New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-10-22
NEW YORK DAILY TRIBUNE, TUESDAY, OCTOBER % 1878

a letter to the newspapers on the electoral
controversy. Why he should have been insane
enough to breach that fatal subject, knowing
that he trOd upon tOrpedOes, is question that
he himself is probably puzzled to answer.
| He began his letter by protesting desire to
dispel the prevalent suspicion that Mr.. Tilden
Knight have become the President IN fact
" except for some act or omission of his own
"A profession which certainly looks grotesque
enough in the light which THE TRIBUNE has
recently shed upon the Facts and omissions
for which Messrs Tilden and Marble have q
coparceny of responsibility. Could he not
have confined himself to his set purpose Of
indicating Mr.. Tilden'5 policy with respect
10 the Electoral Commission, and venting his
dislike of Mr. HEWITT Was it noedful that
he should fill this long scTeed with theatrical
outcries against bis own sins, and professions OF
| civic virtue sure to IecOil upon his head with
| crushing force whenever the exposure came 7
What demon impelled him to denounce the
fagitious comDOt of Republican "vist-
"ing statesmen" and to accuse them of
- working out the primary part and fraudu-
"lcnt groundwork Of a conspiracy to subOrn
| Canvassng Boards--what cruel destiny drove
him to accuse the friends of President Hayes
of "heaping up and cementing in debauch-
ment and dishonor" n plot to purchase
votes, and then spread this amazing letter before
the world Just as the written evidence
of Mr.. Marbles own proposition to buy
the Florida Returning Board fell into the
hands OF TIE TRIBUNE "TO hear NOyes
defend the Alachua frauds and fOrgenes
'before the Florida Board,0 wrote Mr..
Marble in his published manifesto, would
"have given that canting llypocTite Pecksnlf
" himself a moral vOmit." Proposition re-
"ceiyed.D wrote Mr.. Marble in his secret tel
! cglam, " either giving vote of one Republican
" of Board or his concurrence in Court action
preventing electors vote from beng cast,
" for half hundred best United States dOcu-
ments." "A few thousand dollars" says
| the public letter, and the whole atrocious
" conspiracy would have been bursted like a
"puff-ball and blown away in dust. But
"aDoogze for the suggestion. l apologize to
Governor Tiiden for confronting his charae-
q" ter with the morally impossible" " Propo-
"sition accepted telegraphed Pelton to Mar
Die in cipher, eff dOue only once"
"The signal and peculiar mark of Governor
" Tilden's plan," continued the Letter on the
Electoral Commission, "was this; his aDso-
"luto trust in moral forces his entire faith in
"the people, their voltion5 and their power
From him of al men was faith in the
"people due; and whoever can believe that
cat last he trusted yainly, that at last he
would have appealed against the conspiracy
" to the public conscience and the peoples
&" strength in vain, must beforehand confess
" the shameless creed that this Republic l.
" rotten Mt the corc.p How his sentences
seemed to glow with the heat of honest anger !!
! But it was sham. When Mr.. Marble wrote
those phrases he knew that they were not
! true. He was the agent through whom
The defeated candidate for the Presidency
negotiated the bribery of Florida; he
| probably knew OF tho schemes of cOrrup-
ton which were pushed at the same time In
other States if be did not know, he could
hardly help suspecting them. When he threw
the most scornfu epithets he could command
| at "the de yutized gO-betweeus and real prln-
"cipals in the crime of reversing the actual
"returns." how was 1t that he did not reflect
upon the danger of the discOvery-then so
close at hand-which would exhibit Moses
! Manton Marble himself in the character OF n
deputized go-betwcen IN crimef When he
affected to he shocked at the suspicious action
of the Florida Returning Board in holding
"back its action till the last Of the twenty
mine days" is it possible that the man
did not blush in the privacy of his study rs
he recalled the exciting incidents of the clos
ing scene in Tallahassee, when action waited
upon the decision of Gramercy Park when
Paris telegrophcd: marble says plan sent
"you Saturday must be acted upon immedi-
atey"; when the plot was brought to n
stand because Fox and Moses had both been
bidding for the same vote, and the answer
of acceptance, proposition accepted if done
only once" was bungled in transmission and
| had to be Tepeated7