The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1878-02-27
THE VERNON F0RGERIES.
rHE BLACK Work DONE NY WELLS TO
MAKE H. H. HAYES PREsfDhNT

How the Figure. In the Return. Of One Par
tsh were Twice Altered The Returning
Boards Keckiessnes- In the Details Of Its
trime-ract- that Establish the Truth Of
IittIeacid's story what Rutherford H.
Hayes tooiIy Calls - "Pouticai offence"
On the few occasions when Hayes has
,oon fit to alludc to the prosecution of The mrn
who stole for his benefit the vote Of Louisiana,
he has spoken Of their crinic as u political
olronco.' sherman and the rest II the visiting
ttate4men who went down to New orleans to
supply the conspiracy with backbone find that
,hrasc very useful Just now. The Admnisira-
hon continually assumes that the offences
charged against Wells and his accompliccs are
different IN character from those for which con-
,i,is are every day sent to Sing Sing or Auburn.
II ANYTHING wrong WIS done at New Orleans il
was merely "a political misl"mranOr. like log
rolling or bargaining for votes. and that il all.
The faleincaton Of the returns Of Louisiana.
30 as to destroy Tildcn's honest majority OF
1859 votes. involved something moro than "a
political offence The process by which the
accrtaincd maJorties of the Tildcn electors
wero wiped out. and the Hayes electors counted
In included forgery rs definite and as criminal
as the raising of figures upon check. Leaving
ont every ease where votes we're thrown out on
falls, aihdavits OF naturalization. or where false
TtliIS N'lN u'ttpt'd anu tpultNti Us tfuo re-
turns there still remains evidence Of afclony
fragrant enough to send TO the pcnitentiary
VERY man who was concerned In II.
The return of the parish OF Vernon COM
discs ten polls. Their votes were summed up
in what was called the "Conaulidutcd State
ment' II appears in public records in three
forms
l. Tho original and true consolidated state
nont.
2 Tho consolidated statement IA forged by
The transposition Of polls and 9. which re-
ycrsrd thr votes NJ those polls.
g. The consolidated stat, mint as II would
appear by storing those twol,iis transposed.
and by excluding Tho thric polls. l. :. aad 10
The true return was opened ami publicly read
by the Returning Board in it, original con-
dillon. II 30 appears in the report OF Collins.
siouograpncr OF the donGS # the 4. turning
Board. II was proved by the Testimony If
Thomas Franklin. the Supervisor of the parish
twho himself made and verified the return. be-
fore tho subcommittee Of MIR, Morrison's COM
mttco Of the House Of Representative and by
the testimony of the Clerk OF the District Court.
in which a duplicate Of the return was fled 1t
was proved by the same witnesses and by soy
eral others In the recent trial of Anderson.
How was 1t that this return underwent two
transformations, and was on tally reported by
the Returning Board in each of those two con-
dtions That Is a curious and interesting in
puiry.
James F. Littlened ono Of the clerks Of thu
Returning Board. was examined before Mr.
Morrsons committee. and also before Mr.
Fields committee. on the 29th of January 1871
H. tesullcs that these successive forgcries were
committed by himself ami other clerks under
express direction Of j. Madison Wells Prsi-
dent Of the Returning Board. and his testimony
is corroborated by tho official acts Of the Re-
turning Board. and by other undrniablo facts.
THE TRUE RETURN.
The following is a copy II that part Of the
true return which contains the votes for clc.,-
tors. II will be found printed on page PSI Of
the report Of the committee Of which Mr. Meade
was Chairman. A copy certified 10y he Sccrc-
tary OF the Returning Board is in possession Of
MIR. Meade The printed copy contains a slight
discrepancy. in that Kellogg and Burch. two of
the Republican electors. appear To have two
votes each in the Eighth District. whereas. in
fact. they had none: