The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-06-28

by dunton-Dld GOV. NoyeS recommend
McLin for office?
Al don't know that he did, but have no
doubt he did.
Q-Did he recommend DR.. Cowgirl for Of
fee?
Al have no doubt he did.
Testimony of IL: G. Dennis.
L. G. Dennis of Alachua county, florida,
was sworn and examined by Springer.
Q-Did Gov. NOyes act as counsel for the
Republicans Of Aachua county before the
Board of Canvass?
ALThat county was first assigned to Gen.
Barlow of New York, but Gov. Noyes was SUBJ
stituted in his place afterwards.
Q-Was there more than one precinct in dis
pute in Alachua county?
Ayes sir, there were two.
Q-What was the contest about concerning
Archer precinct box No. 2, before the Return
ing Board?
Alt was a matter of PIG votes.
Odd you explain to Gov. Noyes what you
regarded as the facts in reference to that pre-
cinct?
Al labored there with Governor Noyes
to establish the vote as shown by the
county return. He never asked me
to make any statement or affidavit about it, but
he seemed anxious that should be put on the
| stand to testify. He expressed that desire sew
eral times and finally indicated that he was
going to put me on the stand, and then L adj
vised him not to do SO. Isuggested to him that
| should be detrimental to his case if he did, and
that he betterlnot do it, and never did testify.
may have said to him that unless he was
ready to abandon his case he better not call me
as a witness. l gave him to understand that l
| did not want to be called to make any state
ment under OATH
Q-Was there ANYTHING said to you about his
representing Gov. Hayes?
Ale always spoke of Gov. Hayes as his
intimate friend and used to assure us of
his fidelity to the Republican cause and of his
special desire to take care of the Southern
Republicans. He never showed me any writ
ing from Governor Hayes and did not speak
about his having been invited by Hayes to go
there but we regarded him as the personal
friend and special representative of Mr.. Hayes
during the contest there. was very enthusi-
astic myself and l required no pledges or
assurances from any one
Q-Do you know whether any such assur-
ances were given any members of the return
| ing board?
Al do not. There was some doubt about
the sincerity of the visiting statesmen and theix
s,,sss.vss tBey cared only to carry
the election for Hayes and give the seat to the
Democratic Governor. This arose partly from
the fact that Gen. Barlow was selected to
represent the Republicans before the board,
and the Republicans had sort of indignation
meeting of it and went to Governor Noyes
as their representative to protest against Bar
lows presenting the case to the board. AT
that interview l think he gave me great assur-
ance that President Hayes was very staunch
representative, and that he had voluntarily
pledged himself to protect the Southern Re.
publicans, and he called my attention to some
thing that had been published to that effect
some speech he had made or letter he had
written. At any rate, he satisfied me we were at
fault, and that he had assigned Gen. Barlow to
that duty by mere accident, and he told me he
would bring about change, and as result
Gen. Barlow did not present the case to the
board.
Odd Gov. Noyes give you any assurances
that the state candidates should be looked
of nall o1f he Draa. t;ol a.
Ale gave me this assurance, that he
would work as hard to save the state as he did
to save the national ticket, and that was en-
tirely satisfactory. We had apprehensions
that Drew, the Democratic governor. would be
counted in for the reason that the editor of a
Democratic paper there had been closeted with
Gen. Barlow one evening about two hours.
We did not know Barlow so we'll, but we did
know Dyke, the editor, and we did not like the
company Barlow was in. 1t was in conse-
quence of that interview that l had talk
with Gov. Noyes. Gen. Wallace and Gov
Noyes were both there 1t was early in the
in there. (Laughter.) began the conversa-
ton and entered protest against Barlow s
handling our case for the reason L have stated
and for that reason we felt that he was not
trustworthy. l told them we believed that
there was some sort of trading going on by
which the national ticket was to be saved and
the state ticket sacrificed and if that was
their intention we intended to give the state to
Tilden if it was possible to bring it about and
we believed it was. daughter
Q-Who replied to your statement on this
occasion?
A-Both the gentlemen believe
Q-Were their reponses of the same char
acter?
A-Yes they seemed to sympathzs with me
in my fears and half hour later was inform
ed that the change had been made.
Odd they say anything about your capac-
ity in respect to changing the vote from Hayes
to Tilden?
A-No sir, they did not. (L,ughter) Well,
it was very close.
Q-How long did this last?
A-Only while they were dressing and get.
ting ready to go out. [ think the case
was to be presented that afternoon. L think
they had more faith in Gen Barlow than Mr.
Chandler had do not thing Chandler want
ed Barlow to have anything to do with the mat
ter in any way. l think Barlow was regarded
with special consideration because it was I'M
derstood he was sent there by Gen. Grant, and
for that reason alone. No Northern men went
down into my county. l was attending to that
myself. l wrote Gov. Noyes in 1877 that was
an applicant for position under the admins
tration and asked him to forward me such rec
ommendation as he thought proper. received
in reply lettor which never used and which
thought was rather cool. (IIaughter.) That
is the only correspondence had with him.
Witness promised to bring the letter to-mor.
row, and at o'clock the committee adjourned
till to morrow morning..