The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1878-05-03
THE SOUTHERN CONFESSIONS.
FLORIDA VOTED FOR TILDES.

Judge McLin, one of the members of the
Returning Board of Florida, has given
sworn statement to the public, recitng the
details of the election frauds perpetrated in
Florida to transfer the electoral vote of that
State from Tilden to Hayes. He says;
If the board had acted in accordance with
the decision of the Supreme Court of the
State, defining the powers and duties of the
board in reference to throwing out precincts,
since rendered, there is no question of the
fact that Mr. Tilden would have been entitled
to the vote Of Florida. Excluding the re-
turn from Baker county, which was counted
and which l have since learned from the
parties who made it was falsely manu-.
factured return, and including the true re-
turn which corresponded with the precinct
returns Of that county, would certainly have
given the State to Mr.. Tilden. Archer pre-
cinct, No. 2, Alschua county, wasincluded
in the count. The fraud committed in this
precinct was not shown to the board by the
Democratic lawyers, although a contest was
made and much attention given to this pre-
cinct but l have recently learned from the
Republican leader of that county that after
the returns had been brought to Gainesville,
the county y-seat, 2l9 votes were added to the
returns by the inspectors and clerk of said
precinct. In Leon county "a small Republi-
can ballots were stuffed into the ballot-box
at precinct No. 8; yet it was made to ap-
pear, even to the satisfaction of the Demo-
cratic member of the board, that these were
not false ballots. Subsequent confession
shows that they were stuffed into the box
had seen Joseph Bowes, one of the inspec-
tors, have tickets similar to them few days
before the election, and cautioned him
against their use, unless they were generally
adopted, and | afterward learned he had
given them up. In Jefferson county, in a
certain precinct, at which Mr.. j. Bell was
inspector, 100 votes were surrepttiously ad
ded to the ballots and counted. No charge
was made as to this fact before the board.
The confession of J. Bell, since made to me,
discloses the fact that had the 2l9 votes
fraudulently added to the Archer return, and
the "A votes stuffed in the box in Leon
county, and the 100 votes surreptitiously
added in Jefferson county, aggregating 303
votes. been rejected, and the Democratic re-
jected precincts. which were excluded fer
irregularity and illegality, contrary to the
decision OF the Supreme Court, been retain
ed and counted, Dir. Tilden would have car
ried the State. The conclusion, therefore, is
irresistible, that Mr.. Tilden was entitled TO
the electoral vote of Florida, and not Mr..
Hayes.
HAYES CoGNIzANT OF THE FRAUD.
In making this statement my motives will
doubtless be questioned by many, but the
facts will stand alone as the truth without
any mere motives to sustain them. am
free to admit that viewing things as now
do and remembering that Mr.. Hayes was
continually inspiring his personal friends
and trusted agents by every means in his
power to secure for him the electoral vote OF
Florida and Louisiana and believing lit to
have been conscious wrong on his part,
done with knowledge that he had not been
elecled, as his subsequent repudiation OF
Governor Packard. whose title was bound
up in his own, and his willful and eowardly
desertion of the very men who contributed
so largely to his election has shown, my con-
tempt for the pitiable littleness of the man
is beyond my power of expression. Mr..
Hayes has denied the validity of his own
title in denying Governor Packard's. He
has ignored his Florida friends, showing he
believed them unworthy and tainted with
fraud yet he holds on to the Presidency,
which. in his own opinion, was secured by
this very fraud. y has cowardly abandoned
and betrayed his Southern Republican
friends through fear of being ousted from an
Office that he believed he never was elected
to by the people. Whatever may be the
opinion of men in regard to my motives,
give them facts, and leave my motives to a
higher tribunal.
SAMUEL b. McLIN.
The above was signed and sworn to before
the Clerk of Thomas county, Ga.
STATEMENT oF SENATOR DENNIS.
The confession of Judge McLin il corrob-
GRATED by the statement of Captain Dennis,
given in person to a correspondent Of the
New York Herald. Dennis has been Re-
publican Senator for eight consecutive years
was chairman of the Republican committee
of Alachua county and president of the Board
of Commissioners. He says;
~ don't mind saying that ! aEl certain
the State of Florida went for Tilden on the
face OF The returns, and that he should have
had it. ! will 60 further and say there has
not been time in the past three months