The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-05-04
THE FLORIDA REVELATIONS.

tervieW, IN when tnat senator not only aIllrTn
II ed the existence of UNREASONABLE proof o
those frauds but of the personal knowledge o
r Hayes and his leading friends of their com
h plicity in them has been tenfold intensified by
+ the confessions of McLin, Dennis, and othel
= rascals that were directly employed in theil
preparation McLin was the one member OF
8 the Florida state returning board whose cast
D ing vote gave the state to Hayes. His comics
3 sion, which is quite lengthy and goes into ali
o the Details is in substance that at the time, be
!, ing an ardent republican, he believed de
5 mocratic triumph would be national disaster
that he did not consider himself n judge then
5 but a partisan; that in addition, apowerful in
, fuence swayed his judgment and perverted his
! moral sense He was surrounded by northern
0 partisans, who urged on him the necessity of
y the republicans carrying Florida who pictur-
I, ed the danger to the negroes If Tilden tri-
umphed, and received kilograms daily insisting
on his saving the country. The chairman of
|, the national committee, and the man who was
the nearest personal friend of Hayes urged him
to do his republican duty, and promises of
troops were freely given. Hayes would whack
up, and Gov. Noys, Haycss confidential friend
and agent, was present and urged him on with
promises of reward. And Hayes was as good
as his word and did reward him by the New
Mexico judgeship. But now his ardor is cool
ed, and calm Judgment ruled the hour. BE.
sides he was sick nigh unto death and the hand
% lott, l.
Two bright and promising children were sud
denly and hOutpremonitory warning snatch
ed by death from the domestic circle which
they illumined by their presence and gladden.
ed by their prattlng. With the shadow of
death upon his household and the certainty
that he must soon follow his beloved little ones
and stand before that higher Tribunal to which
he appeals in closing his confession, he was
constrained to lay bare a portion of the secret
history Of the great crime he was led into
The confession then proceeds to state min
utely how the Alachua, Baker county and 9th
er frauds were committed, changing the vote of
the state from six to eight hundred majority
for Tilden to "a majority for Hayes The state
llCHl - All lllt IL tbITtS
ponds minutcy with the evidence on the same
subject of dozen OF witnesses before the con.
gressional investigating committee taken six
teen months ago.
The confession of Dennis, the chairman of
the republican committee of Alachua county at
the time and President of the board of county
commissioners that received and canvassed and
"doctored" the returns Of Alachua county, is
equally full and explicit rs to how the Tilden
votes were thrown out and Hayes votes put in,
and is equally fortified by the evidence of many
other witnesses before the congressional com.
mittee.
And thirdly comes the statement of Juan NJ
Reyes, not q confession but an intercepted"
letter in which he details how he "annulled"
400 votes for Tildcn in Tallahassee.
All in ALL while the confessions really add
no new proofs of the fraud to those well known
over year ago, they give them new emphasis
and a startling freshness and reality, which,
now that the excitement and anxiety of year
ago have passed away, add an odiousness and
hideousness TO the great crime that it never be.
fore possessed.
But what is to come of itg Probably moth.
ing There is certainly no one wild enough to
imagine that the revival of these old proofs
will be any more effective now than they
were year ago, to Gust Hayes from his
fraud gotten position. The house may order
another investigation, and some go so far even
as to assert that in case the proofs Conkling
asserts to exist of the completely of Hayes
Noyes, Stanley Matthews, &c, in the frauds,
articles of impeachment may be sustained
against Hayes and he may thus be ousted But
what good would come of that Itwould only
put Wheeler in his place, no better man than
Hayes, and would accomplish nothing towards
rghIing the great wrong done to Tllden and
the majority of the American people who were
defrauded of their choice of President At
most we imagine, all the accommodating proofs |
can amount to will be still deeper to bury as
Conkling expresses it, Hayes and his admins.
tration in the depths of iniamy