Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-02-03
WASHINGTON NEWS.


OnSunday Mar.L! ''.'e. aUi0ei'
Howe s4ne President to induce him
10 recognize the government of Pack
ard in Louisina. The President reso-
lutely refused to be driven from his
position of neutrality till the Congress
sional Committees make their reports
on the election.
On Monday the Presidentsigned the
electoral bill and forwarded it to the
Senate with message approving its
necessity, printed in another column.
So the conspirators are losing their
hold on the President as they are on
everything worth holding.
On the same day the Hon. James
E. Bailey was sworn in and took his
seat in the United States Senate.
The members of the commission of
arbitration established by the electo-
raj bill have been designated as fol-
lows:
SENATE, Messrs. Edmunds, Morton
and Frelinghuysen, Republican and
Messrs. Bayard and Thurman, Demo-
Gratis.
HOUSE, Messrs. Payne, Abbot and
Hunter, Democrats and Messrs. Hoar
and Garfield Republicans.
The justices of the Supreme bench
at present selected are Messrs. Clifford,
Strong, Miller and Field and. as Justice
Davis has declined to act. Justice
Bradley will probably be selected for
the fifth assessor.
TSluce the above was written the
telegraph informs us that Justice
Bradley has been chosen as the fifth
member Of the judicial branch of the
Electoral Commission.
The committee of the House, which
is investigating election affairs in
Louisiana, has achieved signal success
in unearthing the rascalities of the
returning board, and that with the
most logged and pertinacious resist
ance to overcome.
Mr.. Littlefeld, the confidential
clerk of the returning board, had to
be recalled three times before he made
a clear breast of it. At last the truth
came out that under the express in
structions of Mr.. Spencer Wells he
neatly erased figures on one side of the
polls and inserted them on the other,
so that 27S votes were recorded for
Packard and Hayes, which were really
given to Nichols and Tilden. An en-
tirely new copy was afterwards made,
and substituted in the records of the
board, but the original doctored copy
was retained by Littlefeld and placed
in the hands Of his uncle Mr.. Spear
ing, who is Nichols man. Hence its
production by the examining commit
tee. Good bye Mr.. Sinuous Wells, if
you do yet serve your apprenticeship
! to an honester trade than you have
ever yet practised in the Louisiana
Penitentiary there is no law in the
Pelican State.
Still another vein of rascality the
committee has dug into. While the
counting in was in progress, gentle
man named Maddox, represented as of
high standing in the Republican party
approached the witness (Mr. Pickett,
a Washington lawyer, dem.) and told
him that the election had gone Demo
cratic in Louisiana by from 5000 to
/ 10000 majority, but that it would be
counted Democratic or Republican for
money, he produced letter from Mr..
Wells in which he states to Senator
West, rep. that a million dollars had
been offered by the Democratic party
to count the vote as it stood, and that
it would most likely go that way unless
the Republican party furnished as
much to counterfeit the Democratic
bride. 1t was not true that the Dem
ocrats had offered the money but it
was the purpose of Mr.. Maddox, to
find out whether they would not do SO.
Finally Mr.. Pickett finding that the
Board were to be paid not for any fall
sifcation of the returns but for count
ing them as they stood, undertook the
mission to the leaders of the party in
New York. He saw Mr.. Morrissey
there who advised him to see Mr..
Hewitt. Morrissey said he would
have no more scruple in buying Wells,
and his lot if he wanted them than in
IN buying a drove of pigs, but he did
not think they were wanted; and Mr..
Hewitt told him that the committee
had news from Oregon, which made it
unnecessary to buy the Board and be
declined investing.
Mr.. Maddox was afterwards put on
the stand and was refractory wit
ness, but they got the following memo
randum out of him stating the terms
on which Wells was willing to operate :
For one million dollars the vote of
Louisiana can be secured for Tilden
and Hendricks. The manipulation
must be done by me, and as far as pos
sible to protect the members of the
Returning Board who may favor such
result It may be necessary to reach
what we want. Details to be agreed
upon. The money to be paid in in
stallments, say fourth when the
fifth member is elected, fourth
when one member resigns and another
is elected in his place, and one-fourth
when another resigns with another
elected in his place, the balance of
one fourth to be paid when certificates
are given"
But he declined to state whether he
got this direct from Wells.
He was to have day to consider
and then be examined again-it was
supposed he would make clean breast
then.
1t is evident that the Board was put
up toauction but the Democrats would
not bid.
Mr.. Hewitt said it was the third
proposition Of the sort he had received.