Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-10-18
From the New York Tribune
The Story of South Carolina.


The story of the travels of Mr. Smith
NJ. Weed in South Carolina is in some
respects more remarkable than the nara
tive of the wanderings of Moses, Max,
and Fox among the Everglades. When
this experienced politician started for the
South he had apparently no idea of get
ting at the truth or preventing frauds :"
he simply went on business. On the
morning of his arrival at Columbia he
telegraphea for permission to "place a
few dollars in the Returning Board;' in
the afternoon he inquired about "buying
1t absolutely" for $4,000. He never pre-
tended for an instant to believe that Tilden
had been elected. He told that gentle
man frankly. from the first, that the ma
jority was against him and the case was
desperate. His negotiations with certain
members of the Board lasted six days,
and at the end of that time the terms of
purchase were fixed. The sum Of SS5,-
600 was to be sent in fve-hundred and
thousand-dollar bills, by the hands of a
trusty messenger, and paid to the can
vassers on the delivery of the vote.
There was little hesitation at Gramercy
Park about accepting these terms, and on
the goth of November Mr.. Weed was in
Baltimore, where it was arranged that he
should meet the man with the money.
That he did meet this unknown person is
pretty clear from the dispatches, but why
the plot failed after all is not obvious.
We only know that there was, as usual in
Mr.. Tilden's transactions, "a little delay"
and that two days afterward the Canvass
ing Board, pressed by an extraordinary
mandamus from Chief Justice Moses,
suddenly counted the votes, declared the
result for Hayes, and then put an end to
its own existence. 1t may be that the
money was actually deposited according
to agreement, and was not paid because
the Board found itself unable to give the
votes bargained for; and it may be that
the 'interceder" mentioned in the tele-
grams was only striker" who, having
no authority to deal for the members Of
the Board, deceived even the astute Smith
NJ. Weed into wholly illusory contract.
These questions are not now important.
1t is enough for the present that the con-
fidential agent from Gramercy Park con-
cluded this bargain, and that his principals
ratified it.
After a brief interlude, during which
Mr.. Weed in New York carried on a live
" cipher correspondence with persons in
Columbia about the expenditure of COM
paratively small sum of money, bribery
began afresh. This time Colonel Pelton
provided himself with new agent and
dictionary, and set about the purchase of
"four State Senator'S" "a couple new
negroes" and other properties necessary
for the performance of an entirely fresh
programme. The final plan was to seize
the State of South Carolina by means of
Judge Mosess Court, Hampton's rifle
clubs, and barrel of money, and when
all was in readiness to force the HAYES
eieclois into SoLnuiltihS contempt OF
court, and to throw them into Jail until
the day for counting the Presidential votes
had passed. at would be humane" tele-
graphed Colonel Pelton, in cipher-at
least, it was presumably Pelton--"to i'm
prison them separately during Wednes-
day'-separately, for otherwise they might
organize college 10 Jail. This scheme
failed, because the four State Senator's
needed to complete it could not be pur-
chased. And with its failure Mr.. Tiiden
passed from the arena of practical politics
TO become the great Victim of Fraud