The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1878-05-08
THE GREAT FRAUD LAID BARE.


have been counted for Mr.. Tilden. His
majority in the State was L, - 90, which
was altered by the returning board to a
majority of 206 for Mr.. Hayes. The tive
Republican members of that board have
Just confessed the fraud under oath.
The principal Republican member was
Samuel B. McLln. He has fallen out
with Hayes, probably because he has
not been rewarded as he expected to be,
and publishes a lengthy statement, in
which he says he was influenced by his
intense partisan feeling. and encouraged
in his fraud by the visiting Republicans
in Florida at the time of the canvass of
the vote. The confession is subscribed
and sworn TO before the clerk of Tho
mas county, Florida. After referring to
the pressure brought to bear on the
board by the party in the North, Mr..
McLin says: ...-..-.s
eff the board had acted in accord
ance with the decision of the Supreme
Court of the State defining the powers
and duties of the board in reference to
there is no question of the fact that Mr.
Tilden would have been entitled to the
vote of Florida. Excluding the returns
from Baker county, which were count
| ed out, which have since learned from
the parties who made it was a falsely
manufactured return, and including the
true return, which correspondent with
the precinct returns of that county,
would certainly have given the State to
Mr. Tilden. Archer precinct No. 2, Al
lachua county, was included in the
count. The fraud committed in this
precinct was not shown to the board by
the Democratic lawyers, although con-
test was made and much attention given
to this precinct but I have recently
learned from the Republican leader OF
this county that after the returns had
been brought to Gainesville, the county
seat, 219 votes were added to the returns
by the inspectors and clerk of said pre-
cinct. In Leon county, "a small Repub-
lican ballots were stuffed into the ballot
box at precinct No. 8, yet it was not
made to appear to the satisfaction of the
Democratic member of the board that
these were false ballots. Subsequent
| confession shows that these were stuffed
into the box. had seen Joseph Bewer,
one of the inspectors, have tickets SINH
lar to them a few days before the cleo
| ton, and cautioned him against their
use unless they were generally adopted.
| / afterwards learned that he had given
them up. In Jefferson county, in GER
tain precinct at which Mr.. j. Bell was
inspector, one hundred votes were sur
reptitIousty added to the ballots and
counted. No charge was made as to
this fact before the board. The comics
sion of J. Bell, since made to me, dis
closes the fact that had the 219 votes
fraudulently added to the Archer return,
and the "a votes stuffed in the box in
Leon county, and the 100 votes surrep-
titiOusly added in Jefferson county, ag-
gregating 1874 votes, been rejected, and
the Democratic rejected precincts which
were excluded for irregularity and lille
gality contrary to the decision of the
Supreme Court, been retained and count
ed, Mr.. Tilden would have carried the
State The conclusion, therefore. is ir-
resistible that Mr.. Tilden was entitled to
the electoral vote of Florida, and net
Mr.. Hayes"
The statement concludes with the fol-
lowing reference to the motives actual
ing him in making the confession of his
crimes:
I'm making this statement my motives
will doubtless be questioned by many,
but the facts will stand alone az the
truth without any more motives to sus-
tain them l am free to admit, that
viewing this as 1 now do. and remem-
bering that Mr. Hayes was continually
inspiring his personal friends and trust
ed agents by every means in his power
to secure for him the electoral vote of
Florida and Louisiana, and believing it
to have been a conscious wrong on his
part, done with the knowledge he had
not been elected, as his subsequent repu-
diation of Governor Packard, whose til
tie was founded upon his own, and his |
wiIlful and cowardly desertion of the
very men who contributed SO very large |
ly to his election, my contempt for the |
pitiable littleness of the man is beyond |
the power Of expression. Mr.. Hayes |
has denied the validity of his own title |
in denying Gov. Packard. He has ig
nOred his Florida friends, showing that |
he believed them unworthy and tainted |
with fraud, yet he holds on to the Presi |
dency, which, in his own opinion, was |
secured by this very fraud. He has
cowardly abandoned and betrayed his
Southern Republican friends through |
fear of being ousted from office that he
believes he never was elected to by the |
people. Whatever may be the opinion |
of men in regard to my motives, l give
them facts, and leave my motives to a |
higher tribunal.
SAMUEL B. MCLIN."