The Portland daily press., 1878-10-10
The Story Of Florida.
How TEden Tried TO Buy the Presidency. y.

The story told today by the translation of
| captared cipher dispatches is not pleasant one
| for any American to read. It is story OF such
disgrace and shame that we might well wish
that events had not rendered its telling neces-
sary. Every citizen must feel that it would
have been better for the good name of the Re-
public had the contest of 1876, with all its in
| tense passions and its crimes, been permitted
to pass from memory. But the persistent CRY
| of fraud" raised from the very hour the votes
| OF the people were foun1 to be not for Mr. Til
den, and kept up to this day in Congress to the
peril OF the public psace, and elsewhere to the
dishonor OF the country, has forced an investi-
CATION, not conducted, like the one instituted
by partisans in Congress, for the purpose Of
hiding truth. The clamor of "fraud" has CON-
PEELED the discovery of the facts, and here they
are. They show, in brief, that the very men
who have been loudess aud most persistent 10
crying fraud are those at whose door lies a
foul crime against the country.
There are given today great body of tele-
grams, both open a1d 10 translated cipher,
which bear only indirectly upon the main tran
sactions. Yet they are valuable, first, as pre.
senting perfect record of the inner situation
and scheming of the Democratic force in Flori-
da, and as proving, again and again, by exact
correspondence of the transla.ons with facts
recorded at the time in public prints, the cor
rectness OF the keys and vocabularies employed.
These are given that, out of the mouths Of
many witnesses, the truth may be established.
Refer noes to the keys employed are given, so
that every reader may test for himself the cor
Of tba fra pcI IT,
the exact fitness of the interpretations of cipher
words.
In brief, the translated dispatches show that
in answer to several appeals for money, semitic
New York from Florida on the second day
after the Presidential election, and to a request
that "a good man with an understood cipher
should be sent thther, Mr.. John f. Coyle, a
notorious LOBBYIST OF Washington, started with
the precise cphers afterward used by all the
conspirators, and 10 them recorded his progress
southward to Jacksonville, Florida; thar his
hrst work there was to arrange for telegraphic
transfer OF money, whenever desired, from New
YORK to banker In Florida; and that he then
joined at Tallahassee Mr.. Nanton Marble and
Q. w. Woolley, who thereafter used in daily
communications with Gramercy Park, New
York, the cyphers Coyle had brought. For
time this trio abored only in perfectipg Demo-
cratic returns and proofs. believing, as the
Democratic committee of Florida had falsely
asserted, that the Safe had given 900 maiori-
ty for Mr. Tilden. They insisted, too, at this
stage, that the Canvassing Board had full
power TO "purge' the county returns-a power
which they afterward most impndsntly denied
when Republicans proposed to correct Demo-
cratic frauds. Steadily the visible majority
dwindled to nothing, but the local managers
held back to the last large Democratic returus
and it was believed that this was done in order
t. so alter those returns as to secure a majority
after the legal proceedings instituted by Demo-
Gratis had compelled the opening aud canvassing
OF other returns sent forward in time. This
plot having failed, the great crims began for
w4Gs 49fse dsp Itch ssnt to Gramercy
Park by Mr.. Coyle in which bribery is distinct
ly named, saws: my hope small.
s:Notti,ag but cash acM auaa' On the same
day Mr.. Mauton Marble sent the following:
TALLAHASSEE, Dec. 2.
Colonel PELToN, 10 Gramercp Park;
Have just received proposition to hand over at
any hour required Tnden decision of Board and
tihcate Of Governor for two hundred thousand dol
Three days after Mr.. Mantou Marble. sign
ing himself IN. M ., says, in an open des-
Si1, patcn; finis9ed @ Yesterday afternoon respon-
ed are indisputably his. The rst proposition
was deemed too high at Gramercy Park, be-
cause on the previous day Mr.. Woolley had tel
egraphed
TALLAHASSEE, Fla, Dec
HENRY HAvEMEyER, No. Is West 17th ST., ". Y.
Board fetch may make necessary expense of halfof
a hundred thousand dollars. Can you say will de-
posit in bank Immediately if agreed. Fox.
The identity of "Fox'' is also proved most
conclusively, and the reply to this bald and
naked proposal was forwarded with the sigma
ture III. 1t Informed "Fox" that no money
could be drawn before the vote had been given.
On the Sd of December Mr. Marble telegraph
ed another proposition:
TALLAHASSEE Dec. s.
Colonel W. L. PELToN, Is GramercV Park;
Proposition received either giving vote OF Republ-
eau of Board or his concurrence in court action pre-
venting electoral vote from being cast, for haT hHa-
dred best Uuited States documents. MOSES.
On the next day, Mr.. Wooley sent the brief
and direct inquiry:
TALLAHASSEE. Dec. a.
HENRY HAvEMEYER, No. 10 West l7th ST., ". T.:
May Woolley give hundred thousand dollars less
halt for Tilden additional Board member. Lieunen-
ant. Fox,
Precisely the same proposal, in different
words and In different cipher, went to Grm-
eroy Park. The reply, sent at once, but SO mu-
tilated in transmission that it could not b. read
caused demand from Mr. Marble, oUer has
oecn signature, for repetition. After fatal de-
lay, the reply of Gramercy Park, which did
notwapt to pay twice for the same vote, through
Marble AID agaiu through Woolley, was:
New YORK, Dec. 4.
MANToN MARBLE, Tallahassee, Gta.
Proposition accepted If dOne only once. Better
trust him. Time very important and there should
be no dvi led councils.
Here this case may be left to the deliberate
Judgment of people who do not love hypo-
crltes, aud deem bribery a crime. The order TO
buy the Presidency was sent, but the mutilAtion
of despatch, apparently, alone prevented the
consummation OF the crime. There yet remains
the still palmer and crosses story Of South Car
olina When that Is also told, the people OF
this country will not be slow to form fnal
Judgment.