The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-10-17
The Cipher Dispatches.

The Baltimore Sun, sympathizing with
the Democracy, and ever ready to place a
charitable construction upon Dem ocratic
shortcomings, has this to say about the CT
pher dispatches that passed between Mr..
Tilden's representatives in New York and
Florida during the progress OF the electoral
count in the latter State:
There are embarrassing difficulties in the
way of dealing with the so-called cipher dis
patches, alleged to have been sent between
Florida and Oregon and Mr.. Tilden's resi-
dence, at No. Is Gramercy Park, New York,
ORGANISATIONS" of which are furnished, along
with the s'originals," by the obliging New
York Tribune. In the first place, the ''evi-
dence, ''such as tits, is not at all sin - and
secondly, the authenticity both of the dis
to be established. In the third place, the
s'defendants,' if Mr.. Tilden, Mr.. Manton
Marble, Mr.. J. F. Coyle, Mr.. G. W. Wool
ley, of Cincinnati, and the rest, consider
themselves to occupy that position, have SO
far kept silent, and they are entitled to be
heard, and must assuredly be regarded as
both capable of and as having it in their
power to offer full defence and an ade-
quate explanation of all the suspicious cir
cumstances which the Tribune is pretending
TO bring into light. The dispatches, if au-
thentic and rightly translated, bear suspi-
cious face, especially those which passed be-
tween Colonel W. T. Pelton, Tilden's ne
phew,) and Mr.. Henry Havemeyer, in New
York, and Mr.. Manton Marble, Colonel G.
W. Woolley and Mr.. Jno. F. Coyle, in Flori-
da. Between November 80 and December
5, active negotiations for buying decision
of the Florida returning board in favor Of
Tilden seem by the dispatches to have taken
place. Coyle telegraphed to Havemeyer,
December 2, "My hope small-nothing but
the cash will avail.'' On the same day an
unsigned dispatch was sent to Pelton, Have
Just received proposition to hand over at
any hour required Tilden decision of board
and certificate of Governor for 5000, 000."
Pelton answers this to Marble "Pro-
position too high.' Whooley telegraphs
to Havemeyer and Marble to Pelton
that the arrangement can be made for ''half
hundred thousand dollars. Can you say
will deposit in bank Immediately if agreed ?"
To this the answer was Telegram received.
Will deposit dollars agreed (you) cannot,
however, draw before vote member receiv-
ed" These dispatches were duplicated in a
nearly identical form between Marble and
his New York correspondent, and certainly
d
1t must not be forgotten, however, that Mr..
Tilden, when he did finally put forward,
through Mr.. Manton Marble, an explanation
and defense of his much-aspersed relations
to the constitution of the electoral COM
mission, made that defense at once so full
and explicit that it was almost universally
respected as complete vindication Of what
had up to that time seemed to be very am
biguous attitude. 1t must further be remem-
bered that the campaign of 1876, which is
projecting itself over into the campaign Of
1880 in an unmisuakable way, was emphati-
cally known as ssthe campaign of calumny,"
and that the New York Times, which is now
ominously silent respecting the Tribune's
revelations, procured itself conspicuOusly
bad eminence by the fertility of invention
Of facts and malversation OF evidence with
which it pursued Mr.. Tilden. That the Tri-
bune should take up the scandalous game just
where the Times left it off would be too nat
ural concentration to excite the least sur
prise. In the fourth place, (and here we
come to deal with the evidence" itself, as
if it were all in, and all authentic, and
discover anything that approaches the char
acter of an overt act on the part Of Mr.. TIL
den or his friends and putative agents. Ad-
hitting that all the dispatches are correct,
and that the negotiations" were conducted
as represented, it is still apparent that they
all of them halted and hung fire in the nego-
tiatory stage. If there were attempts 20
bride the bribery was not consummated. If
there were efforts made to buy votes the
money was not paid over, nor were the votes
delivered. The frauds, if contemplated,
were not concluded, and the worst that can
be saiG Of Mr.. Tilden's friends and agents
If they were SOY is that they did not initiate
Cato-they did comport themselves as if they
were at work in the dregs of Rome, and
not in the ideally pure republic of Plato.