-
peror and the rule of a clique of bal
lot-box suffers, every intelligent man
must prefer the former as less rapa,
cious and more responsible. When
honest citizens avoid the polls, ask.
ing "What is the use of voting? the
result is already fixed" the days of
the Republic will be numbered. :
Between a ruler who prohibits vot-
ing altogether and the gang who
make it a sham by filling the ballot
boxes with illegal votes or miscount-
ing those actually cast, the sway of
the former is every way preferable.
You hold a most responsible and
influential position in the counsels
of a great party. You could make
that party content itself aciM poll
ing legal votes If you only acould.
I'm our late Constitutional Conven-
ton l tried to erect some fresh bar
riers against election frauds. Did
you? The very little that was en-
abled to effect in this direction l
shall try to have ratified by the peo-
pie at our ensuing election. Will
you? Mr.. Tilden you cannot escape
responsibility by saying, with the
guilty Macbeth:
Thou canst not say did 1t never shake
Those CORY locks at me-
for you acere at least q passive ac-
conpHce IN the giant frauds of last
November.
Your name was used, without pub
lie protest on your part, in circulars
sowed broadcast over the State,
whereof the manifest intent was to
snake assurance doubly sure" that
the frauds here perpetrated should
not be overborne by the honest vote
of the rural districts. Ind you, not
merely By silence, but by positive as
sumption, haze covered those frauds
acith the mantle of your responsible
ity.
On the principle that "the receiver
is as bad as the thief" you are as
deeply implicated in them to-day as
though your name was Tweed,
O'Brien, or Okey Hall.
Mr.. Tilden, you and I were ardent
participants in the struggle of 1910,
wherein Martin Van Buren, was GUST
ed from the Presidency by Gen.
Harrison. You know how thorough
ly our city was absorbed in that con
test, wherein every man, woman, and
child took a deep and lively interest.
Our elections were then held through
out three days. There was regis
tration freshly enacted which black
legs had not yet learned to circum-
vent, the right of suffrage was as
widely diffused as it now is, and no
one ever complained that a single le-
gal voter was unable to poll his vote.
And, though our city has largely in
creased its population, the lower
wards were quite as populous then as
to-day-seyeral of them more so.-
They were full of boarding houses
crowded with clerks and mechanics;
many of these covered sites since
given up to great warehouses and
manufactures; their denizens have
since moved up town, over to Brook
Ign, or out on some Of the railroads
that lead into the open county,
| I.o t;oo1I,, xl,o 1o,u,r ,,o.l, o,,o IL